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Jewish Americans Fear Intensifying Virulent Antisemitism

(New York Times) Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) - 53 days ago, citizens of Israel suffered a horrendous attack orchestrated and executed by Hamas. The solidarity that Jewish Americans initially received from our fellow citizens in the aftermath of Oct. 7 has since waned, drowned out by other, more disturbing voices, even from some we considered allies, while hate crimes against Jews have skyrocketed. Today, too many Americans are exploiting arguments against Israel and leaping toward a virulent antisemitism. The normalization and intensifying of this rise in hate is the danger many Jewish people fear most. Since Oct. 7, Jewish-owned businesses that have nothing to do with Israel have been boycotted and vandalized. Jewish students on college campuses have been harassed and assaulted with alarming frequency. For many Jewish people today, the rise of antisemitism is more than a crisis - it's a five-alarm fire. We see and hear things differently from others because we understand the horrors that can follow the targeting of Jewish people. We've learned the hard way to fear how such attacks can easily erupt into widespread antisemitism if they are not repudiated. When criticism against Israel is allowed to cross over into a denial of a Jewish state in any form, into open calls for the very destruction of Israel, while at the same time the self-determination of other peoples is exalted, that is an example of the discriminatory double standard Jewish people have always found so hurtful. To declare that only the Jewish people cannot have their own state, in any form, is a glaring example of what Jewish Americans so fiercely object to. I implore every person and every community and every institution to stand with Jewish Americans and to denounce antisemitism in all of its forms. The writer is the Senate majority leader.
2023-11-30 00:00:00
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