Jew-hatred in the United States (US) is out of control.
When an eight-year-old boy with his two sisters, one seven years old and the other two years old, are playing outside on the sidewalk, are shouted at and then spat on by a 21-year-old, that’s Jew-hatred.
According to police, the young woman, studying education and psychology, stood in front of the three children and shouted, “Hitler should have killed you all. I’ll kill you and know where you live,” and then she quickly walked away. The kicker is that this woman says she wants to be a school psychologist.
How a 21-year-old New Yorker assumed that she could do what she did and not have it caught on any number of the numerous cameras on every New York city street still amazes me, but that’s another story. The incident was recorded and the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Hate Crime Task Force were able to put pictures and video of the entire event on their Twitter feed (again, another story for another time) and the woman was identified, arrested and charged with a hate crime.
After the arrest, the updated NYPD Hate Crime tweet read: “UPDATE in anti-Jewish Hate Crime involving 8YO child. Thanks to help from the public, HCTF Detectives, assisted by Bklyn South Warrants, arrested: Darling, Christina 21 Brooklyn Charges: Aggravated Harassment/Hate Crime Act in Manner Injurious to Child<17 x3 Menacing/HC”
Translation: With the help of the public, Christina Darling (the 21-year old perpetrator) was charged with three counts of aggravated harassment, which is a hate crime. She was acting in a manner that could injure a child under the age of 17.
When three congregants and their rabbi are taken hostage during Sabbath services in their synagogue in the small town of Colleyville, Texas, while it is streaming live, that’s Jew-hatred. Thankfully, after eleven harrowing hours, they were freed and none of the hostage were hurt – at least physically.
Unfortunately, when the FBI said that the hostage taking of four Jews in their synagogue was not an attack against Jews, but rather that the terrorist was singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community, that’s an open invitation to other Jew-haters to take action and attack Jews and Jewish sites, especially synagogues.
The FBI statements revealed one of two things: Either Jew-hatred has become so common that the FBI cannot even see it anymore or the FBI is afraid to label the attack as one directed against Jews. Neither interpretation is, as our grandparents used to say, good for the Jews.
There is no doubt that the hostage taking was directed against Jews. Jews make up 2.4% of the population of the US and 0.6 % of the population of Texas. One must look very hard to find a Jew in Texas and even harder to find four Jews in a small community, in their synagogue. That cannot be left to chance. It cannot be done without a prior plan to attack Jews.
That the FBI, the agency tasked with running point on fighting Jew-hatred and fighting terror, would so misread the situation is appalling. That they later corrected their egregious error is a quintessential case of too little, too late: The damage has been done.
When a first-year female Jewish student at Temple University in Philadelphia is tormented and teased by her roommate, in-person and online, because she is Sabbath observant, that’s Jew-hatred.
This Jewish student was recruited by the university and received a sports scholarship to attend. Her roommate was on the same sports team. When told of the bullying that the student and athlete was being subjected to, neither the school administration nor her coach addressed the issue.
Despite online proof, they doubted the veracity of her claim. The Jewish student withdrew from the team, is transferring out and leaving the school because she observed Shabbat.
Why is this happening? Why is it happening so much? Why is it happening now?
Ask a Jew-hater and they will quickly blame Israel. They will claim that they are not against Jews, only against Zionists. They will claim that the rise in anti-Jewish incidents is a direct result of the way Israel mistreats the Palestinians. That Israel is the root cause of all Jew-hatred.
This a myth. A falsehood. A lame excuse. A device to fuel further hatred of all Jews.
Israel is not perfect, neither is the Jewish state the root of all evil.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator.