There is an article by Rabbi Ken Spiro on the Aish.com website that really troubles me.
It is an article entitled The Face of anti-Semitism and subtitled Even in such civilized nation as France and the United States, anti-Semitism never died out.
The article goes on to describe various anti-Semitic regimes that existed even in the most civilized of nations. What disturbed me is his putting the United States in this category.
While the events and personalities described in the article are true, one is left with the impression that the United States was a snake pit of anti Semitism in the past with no redeeming value. There is no mention of what it is like today and one is left to feel that the United States still harbors at least a latent form of anti Semitism even now. There is no indication in the article that Jews were from the very beginning fairly free to live in peace and to prosper. Even though there were pockets of anti-Semitism extant at the time it did not generally or seriously affect them. And certainly things are far different now then when the events he writes about took place.
The impression left is so far from reality that it constitutes a libel against the American people. It is also as misleading as can be about what this country has meant to the very survival of the Jewish people, even in times when there was a latent form of anti-Semitism. Jews even in those times succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations. The events he describes were anomalies, not the norm. Jews were generally unfettered in their freedom to achieve and enjoy their successes in almost any legal way they chose. And today…?! Anti-Semitism is all but non-existent.
I don’t know what moral basis Rabbi Spiro has for writing an article omitting this fact and leave the impression that there are more Henry Fords lurking in corporate America or that another Leo Frank will soon be lynched. It is so absurd as to make it almost comical… if it weren’t such a slap in the face to this country and its good citizens.
The truth is that America has enabled Jews to flourish and we are now at the height of acceptance into American society. We have unprecedented freedom to be Jews and practice Orthodox Judaism in any way which suits us, whether as a Chasid in Monroe, a Lakewood Avreich, or as a modern Orthodox Jew in Teaneck.
As I’ve pointed out many times, the level of our acceptance as Jews was ultimately shown when Senator Joe Lieberman was chosen as the Democrat candidate and was almost universally embraced by America as …not only acceptable, but as superior choice because he was seen as devout. Indeed the Democrat ticket which didn’t have a prayer of winning the election until he was chosen was immediately raised to even chances for a Democrat win. And they did eventually win the popular vote. Some anti-Semitism!
Of course there is some anti-Semitsim even today. It’s a big country. But for all practical purposes it is barely existent and only in the most extreme fringes of society.
It is completely disingenuous for Rabbi Spiro to leave the impression that the United States is in any way anti-Semitic today. It is true that there was a lot more of it in the past and that it hurt us, especially during the holocaust. But to recount all those incidents and anti-Semitic personalities without even a word of context of the times or the relative freedom Jews had then… and even more importantly that this is not the case today is an injustice to the American people and serves no purpose what so ever. What was he thinking?! What’s his point?
