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| The New Yorker caricature of Philip Roth by Tom Bachtell |
There has been a spike in antisemitic incidents in the last
few weeks. Over one hundred bomb threat at Jewish institutions (mostly
JCCs) have been called in... and there has been vandalism in at least 2 Jewish cemeteries. What, one may
ask, has precipitated this? And should we be worried?
I will answer the 2nd question first. No, I don’t
think we need to be worried, although we should always be vigilant, keep our
eyes and ears wide open. We are not on the precipice of a new Holocaust. Not even
close. As Chicago Jewish News editor, Joseph Aaron is fond of saying, Jews have
never had it so good. At least not since the 2nd temple era of 2000
years ago.
I need not go into the
details of why I feel that way. I have done so many times and it is why I feel
so patriotic. Besides it should be obvious anyway since Jews have been the most
favored religious group in America for years now. So what gives with this uptick and why am I
not afraid?
Here’s why. In the case of those bomb threats, people
that want to cause us harm don’t usually warn us first. If they want to
blow us up in a crowded place, they will certainly want to inflict as many
casualties as possible. Warning us
about bomb would undermine that goal.
That not a single bomb was ever found in all of those incidents underscores this
fact. The terror here is psychological. The desire is to instill fear,
disruption, and panic. That is their goal here. Which has thus far been pretty
successful. The more media attention this gets the more this coward (or
cowards) will be motivated to keep on making these ‘bomb threat’ phone calls.
Who is doing this and why - is unclear. There is no telling if they are right wing fringe fanatics or Islamist terrorists. It is unknown
whether these calls originate from somewhere in this country or a foreign
country. What is known is that those
doing it are technologically sophisticated enough to disguise their voices and
their locations. Which makes apprehending them extremely difficult if not
impossible.
The cemetery vandalism looks like it was perpetrated by your typical garden
variety antisemitic thug.These are the kinds of people who might be spray painting swastikas
on the doors and walls of synagogues or Jewish homes. In all of these cases, these are
cowards that fear getting caught more than they want to inflict damage. Be
that as it may, I am gratified that law enforcement – both the local police and the
FBI - are involved in pursuing the perpetrators
of these hate crimes.
So what’s the reason this is happening now? There has been a lot of finger
pointing at President Trump. And for good reason. While I am absolutely certain
that neither he nor is any of his staff are antisemitic, I am nonetheless convinced that
some of his rhetoric can be interpreted as such. The President is one of the
most enigmatic people I have ever seen. Not only do I believe he is not an
antisemite, he is not a racist, anti woman, anti immigrant, or even anti Muslim.
But if one listens to some of the things coming out of his mouth, you would
think he is all of those things.
The antisemites of the world actually believe
they have a friend in Trump. As do white supremacists and all the other above-mentioned ‘antis’.
So indeed it may very well be the case that the President is at least
indirectly responsible for this wave of antisemitism. His rhetoric on these
subjects brings out the worst elements among us.
Why has is he using such terrible rhetoric? In large part I actually think it is because he is about the most inarticulate man who ever served any
public office. Although celebrated writer, Philip Roth is not someone whose left wing views I would normally agree with, I do mostly agree with him here. This is what he said in The New Yorker:
“I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.”
Perhaps that is a little over the top. But I also think that
to a certain extent it’s mostly all true. Especially the vocabulary part. He simply does not know how to articulate his
views in more than 140 characters. Unless he is given a script from which
to read as was the case when he addressed both houses of congress. Which is why
he is so fond of tweeting.
It also did not help his cause with us when he did not mention
the Jewish people as the primary targets and victims in the Holocaust in his
public statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day. And yet I think he actually
believes he was just trying to be inclusive about all the victims with that omission,
misguided as he clearly was. It just it
fed the racist, antisemitic, fringe crowd. Which apparently he is in denial
about.
The bottom line with respect to the increased number of antisemitic
incidents is the following. I do not believe for a moment, that more Americans
have become antisemites because of him. But
by virtue of his inarticulate rhetoric he has moved the already existing ones
to be more vocal and emboldened them to commit the hate crimes mentioned above.
Hopefully law enforcement can take care of the problem. God forbid we
see anything worse happening.
I know a lot of people think Trump is the devil. But I
actually feel sorry for him. His critics are merciless. He believes his policies are good for America. And I don’t think he realizes just how
bad his tweets make him look.
His larger than life ego makes him believe that he’s the
smartest man on earth. And his thin skin makes him a vindictive individual to
anyone that criticizes him. His intolerance for criticism is so bad that he will resort to just about
anything to refute it, no matter how ridiculous. And yet I believe
he actually wants to help people.
Honestly, I cringe every time I think about Trump being our
President. I wish it could have been otherwise. But unless he is somehow impeached
and removed from office (a highly unlikely scenario despite predictions and/or attempts by
some on the left) we are stuck with him for the next 4 years. We just need to
make the best of it… and hope that his actual policies – many of which I
support - end up being good for the country after all.
