Debra Katz: Ahead of Her Time
She was the go-to lawyer for whistleblower and sexual discrimination claims long before #MeToo got its name.
She was the go-to lawyer for whistleblower and sexual discrimination claims long before #MeToo got its name.
There are two important, but seemingly contradictory, takeaways from this laundry list of anti-Semitic incidents from May of 2020. First, we are experiencing a resurgence of extreme right anti-Semitic rhetoric in the United States. Second, don’t let anyone tell you that the danger from anti-Semitism in the United States (or most other countries) comes largely from the racist, xenophobic or white supremacist right. This past month the right-wing version of anti-Semitism was most ubiquitous. Next month it may very well be another manifestation of anti-Semitism that dominates the headlines. This disease shapeshifts over time and place, maximizing the damage it can inflict.
There have also been several other reports of swastikas and Nazi references in protests across the country, most of them aimed at Democratic governors who have refused to ease the lockdown guidelines until their states see a significant decline in coronavirus spread.
Is it a case of ignorance or of anti-Semitism?
Ira N. Forman, Moment Institute’s Senior Fellow and former U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and Nadine Epstein, Moment Editor-in-Chief, discuss the impact of the coronavirus and anti-Semitism being seen around the world.
In January, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in partnership with the Muslim World League (MWL), brought 62 Muslims and 20 Jews from 28 countries together for a two-day interfaith mission in Poland.
For the vast majority of Americans, the potential collapse of our public health systems and predictions of economic Armageddon have left us frightened and uncertain. But there are some who have found a silver lining in our coronavirus fears: the conspiracy theorists, the racists and the anti-Semites.Â
Anti-Semitism is a culture of commonly held malicious assumptions and attitudes toward Jews and Judaism.
It wasn’t until I joined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as an organizer in 2016 that I first experienced anti-Semitism.
What does Dr Ruth, a 91-year-old sex therapist who seems to have done it all have to say to a 22-year-old who grew up with little to no sexual taboos?
The level of shocking anti-Semitic violence in the United States declined in the first month of the year, but the aftershocks from Jersey City, Monsey and Brooklyn continued.
For two years, America did not have a point person dealing with global anti-Semitism, and much has changed in that time: In Eastern Europe, attempts to blur historical facts regarding the Holocaust have increased, especially in Poland, while Hungary experienced a government-backed anti-Semitic smear campaign against George Soros. Anti-Semitic incidents in Western Europe remain on the rise, and in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party was widely denounced for failing to deal with anti-Semitism in its leadership and ranks. But the biggest shift in anti-Semitic trends did not happen in distant countries overseas. It occurred in the U.S., where white nationalist anti-Semitism reared its head, leading murderous attacks on synagogues, hateful Nazi marches and countless incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism. In addition, attacks on Jews in the New York area, many of them by African Americans, also saw an alarming surge.
In a world in which any Jew is a potential target of anti-Semitism, it is the most visible Jews who are most threatened. Jews with black hats, with tight curls hanging down below their ears and black coats and women wearing modest head coverings, they are the most vulnerable. Jews in synagogues. In Brooklyn, as in Jersey City and Monsey, violence against individuals in their Hasidic communities is almost an everyday event. If someone wants to do harm to a Jew, Hasidic Jews and their communities are and have become easy targets.