I don't really feel safe in Sarasota. I go to shul every shabbos and I am armed.
14
@Alan
Thanks for writing. I'm curious: What have you experienced in Sarasota that led to your decision to go to shul armed?
9
Is there any other creature on Earth where we use the term "race"? All humans on Earth today belong to the species homo sapiens. Neither ethnic origins or religion affect this classification.
I have worked with people from pretty much every place on earth, almost all religions (not sure about Zoroastrian) and varied sexual orientations with never a problem.
Treat people with respect, maintain your own dignity, and call out bigotry and the world is a better place.
8
My son and I are living in a small town with not just Christians, but crazy Christians who picket the library and eschew some modern "devil" conveniences. Jewish on my mother’s side, every reason I think all is safe I then think to worry.
9
Jews live on the margin. It has always been so and will always be so as long as we exist. Even trying to convert can't save you; the Jew haters will find you and root you out somehow.
We can call ourselves Jewish-Americans but who cares. All the haters see is the word Jew.
So why not embrace it? Why not realize that our community, our tradition, our people are amazingly rich in so many ways. Bring up your kids as proud Jews. Support the Jewish homeland because even if you don't love all of its actions, it is still our land and has been forever. When all else fails, as it may once again, Israel will always be here for us.
And other Jews will support you, too.
There are not too many of us.
We need to take care of each other since it is obvious we can't rely on others.
22
The article is indeed troubling. But even if more anti-Semites are coming out of the woodwork, I wonder if there is also a countertrend among those who, until now, didn't pay much attention to anti-Semitism. I know that I was touched when a random African-American stranger approached me - a visibly Orthodox Jew - and offered her condolences to "the Jewish community" after the events in Pittsburgh, and when another stranger dropped off flowers this past Saturday at a local Orthodox synagogue. Maybe Cleveland is different...
12
It surely is not safe to be Jewish anywhere in the United States given the expressed positions of the President. Even the Vice-President only wants Christian Jews.
The Jewish religion itself and its adherents are under attack both verbally and physically. It has always been incorrect to assume the murder of Jews could only happen in Nazi Germany. There was nothing inherently wrong with Germans. They were manipulated just as a growing number of Americans are now being manipulated.
Let us all support the "Never Again" vow.
8
Attention Jews of New York.
For every antisemite in New York there are four hundred thousand goyim who couldn’t care less about your tribe.
Yes, it’s safe !
13
All Americans are not nice and kind no matter what we say about ourselves.
This applies to the people of other nations, also.
That is the real world. Most people are for themselves and their own families which is why Trump won the presidency of this country.
A person with his background and starting with what he said about Barack Obama's lack of American citizenship.
The fact that Trump won the presidency after all of his STUFF about his opponents should tell us something !
It's clear what Trump thinks of "foreigners."
Congressman Steve King (Iowa) also makes it clear about what he thinks of "foreigners" living here.
Yet he continues to be reelected, term after term. Surprise !
Now, finally take a look at hair style and and accessories of Hasidic Jewish people living in Brooklyn and elsewhere in this country.
Considering what has been said , is it any surprise that people who dress as "Hasidic" in our country, are "beaten up" once in a while.
Not really a surprise. Just look at our own history !
After all---We are the "Land of the Free--the Home of the Brave"--including Trump, Steve King and some others.
4
"there have been four times as many crimes motivated by bias against Jews — 142 in all — as there have against blacks. Hate crimes against Jews have outnumbered hate crimes targeted at transgender people by a factor of 20." Please, some prospective: not all hate crimes are equal. Are the number of violent crimes against Jews greater than those against transgender, black or muslim people? The answer is no. Please do not reduce the significant impact of violent hate crimes (or hate crimes in general) against your brothers and sisters to enhance your point. Virulent hate has run amok and feels equally terrifying to all it's prey.
8
While I am by no means a Trump supporter, I think it is extremely ignorant to imply (as many commentors have)that anti-semitism in NYC is a new phenomenon courtesy of Mr. Trump.
As a child growing up in NYC in the early 90s, I experienced my fair share of Swastika sightings and people yelling "Heil Hitler" at me. I'm sure my peers experienced the same.
On a larger scale, incidents like the Crown Heights riots in the early 90s were extremely indicative of the attitudes felt towards the Jews in NYC at that time.
Countless stories of hate crimes against (mainly Orthodox) Jews reach NYC Jewish news outlets but never the mainstream media. The heinous events that occurred in Pittsburgh are now serving to wake the world up to what Jews in NYC can experience.
22
Jews backing Trump and "conservatives" (now an oxymoron) are as foolhardy as those German Jews who voted for Hitler, thinking he'd change when in power.
Trump's sleazy (to put it mildly) reputation preceded him. It was enough to warn off sensible people. But many believe the hype that is "reality" TV and "magical" thinking.
It's not morning in America, it's 1939 and the Bund is about to hold a meeting in Madison Square Garden.
15
The Holocaust is in my DNA; as a native New Yorker, it’s now in my city.
4
When in the history of the world has it been safe to be Jewish? I am a 68-year-old native born American and have always felt I was an outsider in my home country. As a child, our family received phone death threats, my school “friends” accused me of killing Jesus, I heard the Jew jokes, the slurs, the conspiracy theories. In Spain, where I live part time, our village historically was known for being a place where the three major religions existed in harmony. Currently we are the only Jews in the village. The other day one of our British neighbors commented my wife’s name sounded Jewish in that special way that sends a chill down one’s spine. A Jew who feels safe is extremely lucky or is kidding themselves.
25
I was reading this article and the reporter was making a reasoned, factual case on the rise of anti-Semitism here in NYC when this 2nd to last paragraph came up:
"Sympathies are distributed unevenly. Few are extended toward religious fundamentalists, of any kind, who reach the radar of the urbane, “Pod Save America” class only when stories appear confirming existing impressions of backwardness — the hordes of children delivered into the world whom families refuse to vaccinate and keep semiliterate."
What the ...???!!!
Is the reporter positing that anti-Semitism is ok among "urbane," Pod-listening Americans as long as it is only directed as fundamentalist Jews in the Orthodox and Hasisdic communities? Does this also go for Evangelical and Conservative Christians? Sharia-following Muslims?
I think the reporter is trying to make a point about the invisibility of certain discrimination, yet this struck a very discordant note in an otherwise well presented article.
9
@Common Sense Thanks for your comments. Just to clarify: I was arguing that standard-issue, liberal, bourgeois urbanites have a strong distaste--I might even go so far as to say revulsion--for religious fundamentalists of all kinds. Their victimization just doesn't register. I'm not saying that this should be condoned by any means; I'm making the observation.
20
Of course we are safe, after all New York is the real Capital of Israel.
2
Seems nazis are rearing their ugly heads in lots of places around the world. But it appears organized and I would like to know the organizers behind it. Russia? Saudi Arabia? Americans? An international cartel? It's just too coincidental that it is all happening at once. There is more to this story than just DT, even though he seems part of it. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/neo-nazi-eastern-chemnitz-germany-saxony
2
No mention of the Muslim cabbie attacking two Jews in the street last week? I wonder why that is... Until the extreme antisemitism of the Muslim community is actually confronted, liberals will be complicit in this bias.
48
I noted, unhappily, that on the campaign trail even Bernie failed to mention Jews when encouraging people to stop hate towards minorities. He called out anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Hispanic, but not a word about Jews. How could Bernie not know that even in 2015 there were 4 hate crimes against Jews for every hate crime against Muslims in the US? That over 60% of religious hate crimes in the US are against Jews, who comprise less than 3% of the population?
In short, Jews, who cares?
46
"Is it safe to be Jewish in New York?"
Only if you avoid the brisket with that silver sheen.
7
@Richard Luettgen Lol.
2
Swastikas are anti American. 419,000 American soldiers were killed fighting Nazi Germany in World War II. Over 600,000 American soldiers were wounded in combat. It is true that Jewish people were purposed targeted by the Nazis and so the swastika is a hate symbol. But it should be a hate symbol for all people.
25
In the past two millennia of Western Church/State sponsored and/or approved Jew hatred where, and when, has it ever been safe to be a Jew?
Safety to be a Jew is relative, elusive and transitory...
17
Want to solve the problem? Just witness how Israel maintains respect in its neighborhood.
5
"How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked.
"Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." This is, of course from Hemingway.
It is an apt description of what we are experiencing as hate is on the rise.
My ancestors experienced this in haven for Jews in Poland. It was the town of Ger (Gora Kalwaria). For more than 100 years they flourished. This Hasidic population rose to over 100,000.
Almost all Gerrer Hasidim living in pre-war Europe (approximately 100,000 Hasidim) were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Being safe is very much a relative phenomenon.
I write this as one of those murdered ( whose name I share) is being buried.
21
Some of my non-Jewish friends have been surprised when I have told them that Jews often play the "Anne Frank Game".
They wonder what that is.
The "Anne Frank game" goes something like this -
you have to pretend that the U.S. government (regardless of Democratic or Republican or other) has decided to murder all Jews, and you need to go into hiding right away.
You know that any neighbor hiding you will risk death to their family if they help you.
So which non-Jewish friend or neighbor would you go to for help, sure that they will not turn you in, and optimally hiding you and your family ?
Not a little sad, and this is not new.
So for all you non-Jews out there - have you ever felt the need to play this kind of game ?
16
No. But I play the Handmaids tale game...
13
David Bowers didn’t murder 11 Jews because he was upset about Israel’s West Bank policy. He murdered 11 Jews because he thought Jews were behind the “migrant caravan” and “white replacement” and all the other fearmongering conspiracy theories our president talks about on a daily basis. Our president, that good personal pal of Netanyahu and supposed champion of Israel.
So maybe, just maybe, blind support for Israeli government policy is not the true measure for a person’s respect for Jewish people. Maybe, just maybe, people like Sheldon Adelson have gotten in bed with the wrong people.
19
Finally a decent article on anti-Semitism in The New York Times that presents the complexity of the issur for what it is. Usually, it's a newsworthy issue for The New York Times only when it comed from people associated with Donald Trump or the KKK, never when it's perpetrated by other minorities or "progressives". Certainly there's no discussion of anti-Semitism when the same people who would fight for the rights of minorities to live anywhere in the US wonder if Jews really have the right to live anywhere in the historic Land of Israel...
32
Since before CE it hasn't been safe to be a Jew.
Reviled, vilified, compared with vermin, the Jew has always been a target.
Dare we say the perpetrators have religious support or justification for hating Jews?
There is no rationale for hating Jews other than that manufactured by religious dogma or political reasons.
6
No one is safe anywhere these days. Hate has reared its ugly face, again.
A few weeks ago I was in London, with a Swedish friend. We got confronted by this guy who took offense at our foreign accents (well, I'm Spanish, he's Swedish, of course we have accents when speaking our lingua franca, English). He left us alone after we sensibly told him we were just tourists (nobody came to our aid during a jarring 20m Tube ride).
A couple of weeks ago some idiot here in Madrid told me to go back to "my country". I have a regional accent (Canary Islands) which he mistook for Caribbean Spanish (very similar to the untrained ear). I told him "Dude, this is my country, I'm Canarian", and he apologized, but then I told him "What the hell, dude, what do you care? I could be Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, whatever you thought I was! I am just grocery shopping, why did you say that awful thing?". He just walked away. This is a first for me. I don't even look darker, if anything lighter skin, hair and eyes than the average mainland Spaniard. It was pure, unadulterated xenophobia. This, in a country whose natives go from dark arabic-looking to light, blonde, Nordic-looking. Everywhere around the world xenophobia seems to be OK.
Brexit, Trump, Catalonia, Brazil now. Just what is going on? Is it something in the air? Water?
88
@GermanQR
The technical names are ignorance and insecurity. Someone who likes who they are and is not a fearful coward, has no reason to put other human beings down.
8
Thank you to Gina Bellafante for not only an excellent piece, but for responding to some comments. I hope other NY Times writers will do the same. Even if it is only one "back and forth" this is good dialog.
15
Is it, was it, safe to be Jewish in NYC? Depending on the neighborhood, the block, the time of day and the year, sometimes it was, sometimes not.
Our city's melting pot history includes a lot of crisp edges between communities, as well as it includes the shared wealth brought with vast cultural riches.
I grew up Jewish in the Bronx, and lived there until I moved West to graduate school in 1967.
After leaving NYC, my pride in the city's "melting pot" status took the form of a simple evaluation: "One of the reasons NYC is a great place to be is that despite the fact that everyone hates everyone else, we understand that we have to live together." I watched as there were literal battles between Jews and its various branches, Irish Catholics and Italian Catholics, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, WASPs, rich and poor. And so it went. I treasured that; I feared that. I learned to stay alert.
What I do experience in NYC and beyond, including Northern California where I live now, is an increase in hatred, vengeance, protectiveness and fear. For me, Trump and his base have not just invited those feelings and actions into the public arena, but provided a cultural and political platform justifying their expression.
I believe that will increase for years to come, even as we eventually find national and local leadership that promotes and lives in the compassion and inclusiveness claimed as our Nation's founding intent.
13
4 years ago, I was riding the #1 subway uptown. A man started screaming anti Semitic rants at a neighbor of mine. My neighbor is a rabbi and was wearing a yarmulke. My neighbor stayed calm and I searched for something to say to the man that was screaming. But, I knew the man was out of control with rage and I, along with everyone else on the train, stayed silent. Then, the man looked over at me and started to scream at me. I froze.
At the next stop, the man got off and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
When my neighbor and I got off the train at west 110th street, I asked him what it was like for him to receive the man's anger. He shrugged and said, I'm used to it.
It broke my heart.
I am a 67 year old Jewish and love living in NYC. I am not leaving.
16
@BSR: Please, please, let us know what that man looked like. Why refer to gender and nothing else?
4
I remember when I was 9 years old in Toledo Ohio, my best friend was Jewish. We were walking to school when he was surrounded by older boys who called him (anti-Jewish) names. They weren't quite sure about what I was (only a few Mormons in Toledo back then), but I'll never forget the nervous sweat on his upper lip as we continued walking and finally made it to the front doors of our school. His family moved to California shortly thereafter (as our family did 2 years later). I learned something about human nature that day, and have felt protective of Jewish people ever since. I wish we all could feel that way. If you think that "the Jews are plotting", please understand that they are just reacting to your bigotry. They want the right to worship and pursue happiness as they feel led, and those rights are at the core of American virtue.
95
I'm Jewish and born in the Bronx. We lived at 353 Cypress Avenue across the street from PS 65. New York in the late 1940s and up through the 1970s had at least a million or more Jews. But the Jewish community changed with many leaving the Bronx for Long Island and across America. There were also large Jewish communities in Philly, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, Baltimore and other cities. The Jewish community also created different images of itself depending upon the number of Orthodox and Hasidic sects that formed their own communities. Oddly the Jewish community battled within itself for control and authority. The ultra-orthodox demanded certain restrictions on buses, schools. education, and other normally pubic and shared spaces. That led to a great deal of anger and resentment. The internecine warfare often led to obstracism between Jewish religious groups. This behavior of Jews, usually private, became public and sometimes a source of ridicule among those seeking to call for hate and violence against Jews. The anti-Semites didn't want the practices of the Jews and their religious restrictions to rub off or contaminate them.
I'm 71 now and I've seen how America has changed. Anti-Semitism has always existed just below the surface in many communities. Too many church leaders preached not how to be a good Christian, but rather why the Jews are different, vilified and must be converted and saved. Small wonder why anti-Semites thrive in the Trump era. And it's getting worse.
48
@Jay
I am 2 years older than you and my family lived on Powers Avenue until 1950 when we moved to Queens. Both my sister and brother went to PS 65, which was down the street. My brother, of blessed memory, was born in 1939 and told me about being chased home from Hebrew school, the posse yelling "Christ killer." My formative years, in Queens, were sheltered within a Jewish neighborhood. At age 23 I reported for active duty at an Air Force base in Oklahoma. My rude awakening came when a
co-worker was telling me about getting a good deal on a car. It was the first time I heard Jew used as a verb. Sadly, the co-worker thought he was paying me a compliment.
15
@Jay The weird thing is how very rich right-wing Jews like Sheldon Adelson, as well as AIPAC, not to mention Bibi Netanyahu, have treated Trump as their favorite president in American history, since he’s so in the bag for Likud Israel. The trouble with backing Trump for Likud’s sake is that it makes you a backer of white nationalism, anti-Semitism, and American Nazism, all of whose adherents love Trump just as much as Shel and Bibi. So backing Trump for Likud Israel means putting anti-Semitism and shouts of “Jews will not replace us” on steroids in America, with quite possibly many more murderous attricities against American Jews as a result. The irony is that those who love Jews in America, including Jews, are overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic, thus on Obama’s side on Israel, not Adelson and Bibi’s. American liberals naturally support universal human values, like justice and an end to oppression for all minorities (including
19
I feel as much hated by the left as the right. The (non Jewish) left protests that Jews are the reason for the plight of visible minorities and all Palestinians. It was the left that supported virulent anti- Jewish/Israeli sentiment for the last 40 years in Europe, handing the new neonazi right an easy path forward today. Strange bedfellows.
Now here’s an issue that can unite the country.
24
Our children are convinced, because the thought is comforting to them and us as their teachers, that the era of pervasive anti-Semitism has long passed, and that the millennia past wherein attacks on Jews were usual and accepted by the non-Jewish population was a distant and, in its extreme moments, an anomalous time. What if the reverse is true- if in fact those were the times in which things were as they usually were and will always be, and the recent era wherein Jews have been permitted a normal life in America and elsewhere was the exception, dissipating over time and soon to be gone?
6
In my neighborhood of Brooklyn I see and hear a lot of black anti-semitism yet this article and my liberal friends will not discuss it. In DC a council person stated publicly that Jews control the weather! Until this is openly discussed we will all fail for blacks and Jews have traditionally worked together on human-rights and are natural allies.
54
A silly question. Of course it is safe. You have to look at the whole picture. For Every Act of violent bigotry in New York, there are thousands of incidents of kindness, respect, and decency. The New York Times is desperately trying to create a story where there is none.
9
This happens to
WOMEN
Every day of their lives. Don’t focus on the adjective. Jewish Christian Muslim. Black white asian Latino. Men perpetrate the violence
8
@Mary M
Agree. But keep in mind there are female haters and enablers out there
Trump won the majority of the white women vote. Hate crosses both genders.
4
This is an article I never thought I would see about NYC! Horrifying, and yet part and parcel with all that has happened over the last 2 years especially. It seems that the entire world has gone mad. And we in the US are leading the pack. We are regressing; not moving forward. This palpable hatred must be stopped before it is too damn late. Do not tolerate anti-Semitism or racism of any kind, do your part to not add to this bigotry and hatred. DO NO HARM.
9
Hi Alexandra, Thanks for your post.
2
I recently got off the G at Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene and saw graffiti on a poster for the NYBG that said " Globalist Zionist Jews are Destroying America". I was shocked and shaken and hurt as a Jewish native Brooklynite to be confronted with this for (I think) the first time in my 40 plus years. I was glad to see someone else tried to cross it out. I was able to rip it off. I don't know if this came from the left or the right.
18
Jew haters, racists, xenophobes and gay bashers always exist. But they can be managed and suppressed. But Trump’s election emboldened them to emerge from their hiding spots. Others found a new hiding spot behind their smart phone. Our putative leader’s incendiary words are a curse on our land and the world.
22
Lately, I have sat in synagogue on Friday nights and studied the floor plan, plotting an escape route. Which door will put me in a location with the most places to hide. This was never an issue for me in the past, but now it seems sensible. I do not feel safe in my country anymore. And I don’t think I’ll relax into feeling safe again in my lifetime.
Remember Trump standing there saying, “What have you got to lose?” Frankly, I think that many of us have lost a great deal that was precious to us. The power of one man to change so much is astonishing.
23
The hostility works both ways. As someone who grew up in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) enclave of Boro Park in Brooklyn, I was taught in yeshiva never, never to associate or befriend a goy. Hence I was obligated to wear the clothing of a Haredi Jew - black hat, white shirt, black suit or black kaftan - to distance myself from goyim.
Moreover, there are numerous laws in Orthodox Judaism (Halacha) that discriminate sharply against goyim. Israel Shahak, the late Israeli human rights activist, wrote books on this. In Israel, where liberal Jews are far more open about the xenophobia of Haredim, there is a popular website DaatEmet, which cites the many laws hostile towards goyim.
When I turned 20, I became a Reform Jew, which is open to non-Jews and is active in their well-being. However, the problem is that Reform Judaism is hardly recognized in Israel, as the NY Times reported yesterday.
27
@New Yorker
Whether you intend it or not, you seem to be drawing a very false and objectionable moral equivalency. "Not associating with a 'goy'" may be a narrow minded and self defeating approach to life but it cannot be equated with committing or tolerating violence against the "other", and is not an "on the other hand", "turnabout is fair play" example of why Orthodox (or any) Jews deserve to be put in fear.
16
@New Yorker You site Halacha, which is Talmud interpretations. To our Christian friends, it is opinion, and to most Jews any advocacy of discrimination against others is Nonsense!
7
@New Yorker
The "ultra orthodox" neighborhood of Boro Park that you refer to was born mainly out of the shadows of the Holocaust. It was largely settled by Holocaust survivors and their kin. After the horrors they witnessed at the hands of non-Jews, it's unfathomable that somebody could blame them for being afraid of non-Jews.
8
There are competing narratives in the responses, one group blames Trump, his dog whistles and not so subtle appeals to White Supremacist. A second group attacks liberals for being less protective of Israeli survival, which after all does House about half the world's Jewish population, and chastises BDS where sometimes the anti-Israel trope is accompanied by anti-Semitic tracks. My sadness is that one of the experiences of Jews is that both the left and right have targeted them. I cannot think of another minority that has experience with such frequency attacks from both left and right forces.
10
It’s not safe to be a Jew anywhere. The ebb and flow of anti-Semitism can turn on a dime and at any moment Jews can find themselves isolated and vilified in their own country.
Over the past 6 years Europe has grown increasingly inhospitable, leading to the largest mass exodus of Jews since World War 2. As far left leaders like Jeremy Corbyn canoodle with Holocaust deniers, far right leaders like Viktor Orban have used the backlash against mass-migration as a Trojan Horse to smuggle anti-Semitism into the halls of power. Even the migrants, who come from countries where overt anti-Semitism is excused and condoned, have created enclaves in their host countries where Jews dare not tread.
In America, the right only cares about Jews when it comes to elections and resurrections, the rest of the time they cater to their bigoted fringe. The left has also embraced their own fringe's rebranding of anti-Semitism as anti-Zionism, claiming that opposition to Israel is a reaction to its policies while willfully ignoring that Israel’s policies are a reaction to its opposition.
President Obama’s relative hostility toward Israel and the lionization of BDS proponents like Linda Sarsour had already created a rift among liberals, now President Trump’s stalwart support for the Jewish State has made advocacy for Israel toxic on the left.
Jews need to take political support for Israel seriously, because it’s the only place we can still go if the tide should turn against us in America.
102
@Gary Taustine
Or maybe opposition to Israel’s policies is just opposition to Israel’s policies. Even within Israel, there is opposition to Israel’s policies. The people who oppose Israeli policy are not the people gunning down people in synagogues.
In fact, is going to Israel really an improvement? How safe will Israel be for Jews if the current government continues its confrontational attitude towards its neighbors, the Palestinians? You can pontificate endlessly about how Jews are entitled to that land and how Palestinians are being obstinate, but it doesn’t change the fact that endless conflict with people who live next door does not make for a safe life.
24
To do as the right does in labeling any violent suspect who commits genocide as mentally deranged is a disservice to our society as well as the truth. Trump's fascistic overtones awakened and gave voice to an element that joins hate groups such as white supremacists, the John Birch Society, Proud Boys, Klan and neo-Nazi. When necessary, its constitutional for a rational President in order to ensure domestic tranquility to federalize the State militias: Guard and Reserve and 101st Airborne giving them Police powers to eliminate these domestic terrorists. You have to be taught to hate and short of Clockwork Orange I don't know what the solution is but we don't have to tolerate it.
3
Antisemitism well predates Trump. Have we forgotten Jesse Jackson, the Nation of Islam, and anti-Israel boycotts masquerading as "only anti-Zionist?" Blaming Trump alone will not address the cause, only a symptom of mainstream acceptance of antisemitism among liberals and academics.
26
I am genuinely confused by the anger directed towards the “left” and other minority groups including “blacks” etc... When white nationalim has claimed more lives and done more anti-semitic fear-mongering historically and present day than all other groups combined to the nth degree. Surely in every group, race, nationality, religion etc there will be those who will stoop to racism. But the alt-right and white nationalists in this country have taken this to a whole new level after the election of Donald Trump. Trump openly used nazi propaganda in his campaign (“Make America Great Again” being the prime example) which among other things has given them great encouragement. Is it just a coincidence that a president who used nazi propaganda in his campaign now has had the most deadly attack on the jewish community in the history of the country happen during his first term? Hopefully, we have not already crossed a point of no return. But we must always do everything we can to stop anti-semitism everywhere it lies and the first and most important place right now is the White House.
5
It is not "safe" to be anything anywhere in our country. There are criminals in every community, and some who hate for whatever reason some minority. Stay alert and watch for trouble, avoid it as possible.
8
I tell my children, aged 34 through 22, to keep their passports handy and their assets liquid.
We are going to be thrown out of the U.S. eventually, it's just a matter of time.
Just like England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal,...
17
@G
Then you can join the other groups of people who will also be "thrown out" of the U.S. -- At the rate we're going, if you're not white, Christian and conservative there won't be any place for you here.
On the other hand, at least Jews have Israel where they can flee to.
11
As a Black American, I'd say it's a lot less safe to be Black in New York or anyplace in the USA, than to be Jewish, by any metric.
However, the question doesn't matter. What does matter is that no group should feel inherently unsafe in the United States. What does matter is that the Trump Republican party seems to think it's OK to bring back open racism and anti-Semitism, along with anything anti-WASP. What does matter is whether ordinary Americans will be OK with the loss of civility in society.
And those things are not OK. They are simply not.
I pray for my Jewish friends, that we all come through this difficult time together, hand in hand, together.
37
@Bob
Your comment warrants remembering Rodney King’s famous quote:
“Can’t we all JUST get along ?”
1
A quote from this article put a knot in my stomach: ”.....If anti-Semitism bypasses consideration as a serious problem in New York, it is to some extent because it refuses to conform to an easy narrative with a single ideological enemy. During the past 22 months, not one person caught or identified as the aggressor in an anti-Semitic hate crime has been associated with a far right-wing group, Mark Molinari, commanding officer of the police department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, told me.......”
My parents, Holocaust survivors who lived with institutionalized and endemic anti-Semitism before the war, were right: anti-Semitism is ingrained in people, like it was in Poland, Germany, Romania, etc. and it just comes out when the time is right regardless of education, wealth, position, or (apparent) closeness of your neighbors. I can’t apologize to them for accusing them of paranoia that they shouldn’t have had “anymore”.
13
Time for a REALITY CHECK. Two unarmed Black people were recently shot down in Kentucky by a white supremacist sprouting racist invective, and it barely got a mention.
This is not to downplay in any way what happened in Pittsburgh, but all in all you have a better chance of being Jewish most anywhere in this country, than being Black.
And that doesn't speak well for the state of affairs in this country.
22
Among the tragic victims of the Pittsburgh shooting were several seniors with living memories of the Holocaust. Just as the number of Holocaust survivors are dwindling so are those who have first-hand memories of that horrific time.
People like my NYC parents.
That Greatest Generation who bore witness to the greatest atrocity of our time, the Holocaust, also bore witness to some of the most virulent anti-Semitic periods here in America. It's worth remembering, not repeating
The specter of anti-Semitism has always hovered around us, the shadowy world of hate just below the surface like a ghost I chose not to see.
I am haunted by the fact that my parent's generation was right to believe that anti-Semitism never really left …that it was just a matter of time. That time is now. https://wp.me/p2qifI-4mS
4
Anyone who is shocked by what happened in Pittsburgh, or for that matter the bombs sent to Democrats, are living in a fantasyland. The hateful rhetoric of the president and his enablers have been a warning to Jews and to Democrats for quite some time. The midterm election is the most important of my 71-year-old lifetime. I pray that voters will put a check upon the Trump-enablers. We are in dangerous political territory and all we have is the vote next Tuesday.
7
As a parent preparing a Jewish child on the Autism Spectrum for College, I think we should also be asking the question of how safe our campuses are for Jewish students. I studied in upstate NY two decades ago and had hoped to encourage my children to apply to colleges in the northeast as well. As my bright, outspoken, often socially clueless and curious child is in his senior year we have come to the sad conclusion that he will need to choose his school based on more than just educational quality.
The presence of BDS and other anti-Israel groups on campus afford a thinly veiled mainstreaming of antisemitism. College campuses are doing a poor job of protecting Jewish kids on campus and an atmosphere of hostility and open hatred is often condoned and ignored as an exercise in political discussion and free speech. Swastikas on campus, verbal insults and intimidation are barely getting a blink out of the media.
So, I'd love if the NYT could follow up on their examination about Jewish safety in NY with the safety of Jewish students on college campuses as well.
24
@Diana @Joe The ADL does an annual report on anti-Semitism and they look at incidents on campus.
Here's the link to last year's analysis:
https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/2017-audit-of-anti-semitic-incidents#themes-and-trends-
11
@Joe you are making a lot of assumptions. First that my child is 'supplicant to the Zionist narrative'. He is not. His willingness to engage in an attempt to learn is where my concern arises. He has Autism and while he is brilliant and well informed, as his parent, I know how quickly he can get into hot water by being purely logical. We live in Texas and when a discussion on the Crusades came up in his World History class he was almost beaten up for being 'anti-Christian'.
Second, you are assuming that this is only in my imagination. When a group of young people are supported in screaming abuse at another as long as it remains 'heated discussion', you can't imagine that it is not designed to allow for intimidation. This is not an issue about 'Mean words about Israel'. It is about the thinly veiled threats of aggression. When adults scream about exterminating people we call it what it is so why are we handing out a pass for this sort of stuff to happen on campuses?
If you haven't seen this, or had your family members or child subjected to it, I am glad for you.
13
@Ginia Bellafante Thank you Gina.
Hate crimes are in the eyes of the beholder. Violent crimes against blacks far outnumber those against Jews. But those who keep track tell us that few of the crimes against blacks have anything to do with race.
The simple truth is that black Americans are far more often victimized. And the Pittsburgh killings were an isolated incident, not a new, emerging pattern.
It is an overreaction to proclaim a pervasive antisemitic trend which is making it unsafe to be Jewish. There are 5.7 million Jews in the US. There are about 650 anti-Jewish hate crimes per year.
American Jews have little to fear from an army of extremists. Robert Bowers is pretty much one of a kind. And those who believe that there are dozens of similar fanatics lurking in the wings are simply overreacting.
7
@michjas
Is that violent crimes against blacks perpetrated by blacks?
Don't see many Hasidic Jews shooting up their "brothers"
The numbers is the article suggest whether transgender, black, etc. the ratio is highest against Jews. Sure Jews can remain undercover due to skin tone but walking into a synagogue is pretty bold.
12
There was a subway add campaign against crooked landlords by a so-called activist group that ran around 2014 and featured pictographs of data that included men with ringlets around their ears, aka paeious. The ads attacked the landlords - who were literally depicted as Hasidic Jews in cartoon form. These ads were all over the subway and were totally shocking. Anyone remember this?
4
I keep hearing about graffiti applied by who-knows-who described as scary Anti-Semitic attacks. Could be evidence of genuine Anti-Semitism. Could be kids playing pranks. I just wish these anonymously drawn swastikas would be addressed by a paint brush and not outpourings of fear. That would certainly take the fun out it.
5
A universe without Jews is unimaginable.The photo of Yeshiva students on the Home Page says it all, through the tenderness and grace so visible upon their adorable faces.
1
@G
"...While it's easy to castigate President Trump and his followers because of their sometimes insensitive comments, mainstream Democratic leaders refuse to castigate left-leaning anti-Semites for fear of offending their base."
Hate crimes against Jews are up 57% since deadly Don has taken office. If the Orthodox Jewish Community fails to call out Trump for his anti-Semitic and racial biases, they can expect worse. I was speaking with an orthodox friend and was shocked to learn he supports Trump. Why? Because Trump pardoned a Hasid.
Disclaimer: I'm a Jewish agnostic scared for my people
12
Did I just read that the first inkling of the rise of anti-semitism in NYC was shortly after President Trump was elected when someone painted swastikas in a park with the words "Go Trump"? Really? Ask any jew, especially someone who wears a yarmulka like me, if he agrees with that statement. This statement is just an attempt by the writer to draw Trump into the picture. What is different today is that many left-leaning and liberal organizations disguise their anti-semitism by calling it anti-Zionism.
27
I caution anyone from inferring a rise in antisemitism from a scrawled swastika on a public playground. It takes all of 6 seconds to do and doesnt require any higher level thinking that something like "Jews get out" would require.
4
@Joe
Have you ever experienced bigotry?
5
I am certainly not dismissing anti-semitism and I am very sad that the latest mass shooting target is the Jewish community....but I don't know...is it safe to be black in Charleston? Is it safe to be a 1st grader in Newtown, CT? Is it safe to be a country music fan in Las Vegas? Nobody is safe until we do something about the gun laws in this country and mental health care.
21
@K
Is it safe to Black in America is more like it...and we already have that answer.
12
It has always been unsafe to be Jewish in New York. What is truly different now is that Liberals are questioning unique Jewish “values”.
And no longer protecting Jews rights to practice their faith without harm. New York City has imported the “European disease” of ingrained
hostility to Jews and their ideas.
14
Are white supremacists assumed to be Christian?
8
I am of immigrant Eastern Christian Orthodox heritage but I grew up in Bay Terrace Queens.
It was a predominately Jewish neighborhood and I went to a predominantly Jewish HS and my friends were predominantly Jewish.
As I said in another post, I have more in common in my personal beliefs with liberal minded Jewish people than I do with any of my own ultra conservative Orthodox Christian family. What I have with my own ethnic group is just history, ethnicity and heritage, not political or philosophical beliefs.
These divides can be huge.
7
What the question calls into question, is it safe to be identified anywhere as a Jew.
Fascism has returned.
15
None of this is article is news to Jews.
39
@Biz Griz actually I diasgree. as a jew originally from california & now living in the midwest, I was actually shaken. the numbers look a lot different out west (and I did some extensive comparisons after reading this article). I knew antisemitism was widespread, but I didn't know it was acted upon so regularly because that's not the case to the same extent in my area. I'm very glad this is coming into public awareness to a greater degree.
16
@Biz Griz I am not sure that I agree. Nearly all the Jewish New Yorkers I spoke to while I was I writing about this issue were shocked when they heard the numbers.
9
@Ginia Bellafante
The reason that nearly all the Jewish New Yorkers you spoke to were shocked by the numbers was probably because your narrow circle of Jewish friends are not representative of all of Jewish New York. You should expand your horizons. I may be wrong but I assume that you do not have too many outer borough Haredi friends or acquaintances.
12
Out here in my oh-so-liberal town, there is a definite undercurrent of anti-semitism on the left. The most disheartening thing about it is the failure of many to understand history and the destructive dog whistles of their well-meaning activities. Five or six years ago, with no debate, the local food coop declared it would no longer carry products from Israel (I think the store sold one cosmetic product.) In the ensuing uproar, I talked to many backers of this move who simply could not understand the concerns and paranoia of many Jewish coop members. Many quit the coop. (Both Jewish and non.) There were expensive lawsuits. Bitterness lingers. Trust was lost. A community was damaged. And for what? Much was lost, but what was gained?
120
@Harry
Once again for those in the back, being against Israel is not anti-semitism, not matter how hard Zionists try to conflate the two.
24
@Harry Only dogs hear dog whistled, and those actions are directly against the only state that is Jewish, so it is directly against many Jews. Pretty simple.
37
@Joe Israel was founded as a place Jews could go when no one else would take them in--see history of the world, most recently WWII.
If you do not understand that, you will not understand the necessity of Israel. And if you do not understand the necessity of Israel, you are willingly ignoring thousands of years of history--and that is being against the Jews.
55
What an intense amount of speculation around 9 crimes, and in all these words no comparison to the muslim-american experience of hate. How can you write an article about religious hate crime in America without a sentence of mention? What are the similarities, the differences in these stories, these are the words I want to read.
9
@RM The difference is simple. Look at the FBI's religious hate crimes statistics, even before Trump. 65-68% against Jews, 10-12% against Muslims. You wouldn't think so listening to Obama and the media and the liberal left including, unhappily, Bernie.
And in case you are wondering, Jewish and Muslim populations in the US are pretty equal. And these figures predate the massive uptick in anti-Semitic acts since Trumps presidency.
8
My fellow Jews make me shake my head. Especially the Jews in the media. They love Obama and hate Trump. Trump's daughter married an orthodox Jew with his blessing. his daughter converted to Judiasm. She is the first Jewish first -daughter in the history of the WH. Trump's beloved grand children are Jewish, the first Jewish grandchildren to ever run around the White House, and yet they consider Trump a racist. It is a defect in the Jewish psyche that we do not always treat our friends they way they should be treated and the Jews have wisdom but can very easily be tricked. Trump is a friend of the Jews, this is obvious, the media, which includes Jews, in many ways, is no friend. Jews have many enemies, but unfortunately , in many ways, Jews are their own worse enemy.
27
I think you are confused.
This split is more about a larger life philosophy than a religious ideology.
I am of Christian heritage but I have very little in common philosophically with ultra conservative Christians who are fundamentalists, dogmatic and intolerant.
I would argue all ultra orthodox or conservative religious people, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindi etc...have more in common with each other than secular people or religious of a more liberal or tolerant persuasion.
This is what we are seeing here.
There are divisions of this within every religion.
12
@artfuldodger. Trump also, if not loves, then likes or has no problem with gay or Trans people personally. Just listen to his comments about Caitlyn Jenner ( “She can use any bathroom she wants at my club”) or his sentiments about same sex marriage when Elton John wed his husband (“if two people dig each other why not?”)
This just means that his anti-gay and Trans policies are an especially craven play to his base of supporters.
You can’t just ignore his current dog whistles to White Supremacists (“I’m a Nationalist”....as the columnist Neil Stenberg said clearly the “White” is silent like the P is psalm).
I do believe his anti Jewish dog whistles would be even more explicit than decrying “Globalists” if he didn’t in his own way feel something for Ivanka but that’s a slim reed to support a theory that he’s a “friend to Jews”
11
@artfuldodger
You honestly think the man who called members of a Neo Nazi rally "fine people" is a friend of the Jews?
The President probably does not harbor hate for Jews because in his life Jews were the ones helping him make money and defend him from many lawsuits. Of course he loves Jews, who would do his taxes otherwise!
13
During an open reading in East Harlem, someone read a poem with a few anti-Semitic lines. It was a long poem with much power in it. Yet it was ugly and stupid. And smug. A mosque in Cairo. A church in Kansas. A nationalist meeting in Russia. A communist cell in Thailand. A gathering of black radicals in Brooklyn. A neo-nazi gathering in Austria.
And here we are today.
9
Take a look at the percentage of Jews in any state's or city's population. Not one Jew was killed in Ashland, Kentucky, but that does not mean it is safe to be here if you are Jewish, or let's throw in Muslims, Catholics, Hindus and Presbyterians.
3
It is safer to be Jewish in New York than in any American college campus, where leftist academicians join the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic BDS movement. My own daughter left a west coast campus because she did NOT feel safe.
37
@Rose
And how many Jews have been seriously injured because of "leftist academicians" who are against Israel? Any of them murdered?
The pearl clutching about anti-Zionism being anti-semitism is so overwrought. Public expressions of Zionism are bound to vocally opposed on a college campus. That doesnt mean college students are burning crosses in from the local Hillel house.
13
@Rose
And the BDS movement is in private k-12 schools and colleges here in NYC. At NYU, they sent mock eviction notices to Jewish students in dorms.
13
@Rose: No "safe spaces" for Jews.
10
please stop this stupidities. power use it or lose it, a time honored maxime. no doubt the most powerful dimension in America is the U.S. jewry and for good reasons. the jews are America, they play a tremedous role in its institutions, econmy, cutlture, education, and many many other facets, thus they have a tremedous power to stop the sources of hate, to summon those who preach hatered.
1
It certainly isn’t safer for a Jew in Syria, Itaq, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, West Bank, Gulf States, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Russia, etc. Jews are infinitely safer in New York than those countries. So why single out New York?
4
@Shamrock if you look at the NAME OF THE PAPER you will see it is The NEW YORK Times.
That is why they single out New York.
Sheesh.
9
@Shamrock It's almost as if this newspaper is called the New York Times.
8
I'll believe the Left takes antisemitism seriously when y'all realize that Louis Farrakhan and his followers are just as bigoted as Richard Spencer and his followers. Both groups deserve an equal amount of disdain, yet prominent Democrats are still more than happy to appear in public with Farrakhan.
62
@I want another option: Farrakhan is a side show in the Black community,and the majority of Blacks would say so. What I've yet to hear is criticism from the Jewish folks about their Jewish brethren who talk trash about Black folks. And please, if Farrakhan is all you all could come up with then you are not saying anything that Blacks would listen too.
11
@I want another option Dems don't call him "very fine people." Dems don't have a Steve King in Congress.
6
@I want another option
No one with a brain defends Farrakhan - and I cannot even remember the last Democratic office holder who had anything to do with him.
7
The comments in this thread that seem to be saying, "This is bad but it is worse when [fill in the name of the commenter's political opponents] do it," are disheartening to read.
Anti-Jewish acts, targeting people just because they are Jews, are wrong. As are any hate acts that target people simply because of who they are.
16
If it's not safe to be Jewish in New York then it's not safe to be Jewish anywhere in this country.
Having known and been friends with Jewish people all my 66 years, they are no different then any of the other people I have known.
There are always going to be radicals that will hate someone or some group but I think for the most part the USA is accepting of all faiths and all kinds.
However that's not to say that at his time we don't have a problem, we have to work harder as our leadership is lacking so lets all try and take the high road.
42
As bad as things may seem now, they are nothing compared to what they once were.
My father who grew up in Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn remembered frequently being beaten up in the 1920s and 30s on the way to Hebrew school by kids calling him a "Christ killer" with the Irish cops standing around and not doing a thing about it.
And the Yorkville section of Manhattan during the 1930s was the center of Nazi activities in America and the people involved were very open about this.
Of course, we've never before had a president who openly embraced Jew haters.
48
@Steve
My dad got his first broken nose when he was a young lad in Bay Ridge, probably in the very early 1930s, and jumped into a rabble of kids beating up a Jewish boy. At least he was able to scare them off.
I know what you're talking about.
17
"And, obviously, white supremacists are driving anti-Semitic rhetoric online. "
(disclaimer: I am an Orthodox Jew)
While it's easy to castigate President Trump and his followers because of their sometimes insensitive comments, mainstream Democratic leaders refuse to castigate left-leaning anti-Semites for fear of offending their base.
Many members of minority communities, in a misguided attempt to conflate the status of Palestinians in the Middle East with the status of minorities in the U.S., are ripe for anti-Semitic propaganda.
A little honesty on the left would go a long way to making the Jewish community feel more secure.
134
This is a classic example of "whataboutism". Yeah, the extreme right may be doing this, but what about anti-Semitism on the left? Great way to duck and dodge, but it's a false equivalence at best. First, Anti-semitism on the left is NOT ignored by the left. Second, opposing Israel's policies, practices and government is NOT anti-semitism. Third, calls for murdering Jews and blaming Jews for whatever it is that you don't like are coming from the right. Are you arguing that anti-Semitism on the left cancels out any opposition to the racist, nazi anti-Semites? Or is it that so many Jews who support Trump have to deflect from what he is doing to give this movement oxygen and fire?
37
@G Fascinating. Tell us about when people chanted "Jew Will Not Replace Us" while marching around a state university campus and President Obama said they were "very fine people."
Oh.
Right.
22
@Mike: Shame on Obama. Lol.
1
I think is liberal Jews should be (should have been) very worried about the attacks on our more Orthodox, visibly Jewish brethren. They seem to be the canaries in thee coal mine. If you blend in more with the rest of society, sure, you’re less likely to get hit with random hatred while walking home, but as the awful shooting this weekend showed, this doesn’t mean you have actual safety or people don’t hate you for who you are. Ultimately, we are all Jews.
I visit New York about once a year, and it’s nice that loads of other people look like me and I blend in more than I do in much of the Midwest—but I’ve glimpsed the kind of graffiti shown in this article. Never assume anywhere is safe (some big cities in Europe had thriving Jewish communities in the early 20th century...)
As for who’s committing the attacks, I’d assume that reflects the population of the city overall. Not as many white supremacists around, but they don’t have a monopoly on anti-semitism.
85
And if the preponderance of those committing antisemitic attacks in NYC were to be black or Muslim, wouldn’t the liberal elites close their eyes to this? If those committing these attacks were to be white supremacist sorts or neo-Nazis or at least white red-necks, outing them would fit their liberal political agendas. They have a real problem when that’s not the case though and would prefer to ignore the attacks. We ignore any of this at our peril.
61
@Greenie
Louis Farrakhan and his friends a prime example of what you're talking about. I'd rather have liberals in power, but oftentimes they're not much more broadminded than conservatives.
20
@Greenie We happened to have had a liberal elite Mayor. He took the guns away from African Americans and everyone else he could using methods that many thought of as both unconstitutional and racist. In spite of that his goal was to reduce the ability of people to kill each other.
Contrast that to the current President. He is not only ginning up hate for minorities and Jews specifically, he is for arming them to the teeth.
Your false equivalency makes me sick. These people were gunned down by a nut who legally bought weapons. He was ginned up by Fox News fake story on the invasion that is "infesting" our country.
This people weren't gunned down by blacks or Muslims. They were gunned down by a white Neo-Nazi, the people who make up the "base" of the Trump lead Republican party.
You also completely discount that hate speech doesn't stop at the border of color or religion.
12
Actually it is not safe to be a Jew anywhere, but this is not new. The only escape is to deny being Jewish and marry a non-Jew. Then just maybe your offspring or theirs or theirs will finally be safe. But your DNA to some extent will survive. It is very much like Neanderthal DNA surviving in up to 3% in all humans outside of Africa. On a different note but commented on by others, in fact, it is a canard to blame Trump for the Pittsburg massacre and dishonest to say he should have not shown up to pay respects. The man is nasty to everyone, but with his own daughter being a Jew, you really can not say he is anti-Semitic. And, if he did not go to Pittsburgh, people would have screamed that proves he is anti-Semitic. He did go, fortunately did not make it political, and it was his role to go and pay his respects. That is the tradition. You do go before, during, and after the burial. Finally, the wacko that killed these people was just that. He blamed Jews for illegal migration. Trump wasn't. The killer in his diseased mine decided he was going to save the white race by killing "all the Jews." He connected Jews to migration. Trump did not do that. Democrats! How about having the back bone to push for an amendment to take away guns? I bet most of the country would agree. There is the problem. People including the killer should not have guns and assault rifles and 357s to be sure.
17
@Bian
Full blooded Jew, half blooded Jew, quarter blooded Jew, the anti semites don’t care. Marrying a non Jew is no escape, Offspring of a mixed marriage is no escape. Just study the history of Nazi antisemitism and before
6
@Bian
"Democrats! How about having the back bone to push for an amendment to take away guns?"
Don't you mean Republicans! where is your moral backbone, where is your integrity, where is your conscience?
6
Speaking for the minority
I am a secret Jew. I do not tell anybody I am Jewish, I wear no star of David. I look like anybody else. My brother is the same, he married a Christian , there is no religious ceremonies, the children are not raised Jewish and they are not raised Christian, we attend no services. We do this for safety reasons. We are observant of god in our own way.
As a child it was known that I was Jewish, because school children cannot hide anything from their classmates . And I was picked on because I was a Jew. There were three Jews in the class, so its easy for 10 or 12 catholic boys to pick on the three Jews.
As a minority. Jews make up 2 percent of Americans, you are always at risk. And a Jew is unique in that all others, the other 98 percent can easily gang up to destroy them, and it wouldn't take much. Jews make it easy, especially the Orthodox, with the clothes they wear, even the Mezuzah they place in the doorway of their homes announces this house belongs to a Jew. I took my Mezuzah off the door a very long time ago.
I guess Orthodox Jews would consider me a non Jew, but anti-Semites would consider me a full Jew. I am sorry if I offends the Almighty, but they threw Jewish babies into incinerators at Aushwitz, and the people who did it were just ordinary people before Hitler arrived. those same ordinary people are everywhere, and given the chance they will do it again. For me and mine we'll sit this one out.
28
@artfuldodger
Hi I hope what "alternative" value system you have chosen for yourself and your progeny, is one that goes beyond mere self-preservation of your physical entity, and please realize that, although you may survive "another" Holocaust, due to hiding your Jewish identity, what you have chosen as a lifestyle for yourself does not bring honor to the G-d of Israel, nor a are you a credit to the Jewish people by standing firm in your faith in the face of adversity, your brother's children are no longer carriers of that flame, and however you worship the "Almighty" in secret has nothing to do with nominal Judaism.
And they haven't even come for you yet..and you've already given up.
You're not a "non-Jew", no Orthodox person would say that, you have simply given up on believing and being as a Jew. You were placed in this world to make a choice, and it appears you have made yours.
5
@artfuldodger Yes. Those same ordinary people are here. And they are being given the chance.
1
Talk about burying the lead,Plus as an added bonus blaming the victim to boot (by wearing religious garb) Jews have been over represented as victims of hate crimes in NYC since they've been keeping records, and news flash that is the way it is practically all over the world!
In the U.K and France the mounting Antisemitism is approaching crisis levels, I know the NYT wishes the blame can be placed on Far Right or white nationalists but in reality the perps are mostly Muslim (in Europe) and in USA by Blacks and Muslims, Except for colleges campuses where most of the hate comes from Muslims and progressive whites, ( all of my children have been victims of disgusting antisemitism at their colleges, (NYU, Northeastern, Hunter and worst of all The New School), But what do most Jews do? we shrug it off and get back to work, In this era of self awareness and P.C culture its telling and sad that Jews are not included in those conversations but since when have Jews ever really been accepted or included, except to hate that is
77
@Raymond L -- "...the perps...in USA (are) blacks and Muslims." I went searching for instances of blacks or Muslims killing or attacking Jews in America. The sole incident was a 1991 stabbing in Brooklyn after a Jewish man hit and killed a black child in a car crash. Can you enlighten us about your "perps?" Or is this just *your* prejudices talking?
6
https://vimeo.com/237489146
In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York's Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism - an event largely forgotten from American history.
The link above: A Field of Vision - A Night at the Garden directed by Marshall Curry
4
Please look into how the private schools are contributing to the problem. Look into the summer camps run by the Quakers. It's time to start realizing that anti-semitic propaganda is being fed to younger and younger children, following the successful model of indoctrination of children in the Middle East to hate Jews. Just look at Malala's book, she notes easily that they are taught to hate Jewish people. That has come to the US. Check out the Newton schools. It's all over and now it's time to put the pieces together so an effective pushback is made.
What about hate taught by other faith leaders?
What about Pence attending a Jews for Jesus service in Pittsburgh?
And, by the way, this should not be limited to hate towards just Jewish people. All religions, races, sexual orientation...This villifying of others really needs to stop. People need to learn to enjoy their own lives.
10
Thank you for airing this problem. What is ignored, and hardly limited to NY, is the growing hatred of Jews because of Israel. How many "thoughtful" politicians across the world have blamed an uptick in anti-Semitism due to the Jewish state? However, the Jewish state is now synonymous with Jews, period. Hatred of Israel, and pretend concern for Palestinians, is the more "respected" kind of anti-Semitism, but no less lethal. Criticism of Israel is considered sacred, yet so is the refusal of these same critics to condemn Palestinian (really, Islamic) terrorism against Jews. Ask any such terrorist whom he hates, and he/she will tell you: Jews. They don't differentiate between Israel or Jews.
Seldom do I read an intelligent criticism of Israel that also acknowledges the threats it faces, the horrific anti-Semitism prevalent amongst inculcated, young Palestinians.
Call this far leftist, or rightist, it's hatred and violence, and the easy acceptance of rejecting Israel on campuses today fuels the concept that Jews are legitimate targets. Even Jewish apologists who are "ashamed" of the Jewish state, on any level, many who comment in this online paper, add fuel to the fire. They become part of the problem, and their more visible Jewish brethren take the rap.
82
@Rosalie Lieberman
There no Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement against China for occupying Tibet. Or against dozens of other countries that for reasons good (defensive) or bad (aggessive) occupy disputed territory on their boundaries.
That proves this commenter's point, with the difference that the Tibetans are not terrorists and have never attacked China or Chinese people.
44
@Jonathan Katz
Thanks Jonathan. How many people concern themselves with Tibet? The silence is deafening.
Ditto with occupied Western Sahara. One Kennedy has worked to publicize this. Otherwise, nobody has a clue where it is, never mind what it is.
7
@Rosalie Lieberman
Did the killer in Pittsburgh mention Israel? Did the Neo Nazis in Charlottesville mention Israel?
Anti-Zionism is not synonymous with hatred of Jews. You are incorrect, likely intentionally so as to muddy the waters of anti-Israel activism.
9
First - I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your article.
Second - Because so many are silent when NY Jews are victims, this feeling of being grateful also stings.
You write that none of the apprehended perpetrators are from white supremacist groups, but offer no information as to any common denominators?
Is there really nothing they share?
In much of Europe it is not safe for Jews who are easily identifiable. A man wearing a yarmulke, a Hasidic Jew in traditional garb, a school girl in the uniform of her Jewish school - have all been victims of both Muslim immigrants and Neo Nazis.
But who is assaulting New York Jews?
Surely there must be some clues.
And you’re right - when these attacks occur, there is silence from “progressives” and the “intersectional” left. Apparently, those intersections exclude Jews and especially anyone who supports Israel.
It will be a tragic day, when Jews in New York aren’t safe.
Perhaps that day is already here.
66
Due to a Germanic or Jewish sounding name, I've gotten few overt anti-Hebrew slurs but constant anti-Semitic coded ones from Gentile and Jew alike, from of course different agendas. Growing up in LONGUYLAND as the natives opine in a Jewish enclave it was Why is your first name Christian & your last name Jewish? The answer was cause I was raised Protestant. And then Of course The Army where my drill Sergeant made a point of telling me WWII was fought to save my people from the Holocaust? Which brings to mind the holocaust deniers. I unlike some Israelis listen to and enjoy Strauss & Wagner but I will never forgive Germany even though I love their cars. I have a Jewish pride and paranoia, as former evangelical Christian.
4
"The root of anti-Semitism among Negroes is, ironically, the relationship of colored peoples--all over the globe--to the Christian world."
-Baldwin
1
Anti-Semitism does not issue from a single, simple cause, and this piece does a fine job of suggesting its complexity. Certainly Trump has emboldened anti-Semitic white nationalists in the U.S., though their attacks predate his presidency, too. There also is meaningful demonization of Jews within the Muslim world--e.g., see remarks about Jews made by the president of Malaysia--and the sentiment has contributed to attacks on Jews in Europe, though, of course, there are the familiar European nationalist anti-Semites, too. And in urban areas like New York there are tensions between different ethnic groups, as the James Baldwin observation corroborates. One thing that is clear is that Orthodox Jews in New York look like easy targets to some. While there are no simple answers to the problem of anti-Semitism, the NYT provides a real service when it shows that the problem does not fit neatly into prevalent political rubrics.
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@A Thanks for your comments. The majority of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city involve vandalism -- the spraying of swastikas etc. But physical assaults almost always happen to those whose dress marks them as obviously ultra-Orthodox. And the ultra-Orthodox community lives at such a remove from mainstream New York that when these attacks happen they are not processed by ordinary liberals as anti Semitism.
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New? The Crown Heights riots got Giuliani elected. "Hymietown"--Jesse jackson 1984. Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam and a notorious anti-Semite. No, not new.
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I have lived here my whole life. I never understood why this city was considered much of anything good. Obviously there are many decent things about it. And many decent people. But wealth, greed, power laced with all forms of bigotry seems to be the driving force in the city.
8
Is it safe for anybody anywhere, is really the question. One day it kids at school, the next day it’s people in a church, then it’s gays in a bar, then it’s Jews in a synagogue, then it’s blacks at a grocery, then it’s blacks in a church. Then it’s party goers at an outdoor festival. Who and where is it safe!?
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@Frea
Better off moving to the woods, or Australia.
People in Brooklyn's orthodox communities who are attacked with some regularity (hence self-defense civilian patrols such as the Shomrim) aren't especially worried about attacks from white supremacists or neo-Nazi nut jobs. And most of these incidents are never reported. The antisemitism arising out of communal discord (or at least separation) is the cause in most cases of bias attacks in New York City. This is obvious to anyone living in these communities, but perhaps not to those living in the more rarefied precincts of New York or the rest of the country.
Of course, this reality doesn't lessen the threat posed by Bowers and his ilk. More intense monitoring of the online swamps of conspiratorial and hate is essential. An assault rifle can do a lot more damage than a punch in the face.
11
Gee, is it safe to be Jewish or any other minority in any place BUT New York?
4
From the moment that the Nazis marched in Charlottesville yelling “ Jews will not replace us“ and the president, rather than condemning that action, spoke of “good people on both sides,” it was clear that we were entering a new era, where hatred of others was tolerated at the highest level of our government. My view is that Jews and other minorities are not safe in New York or anywhere else, and that the lack of leadership at the top, that means you Mr Trump, facilitated and enabled these evil people by failing to call them out. Until Mr Trump does that by his actions, his mere reading of a statement written for him by someone else pales in comparison to his ongoing decisiveness and rabblerousing, Of course Jews and other mibirities will feel less safe. That such an article as this was written at all, shows where are now. The question is how to remedy this situation. Voting next week is a start. People who normalize Nazi behavior should not be active in our government. Period. Please vote. A robust rejection of extreme right wing lunacy is crucial now. Please don’t let the 11 innocent people’s death be in vain.
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@Meryl g There were anti-Semitic attacks under Obama as well. As much as I want a better leader than the current one, anti-Semitic attacks did not start under his administration. A rejection of left wing lunacy is also vital.
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@New York. Agreed, but this president has had no difficulty calling out Antifa, has he? At Charlottesville, he equated the two when the neo Nazis were in fact responsible for the death of a young woman. You need never worry that he will falter on calling out the far left, or even the moderate left.
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Remember that there is an ethnic component to this because Jews are not white, as any white nationalist will tell you, we are ethnically middle eastern
3
@Rudi Weinberg
For all intents and purposes, Natalie Portman and Jerry Seinfeld are white. The racial dichotomy in the USA is oriented around white and black and in that sense, for most people, Jews are white.
8
Is it safe for children?
Is it safe for people of color?
Is it safe
How can the NYT write about Anti-Semitic attacks in NYC without referencing the Crown Heights riots and Freddy Fashion Mart massacre? These events were probably the worst Anti-Semitic incidents in NYC history, or at least in the last 100 years.
Two facts about these events: lives were lost in each, and both were at least in part incited by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has a documented history of Anti-Semitic rhetoric. Yet, he is considered a "Civil Rights Leader" and not a dangerous racist, the latter of which is the more factually accurate description, given the body counts from the Crown Heights and Freddy Fashion Mart hate crimes.
Until Liberals (and the NYT) acknowledge that vile Anti-Semitic (and outright racial) poison is exuded wholesale by some of their so-called allies' in their words and actions, the Trumpists can fairly call them out as hypocrites and purveyors of "Fake News".
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@Barry
Rev Al?
When was the last time the N.Y. Times ran an op-ed piece by him or wrote a positive news article about him?
The Crown Heights' riots were nearly 30 years ago and Al Sharpton has been marginalized ever since.
I'm not giving the Rev Al a pass - but if he's supposedly the left's poster boy for anti-Semitism, I would say we're all pretty safe.
5
@Mike Edwards
Marginalized? Not when President Obama sees fit to send Sharpton to Ferguson Missouri to act as the White House's rep in the face of riots arising from the Michael Brown shooting.
And Keith Ellison is a big Farrakhan man, yet he is Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party.
The left has a huge blind spot about all of this.
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@Mike Edwards: Speak for yourself, Mike. And don't forget Farrakhan in Philly.
5
So is it safe to be Jewish in NYC? Impossible to say. Seemingly the more identifiably Jewish the greater the risk. However I would feel far more secure wearing a visible Star of David in NYC than in any Euoropean capital city. And in Asia it would be a total non issue. Strange.
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@Milton Lewis The fact that it is a non-issue in Asia suggests to me hatred of Jews is to a large degree tied to Christianity, to Christianity in its nascent days. For Muslims, it is more recent, with the creation of Israel. Since anti-Jews has been so long entrenched, it has taken on additional reasons to hate Jews; for example, their knack for intellectual achievement. That would be envy. Jews have been both looked down on and resented for success.
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@Ellen Balfour Does envy lead to hatred?
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@Milton Lewis My guess is envy is a component. Hatred of Jews has existed for so long, that it becomes automatic.
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I grew up in Canarsie (one of the many many Brooklyn neighborhoods that no one talks or cares about) during the 70s-90s. Being a Jew in a predominantly Italian neighborhood wasn’t always pleasant. I was chased home a lot and recall thugs tossing pennies at my aunt, mom and me as we walked down Avenue L. NYC was always rough on Jews ... it’s just more widely reported.
Also, while I loathe 45, I won’t pin an uptick in anti semitism to him - it’s always been there both implicitly and explicitly.
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@Jay I, an American Jew, grew up on the border of Bensonhurst and Borough Park in the 60's and 70's, when the neighborhood was becoming increasingly Italian Catholic. We didn't have those problems. My best friends were Italian!!!
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I am saddened and outraged by this story. I often don't understand how the human heart can hold so much hate. Violent language and behavior has no place in our society and it's so easy to see that the world would be a better place for everyone without it.
Still, I feel I must point out that the section of the article comparing hate crimes against Jews to hate crimes against other frequently targeted groups is misleading. Although it may be the case that hate crimes against Jews constituted half of all hate crimes in NY this year, we have absolutely no way to verify this. All that we do know is that *reported* hate crimes against Jews constituted half of all *reported* hate crimes. There are reasons to believe that Jews may have a higher or lower reporting rate than other targeted groups, this I do not know. I'm not sure that this kind of analysis comparing targeted groups is ever productive, but if we're going to do it, let's do so in a way that is not plainly misleading.
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@B Many of these hate crimes involve the scrawling of swastikas on buildings and signs etc. Often they are reported by the first people who see them. You don't have to be Jewish to be offended by the appearance of a swastika in your neighborhood. We have no idea who reports these things, or whether, as you suggest, Jews have a higher propensity to report hate crimes than other groups.
4
The huge embracing Jewish population that once made New York famous are essentially not there anymore! They have been replaced by a Jewry that is in many respects insular and highly visible! i.e. Syrian Jews, Orthodox, and the increasingly multiplying ultra Orthodox Hasids, of various sects! This has magnified the sense of the other, and the idiots out there don't like the other! This all hasn't been helped by the inflammatory language offered by the current President of The United States!!!
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This welcome article makes it clear that for left-leaning New Yorkers, antisemitism is an issue worth addressing only when the perpetrators of antisemitism fit their narrative. If a Nazi or white supremacist does it -- take note and take action. If the perpetrator is less convenient to the Narrative (evil can only emanate from straight white males), like if the perpetrator is black or Muslim, then they play it down and ignore it, if it's even covered in the liberal media at all. If liberals truly cared about anti-Jewish radicalism, they would be focused not just on the truly evil American white supremacists, but also on how Jews are demonized in mainstream Arab and Muslim culture and media around the world.
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@Naysayer I am not sure the two are mutually exclusive
Is this article not an attempt at baseless fear-mongering? There are isolated incidents, everywhere, where someone is targeted for harassment or attack based on their ethnicity, gender, faith, sexual orientation, choice of clothing, driving style...you name it. But such attacks are the rarity, thankfully, not the norm.
Where do you run? Where do you hide? Chicago, the exurbs, Paris, Tel Aviv? Are you more or entirely safe anywhere. No.
5
The essence of anti-Semitism is envy. Jews are the most successful religious group in the US. Those who are less successful buy into the myth that if Jews are wealthier they must have achieved that wealth through unethical or nefarious means.
From Shylock to Wall Street, Jews have been portrayed as greedy and secretly in control of finance and government. It's time to recognize that wealth is created by intelligence and hard work.
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@J. Waddell I don't think that's right. My grandparents suffered plenty of envy in their shtetl in the Ukraine, and I doubt that anybody envied their lives.
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@J. Waddell
.....or inheritance, which has nothing to do with either intelligence nor hard work
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@J. Waddell - While that may be true in a few cases, I believe that overall it is a simplistic and inaccurate understanding of anti-Semitism.
6
Trump loves to claim that he is immune to charges of anti-Semitism because of his Jewish son-in-law and Jewish daughter- but he refuses to denounce his supporters who call Jared an insect far beneath Ivanka's station in fake news venues like Trump's beloved Breitbart - and he claimed that there are "many fine people" in the neo-Nazis organization. Trump is no friend of the Jews.
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@common sense advocate Trumps daddy was arrested by the NYPD in 1927 at a Klan rally in Neuva yorke. And he liked his son in laws unethical ways, period.
2
@common sense advocate - But some Jews believe that he is. In a local newspaper story about the Jewish community here in Pittsburgh following Saturday's shooting, one woman Jewish woman is quoted as saying she thinks he's good for Jews because he's good for Israel. She proclaimed in the article that she "adores" him.
1
It took awhile for the Times to address this topic, and it's heartening to see this article now. I think there is a prevailing attitude that Jews are fine, the victims are other groups. Now we see that isn't quite so. Please keep reporting on this.
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It has never been safe to be a Jew, anywhere. Any reader of history will agree with that.
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Jewish people might be surprised at the amount of outrage Christians feel when a Synagogue is vandalized or worshipers are assaulted. If the individuals perpetrating these acts can't be tolerant, then they need to be cut out like a cancer and separated from decent people, preferably for a long time in a prison, not a jail. It wouldn't be a bad idea if these kind of offenses are the exception to the hide any criminal history laws that are emerging, if for no other reason then protection of employees.
3
I certainly did not feel safe as a Jew when I lived in New York (1996-2014), in part because of NYC's rampant self-segregation: people are entirely uninterested in any culture other than their own, yet are convinced that they know all about it.
3
It's the Anti-Defamation League, not The American-Defamation League, that's because its exist to prevent the defamation of Jewish Americans, rather than to advance the defamation of America.
3
Throughout WW2, as we were fighting Nazis, my parents, brother, and I lived in a very nice large apartment in Kew Gardens, Queens. It had a large courtyard with a fountain, and within which people parked their cars.
It was gated and the gates were attached to pillars. My mother later told me that there was a bronze plaque attached to one of the pillars. It read: "Gentiles Only".
In the 1970's I visited this apartment building. I could see where the plaque used to be, but I wonder when it was removed.
By the way, all three of my mother's brothers fought in Europe. One was KIA, the other two were WIA.
12
I love James Baldwin but I am not sure how germane his long ago references to slumlords are today. I would like to see a more systematic anaysis. Of course, if unscrupulous and exploitive slumlords are still an issue, and if my fellow Jews are overrepresented among these criminals, shame on them and on a society that permits this.
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@arp I felt that the James Baldwin quote was very relevant to what is happening in some of NYC's gentrifying neighborhoods today, where black families are being displaced and landlords who in many cases come from the ultra-Orthodox community are meeting a lot of resistance. Recently, in one of these neighborhoods, an ultra-Orthodox man was attacked by someone who used anti-Semitic slurs and screamed something along the lines of, "Jews stole my home."
1
Please indicate whether the 20-fold figure regarding hate crimes was normalized for population. More than 10% of New Yorkers are Jewish, while trans populations are typically only one percent of a given population. I'm also surprised you didn't mention the shooting in a Hasidic synagogue by a black man that took place in Brooklyn several years ago. The rest of the world may not remember, but they surely do.
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@Linnea technically, it shouldn’t make a difference. The Jews and transgendered people are the targets, not the attackers, so the question is more “how many people have decided to attack group a vs group b” which has nothing to do with the number of people each in group a or group b.
If the question was “which group has had more victims of violence per capita” then your point would be very important, but it isn’t- it’s about which group has attracted more violence by a (here unquantified) generic group c.
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@Eleanor Yes; precisely.
My passport will be expiring soon, and I haven't been planning on renewing it, but I look around me and say, what could it hurt?
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I don't think it has been safe to be a Jew anywhere for some time now. I am always conscious and mindful of my surroundings at all times. This is, unfortunately, the world we live in.
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is it safe to be black in NY? Is it safe to be any minority in NY??
3
Statistics are a funny thing. The article mentions that hate crimes against Jews were 20 times the crimes against transgender people. That begs the question; what is the Jewish population versus the transgender population. It also is a good bet that a higher percentage of Jews report the crimes. It’s all horrific.
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Attack on one of us is an attack on us all. Everyone in America should feel this way. Any 'anti-' (Jewish, Black, gay, trans, Asian, etc) attacks are an affront to all of our freedoms.
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Sure, it’s safe to be a Jew in New York. As long as you blend in. This is not a luxury that Orthodox practitioners are generally afforded.
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Thanks to the author for pointing out the obvious, but what many people do not understand; NYC and other major cities are not bastions of Trumpism, so to blame Trump for the rampant antisemitism in these places is absurd. You cannot be a true warrior for justice if the only justice you seek is for people that fit into your mold.
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When we are unbalanced in our response to hate crimes against various groups, we perpetuate the differences that drive us apart. Perhaps Orthodox religious groups would be more open to the broader community if they felt welcomed by it. Real change takes time and many will resist but it’s the only path to peace. Don’t let your friendly smile be quashed by the occasional frown, just keep on smiling and it will be reciprocated.
1
Years ago on Saturday mornings, my elderly father would stand on his suburban driveway where he’d lived for 40 years and say hello or good shabbos to the Orthodox throngs passing by on their way to shul. After 15-20 minutes he’d come back inside with a headcount of how many returned the greeting. It was never more than two or three people, and never children, which particularly disturbed him. What goes around comes around.
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@Julie Zuckman’s So the failure of a group of Jews on their way to shul to speak with your elderly father comes back as hate crime? This seems to me a strange suggestion indeed unless you are straining for a way to blame victims.
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@Julie Zuckman’s
"What goes around comes around."
??
(Are you secretly Brett Kavanaugh?)
7
Of course it's safe to be Jewish - or of any or no faith - in New York and in every part of OUR United States of America.
OUR United States Constitution includes Separation of Church and State which protects people from persecution for practicing their faith - in their homes and place of worship.
It protects all of us from religious interference in OUR lives and beliefs, including not worshiping at all.
A few radical Robber Barons who profess to be "christians" are trying to usurp Separation of Church and State through OUR
governments at all levels and OUR U. S. Supreme Court.
WE THE PEOPLE must join forces to stop them just as Good People came together to show support in Pittsburgh.
WE do not want the Robber Baron supposed "christian" vision for OUR country/world.
Not now. Not ever.
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@njglea How do YOU propose to STOP the powerful who control EVERYTHING?
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@njglea: The anti-Semitism written about is as much racial as religious. "Blood and Soil" is a racist slogan. But regardless of the motivation, the failure to pinpoint Blacks and Muslims as the main perpetrators is a glaring failure by the NYT.
1
Ms. Bellafante, the young rabbinical student attacked on Eastern Parkway may have been speaking Yiddish, not Hebrew. That would depend upon which Orthodox sect to which the student belonged, as many use Yiddish as their daily language.
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@Famdoc And what difference would that have made?
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@Famdoc honestly, what language he was speaking was probably entirely irrelevant. I’m sure his appearance alone was enough to paint a target on his back.
4
I am deeply saddened and outraged by the expressions of anti-Semitism in New York and around the country. Thank you, Ms. Bellafante, for helping to shine a light on this urgent matter. But I do want to comment on your characterization of New York City as a bastion of liberalism and tolerance. I am a native New Yorker, a U.S. history teacher, and I teach a seminar on race relations in America, and I am positing that such a characterization has never been true of New York City at any point in its long history. Just the opposite. From the Civil War draft riots, to the Crown Heights riots, to the many shootings of unarmed black men by the very people tasked to protect them, to the stabbing of MLK, to setting the standard for red lining and other exclusionary practices, to exalting the very worst people in our country (we gave rise to Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump, to name a few), New York has historically been precisely the kind of place that this cancer can metastasize. Again, I am outraged by the rise in anti-Semitism but as the country abandons it's principals of decency more and more each day, and these incidents become more and more commonplace, it does not surprise me in the least that they are popping up in New York City.
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@Belzoni Bellafante writes that New York “imagines itself” a “capital” of tolerance etc. She does *not* “characterize” (your word, Belzoni) the city as a “bastion” (Belzoni again) of anything. I take your point, Belzoni. It’s an excellent one. But I wish you hadn’t misrepresented Bellafante to make it. Careful reading is one of the historian’s most important tools.
6
In the 1920s my uncle changed the family surname (from Burstein) because he was having difficulty finding employment in NYC. I grew up in Palo Alto in the 1950s where almost everybody was from somewhere else, and ethnic or religious background never seemed to matter a bit. If the gist of this article is true it is very sad and unsettling. But to me who has lived the bulk of a long lifetime on the West Coast it feels more like a regional problem of the East. Though I am an ethnic Jew, I can hardly recall an instance where anyone here cared.
7
Having recently moved back east after two years in Silicon Valley I noticed that out there the overwhelming vibe was multiethnic Asian. Public schools are open on all Jewish holidays and on Good Friday but everyone learns about Diwali and Chinese New Year. No African Americans or Hispanics. As a fairly observant Jew I always felt invisible. I stood out only as a white blonde mature woman. No hostility and no kosher restaurants and crummy pizza.
Now back east there are other ethnicities. And no invisibility.
1
The fundamental cause of any type of hatred toward any particular group is the misguided belief that any pain or shortcomings a person feels are somehow caused by this other person's group/tribe.
And people aren't born to feel this way. It is taught. In the absence of teaching children to love thy neighbor, somewhere along the way they are taught that their problems are because of thy neighbor.
The only way to eliminate hate is through early and constant teaching by family, extended family, community that hate of thy neighbor is not the answer. Rather quite the opposite.
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@Full Name Amen.
1
Donald Trump has amplified hate and given it his stamp of approval. He's a disgrace.
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@Walter,
Antisemitic attacks have gone up 57% in 2016 through 2017. There is no way else to explain it than the Trump affect.
2
I think that isolated incidents shouldn't be mistaken for a trend. Having said that, there is a trend toward violence by radicalized individuals or domestic terrorists, as evidenced by the continuation of attacks on schools, places of worship and other "soft" targets. Whether specifically against Jews or to intimidate anyone who wants to maintain a religious practice, it is clearly on the rise. Some of it appears to be a byproduct of the Trump administration, since over the course of the past few years many demonstrations and social media posts involved inflammatory statements regarding political issues, Muslim immigrants, and fear of disenfranchisement. The school shootings are clearly NOT a result of the Trump administration, as they have been occurring with alarming frequency since Columbine. The antidote for violence and hatred isn't laws and renunciation - we already have laws to deter violence and discrimination - it's a process whereby individuals consciously promote peace and unity.
3
@aberta We do not have adequate gun-control laws, not by a long shot. Instead we have a perverted reading of the 2nd Amendment.
5
What "prevailing assumptions"? Anyone can tell you that graffiti targeting Jews and violent attacks against Jews top the charts. Gay people, Asians -- they get their share, of course, but Jews are still the main victims.
And in New York City, the perpetrators tend not to be white nationalists.
90
@B. who then?
1
@B. I'm not sure where these statistics come from. This is the first I've heard that there is a significant increase in crimes against Jews in NYC. Here in Upstate we don't see anything remotely resembling the prevalence reported in this article, and we have a lot of Jews and Jewish places of worship, Jewish owned businesses, etc. I would like the author of this article to reveal the source of these stats.
1
@aberta
You can always consult the Southern Poverty Law Center.
8