When will American Jews stop voting for democrats?
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The biggest difference I see between antisemitism on the left and on the right is, the left is more organized and more openly vocal.
Both sides scare me, the left scares me more
It would help us on the right, if you could be more specific on why you are scared from antisemitism, especially from the right. Maybe its due to what city or state you live in?
It would be helpful to know, so we can do our best to put a stop to it. Would you be able to provide some examples, to help us understand?
November. The smarter ones that aren’t into mass foreign invasion, mass inflation and the increase in attacks on Jews in places like NYC, Chicago, and most recently UCLA.
It would help us on the right, if you could be more specific on why you are scared from antisemitism, especially from the right. Maybe its due to what city or state you live in?
It would be helpful to know, so we can do our best to put a stop to it. Would you be able to provide some examples, to help us understand?
But I'm sorry it's happening to you.
It's all part of the horseshoe theory. You go far enough to the right or to the left and it starts to look the same. Antisemitism in particular is part of many global extremist movements. We're a global diaspora of whom almost half live in Israel and only in a handful of cities - almost all in the US, France, or Argentina - do we make up more than a fraction of a percent. We make an easy target since we tend to punch above our weight due to our cultural and faith focus on education and finding success in many fields.
But more specifically from the right.
- Most violence in the US comes from right wing groups or individuals. See: Tree of Life, Overland Park, Holocaust Museum shooting, murder of Blaze Bernstein, Poway Synagogue shooting, Colleyville. My synagogue and JCC both receive threats that have been tied to white supremacist groups. While these attacks are more limited (thank G-d), a lot of the rhetoric on the right relates to Jewish support of left-wing causes.
- Many on the right believe that supporting Israel absolves them of actually supporting Jewish Americans. While there may be significant overlap, American Jews are not Israelis. Israel does not come before America. And to suggest otherwise is, news flash, antisemitic.
- Trump has a long history of antisemitism that is brushed away by the right using the human shield of Ivanka and Jared, or by simply trying to argue that blatant antisemitism isn't antisemitism. ://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-19/trump-says-jewish-democrats-hate-their-religion-and-israel?embedded-checkout=true
- Antisemitism on the right is promoted by more influential people. While of course I am concerned with what is happening on college campuses, what you see on TV now is representative of a small group of highly privileged people who are mostly driven by an understandable concern about what they're seeing out of Gaza but who are centering themselves in their activism. Now attention is all on these students, and money is being sent to support their legal bills, rather than keeping a focus on the humanitarian disaster happening in Gaza - they're profoundly unserious and lack any political savvy. On the right, however, you have a former president repeatedly invoking antisemitic tropes, Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk promoting great replacement theory, Candace Owens doubling down on her Jew hatred, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and her Jewish space lasers getting reelected.
And on a personal note, I grew up in a very conservative part of the country. We had rocks thrown through windows displaying a menorah during Chanukkah and a cross burned on my lawn when I was a child (and I'm only in my mid-30s). I lost a leadership position in my marching band because I had to miss 1 of 4 weekly rehearsals due to Yom Kippur. I was the only person who didn't get a job at a group interview (where I was the only bilingual person there) because I was asked where I went to church and I said my synagogue (obviously highly illegal, but I was 16 and already beaten down by the rampant antisemitism of my area so it didn't seem out of sorts). Parents of friends would spirit me off to church at sleepovers where they'd tell me my whole family would burn in hell unless we converted, and we'd have dueling churches showing up on our doorstep despite being told we weren't interested. That's to say nothing of the regular bullying that was ignored by school bus drivers, teachers, or other adults - like pennies being thrown at my brother and I, being called the K word, etc etc. Even worse - some of that bully came from the "trusted" adults. Those folks weren't voting D.
I was raised in the deep South. It's why I live in New England now - the rampant antisemitism I experienced from teachers, neighbors, and friends' parents made it really clear there was no future for me as a Jewish person in the region. Atlanta is, of course, different but I went to the same high school as Marjorie Taylor Greene and so the whole "Jewish space lasers" thing came as no shock.
And, mind you, MTG has been reelected. So much for being condemned.
Something I learned growing up in the deep South is that being pro-Israel does not mean that you are not antisemitic. A lot of people around me really loved Israel but really, strongly disliked Jews.
It depends on what your definition of anti-Semitism is. Is saying Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays considered anti-Semitic in your book? Here in my community that's a sign that someone is woke or liberal, you are much more likely to offend someone saying Happy Holidays than Merry Christmas. I personally go to a very conservative church (Facebook has tried to take the preacher down over posted videos where he preached against the gay lifestyle) and we have an Israeli flag in the church sanctuary. 90% of the people I know are very supportive of Israel, the remaining 10% are those who are not Christian yet conservative and just don't want American money sent to any country at all, they also oppose aid to Ukraine.
I'm sure those New England liberals don't consider you an oppressed minority the way they consider blacks, Muslims (hence the Hamas support), illegals and "darker" Hispanics as such.
I don't think that criticizing the Rothschilds or George Soros is inherently anti-Semitic, that is simply criticizing two people that happen to be Jewish. Just like I can hate Obama without being anti-black or even hate illegal aliens generally without being anti-Hispanic. I do think most American Jews see themselves as outsiders and side with who they consider opporessed which is why so many are liberal, especially outside the South and rural areas. In Israel, the Jews there see themselves as natives (which they are) and they understandably want to limit refugees and protect their borders.
Hamas terrorists and Iranian spies are entering across our southern border. Also bringing in more Muslim refugees means bringing in more anti-Semites.
Jews will stop voting for democrats when the GOP stops with its anti-semitic tropes. Jews may support Israel, but to think they support Israel right or wrong is to portray Jews as the other with dual loyalties.
I grew up in an area that was sort of an anomaly. It was a Jewish area in northern NJ that was conservative. At reunions it is often the topic of conversation. We figured it out a long time ago. In this county, all of the elderly Jews went to the same high school in Newark. When I was young, people in my parents and grandparents generation would always ask what year each other graduated, because they all came from the same high school. It was like an inside joke.
They loved talking about Newark, like it was some utopia or heaven on earth. When the unrest and riots happened, they were all forced to flee the city for what are now the suburbs. And most of them blamed that on liberal policies, so they were conservative and they raised their children with conservative values.
Since my childhood, the area has become overrun with New York transplants, who are seriously left wing. It’s funny, at parties you can almost perfectly predict the natives vs the transplants by their politics.
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