Jewish Americans are closely following the recent upsurge in antisemitic rhetoric and actions with a mix of anxiety and resolve — along with a yearning that a broader swath of Americans, including leaders across the political spectrum, speak out against anti-Jewish hatred.
New Yorker Rizy Horowitz, who runs a program in Brooklyn providing meals and activities for Holocaust survivors, says the widespread vitriol prompts her to ask: “When can I pack up my suitcase and run away?”
“It’s a very frightening moment. There is no other word,” said Horowitz. “We’re all frightened because we’ve seen the past and we don’t want to relive it.”
As for those spewing the hate, she says: “Have I done something? No. It’s just I’m a Jew.”
Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, located near the Tree of Life synagogue where 11 worshippers were killed in 2018 in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, said anxiety has intensified as anti-Jewish vitriol abounds on social media, embraced by some widely followed celebrities.
The rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, expressed love for Adolf Hitler in an interview. Former President Donald Trump hosted Ye and a Holocaust-denying white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago. Basketball star Kyrie Irving was suspended after posting a link to an antisemitic film
“The antisemitic cat is out of the bag,” said Adelson. “I don’t think it’s reached a place where we feel it’s time to go hide in the basement. But it certainly has increased everybody’s anxiety.”
“We feel it whenever we go in and out of buildings, because now we have security in a way that we didn’t before,” he said. “There are armed security guards at most, if not all, Jewish buildings and metal detectors and all of those things.”
“People who hate Jews want us to cower in fear,” he added. “What I hope for is that Jewish people will understand that the way to respond to antisemitism is to be loudly and proudly Jewish, to be proud of our traditions.”
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