Anti-Semitism in a new era gets personal

“It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country … and something has to be done.  …. There must be no tolerance for anti-Semitism in America.”

– President Donald Trump, after the deadly shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“I think this is just a moment in our country when hatred and bigotry are more tolerated. People will say things in public that they wouldn’t have dreamed of saying years ago.”

– Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor of The New York Times, and author of “(((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump.”

BY LARRY KESSLER

Anti-Semitism has always been around in our country, and it probably always will be; it just didn’t always carry with it deadly consequences for those exercising their First Amendment right to pray as they see fit.

Until now, that is, when in this age of lunatics amassing huge caches of weapons, a mad man and hard-core neo Nazi/anti-Semite burst into a Sabbath service that ironically included the quintessential welcoming-of-a-new-life into this world ceremony, a bris, and gunned down 11 people and wounded six others.

That anti-Semitism escalated to such a heightened level of violence thankfully remains shocking in the United States, but make no mistake: anti-Semitism has thrived here for decades.

It was here in the 1930s, when Father Charles E. Coughlin, an American Catholic priest, used his radio show to foment hatred of Jews.

It was here before we entered World War II, when, even after the Germans began their blitzkrieg across Europe, Charles Lindbergh used anti-Semitism as fuel for his Isolationist policies and friendly overtures to Nazi Germany.

It was here after World War II, when despite 6 million Jews being slaughtered as part of the Nazis’ Final Solution, Jews were told they weren’t welcome at country clubs and at other mainstream American institutions.

It was most definitely here in 1953, when my father, a combat Navy World War II veteran, where he served as a radioman on a destroyer escort, had just moved to Boston with his young family and tried to find a job in his craft.

An experienced Linotype operator with the Philadelphia Inquirer, he applied to The Boston Globe, and was denied consideration for a job because of who he was. That’s right: Even though there weren’t any “No Jews Need Apply” signs outside of the Globe 65 years ago, there was no prohibition against prospective employers asking the religion of their applicants. He was told that the paper didn’t hire Jews. It all worked out for the best, as the Hearst Corp. hired him, and Ike went on to a 30-year career at the Boston Record-American before retiring several years after the paper became the Boston Herald.

A subtler form of anti-Semitism has affected me, too – whether it is overhearing people at parties talking nonchalantly about the Jewish conspiracy or making other wisecracks promoting stereotypes associated with Jews.

It stung me when people, upon finding out that I was Jewish, would say “you’re not like all the others,” to which I would promptly snap, “Oh, sorry, I left my horns at home today.”

But while the hatred directed at Jews has always been a part of society, its recent deadly incarnation at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh has escalated it to a frightening level.

The timing of the attack was somewhat ironic as the day before, I interviewed Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor of The New York Times, about his new book, “(((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump.”

Weisman, who will be among the presenters at the Nov. 17 Evening of Jewish Renaissance organized by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, said his book deals with, among other issues, the rise of anti-Semitism, especially online, by the alt-right and neo-Nazis. He discovered just how bad the situation had become when he found himself, while reporting on the 2016 campaign, being marked on the Web as a Jewish journalist with the use of the three opening and closing parentheses bracketing his name. Once a journalist is tagged like that, “you get an avalanche” of hate tweets and email, he said.

The rapid spread of anti-Semitism on social media is an especially powerful source of bigotry as the suspect in the Pittsburgh massacre, Robert D. Bowers, 46, had posted a slew of anti-Semitic slurs on web sites favored by neo Nazis.

That’s disturbing for Jews, who can be excused if they bring fear along with them to Sabbath and holiday services. Years ago, High Holy Day services I attended carried with them elevated security measures, including the presence of a police officer at the front door. Those measures will now, of course, only increase, but at what cost – financially and psychologically?

The problem seems daunting, but one solution that Weisman mentioned in my interview bears repeating: building coalitions with other minorities under siege. 

Above all, we as Americans – from the president down to the voters – must be put on notice to pay more than lip service to words such as “civility,” “respect” and “tolerance.”

If we ignore that warning, we face years of hatred ripping us apart.

LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He can be reached at lkessler1@comcast.net.