Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 19, 2019

Sadly, attacks on Jews in the New York City area are an all too common occurrence frequent enough that Mayor Bill de Blasio appears to try to obfuscate and avoid addressing the incidents.

Just take the instance of a Jewish woman, Lihi Aharon, assaulted on a New York subway train on Dec. 17 by a woman spewing anti-Semitic vitriol.

In addition to De Blasios head-in-the-sand approach, certain parties when the perpetrators of raw anti-Semitic violence arent clear-cut white supremacists also try to obfuscate, dissemble and even excuse the hatred.

J Street Rabbi Jill Jacobs recently asserted that when the violence is directed at Jews by African Americans, then its not based on anti-Semitism, and that it likely relates to long-term tensions.

The New Yorker magazine ran a story with the headline Untangling the Hate at the Heart of the Mass Shooting in Jersey City, in which the reporter discussed the local residents of the neighborhood in Jersey City, N.J., chafing at the impact insular Hasidic Jews had on the local real estate market. Notably, this story didnt contain any reporting on the virulent anti-Semitic comments that were recorded on a video on which some local residents were heard to say that the Jews deserved to be shot and didnt belong in their neighborhood. Has any national mainstream media outlet run a story about that gross display of anti-Semitism?

Can anyone imagine Jacobs or the New Yorker waxing philosophical on what caused a group of white Christians to physically attack Jews or for other white Christians to say in front of the dead Jewish bodies still waiting to be taken to the morgue that the dead Jews deserved to be shot and didnt belong in their white neighborhood?

Can anyone imagine any attempt to untangle the motives of any white Christian killers who posted blatantly anti-Semitic screeds about Jews before they attacked a Jewish school or market? Or trying to rationalize why white Christians in the neighborhood where the attack took place could loudly and without shame speak of Jews as an other that doesnt belong in their neighborhood and deserves to be shot?

There is nothing here to untangle. This is the same anti-Semitism, whether the anti-Semite is a white supremacist, black supremacist or Islamist supremacist. Their hatred is the same. Even much of their rhetoric and crazy conspiracy theories about Jews are the same. It is why, if you are reading their statements about Jews, it is often difficult to tell the difference between far-right former politician and Ku Klux Grand Wizard David Duke and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Which brings me back to the subway assault and the video posted by the brave victim, Lihi Aharon, who reportedly immigrated from Israel in 2013. When you watch the video which you should note how much of the vile rhetoric repeated by her attacker comes straight from the Farrakhan playbook. It is also the same mendacious bull spouted by the Black Hebrew Israelite killers who attacked the Jersey City kosher supermarket.

The Jill Jacobses and New Yorker magazines of the world have no problem recognizing that vile white supremacist ideology and rhetoric motivated and incited the attacks on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh or the Chabad of Poway in San Diego County. But when it comes to attacks against Jews by other types of supremacists, then suddenly it is a complicated issue that needs to be untangled.

Enough. Jewish lives matter. No matter who tries to attack or kill us for being Jewish. And the motivation for the attacks on us are just as straightforward, as is the cause. Its virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and hate promoted by hate-mongers such as Duke, Farrakhan and many of their intentional and unintentional allies and enablers (such as Ilhan Omar [D-Minn.]; activists and former Womens March organizers Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory; Jewish Voice for Peace; and Students for Justice in Palestine with their libelous and inflammatory deadly exchange program that falsely blames police shootings of African Americans on Jews in Israel and many others).

Kudos again to Lihi Aharon for standing up to the anti-Semite on the train. And shame on all of the people who just watched this bigot harass and attack Jews and did nothing.

Let us remember: What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander. Elie Wiesel

Micha Danzigis a practicing attorney in San Diego andan advisory board member and local chairperson for StandWithUs.

Go here to see the original:

The Skin Tone of Jew-Haters Should Be Irrelevant - Jewish Journal

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