To all the Jews in our Country...Including Me..

[busterbrown]

It's time to recognize that the huge uptick in Anti- Semitic attacks is a direct result of Trump's basic hate campaign against minorities in the U.S. Although he has not attacked Jews directly.. It his basic political agenda to drive citizen against citizen based on hate. I'm just hoping that on Election day my fellow Jewish voters understand that its of the utmost importance that we unify our vote against Trump in 2020....

Even though all anti-trump votes are extremely important...In my mind if Florida turns Blue on Election Day..It would be good bet that he'll lose the overall election.. Of course there are many other variables on my subject matter..... Any comments?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stabbing-attack-hasidic-rabbis-home_n_5e082acae4b0b2520d165ed1

[madville]

1. I was reading today about the history of violence

Between the black and Jewish residents in these Brooklyn neighborhoods going back decades. Hopefully the attacks over the last week don’t spur any retaliation or escalation.

[Thunderbeast]

2. In my 67 years living as a grandson of Jewish immigrants...

I have never dreamed that Krystalnacht rampages would become common in my own country. How naive of me to think that we were "beyond bigotry", or getting closer to it.

How dangerous will it be to have a Jewish name? Will I need to consider a country where I might be welcome?

How very sad.

It is not just Trump I blame. I blame the 63 million enablers who looked the other way when a racist anti-semite stole an election.

Decades ago, Milton Mayer laid out how simple it was to turn weak minds to hate in "They Thought They Were Free"; A chronicle of pre-war Nazi Germany.

It was WAY TOO EASY!

[busterbrown]

3. I think Trump could stop the attacks...

with a simple statement... Any supporter of mine who commits a physical act upon another person based on religion, color, or political belief should understand that I am not their president and that I will make sure that the bigoted attackers will feel the pain of our stringent laws to the highest level possible ...

Thats all... But yep I know... Trump would never try to diffuse these type of attacks.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stabbing-attack-hasidic-rabbis-home_n_5e082acae4b0b2520d165ed1

[11cents]

4. I'm just so disheartened by reactions like this here.

Do you think the suspect in yesterday's attack was a Trump supporter? The perpetrators of the Jersey City attack? The perpetrators of the attacks on Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn that have been going on for months?

The rush to pin all antisemitic attacks on the Trump right, no matter how vaporous the connection, is an evasion of responsibility. Antisemitism is a 2,000-year-old disease of the Christian west. No one is immune on account of race, and certainly not on account of ideology. It long predates our left/right categories, as well as our notions of race -- and has been a phenomenon on the left as well as the right since the 19th century.

[busterbrown]

5. I specifically did not say "all" antisemitic attacks"!

I have no idea where that came from.. Plenty of room for discussion of Trump's disgusting effort to divide our country. No purpose to discuss all of them in this response.. But I will tell you that he has raised the collective temperature of the hate in this country.. If you can not agree with this... then so be it... But I'll tell you that completely misinterpreted my intention.

I really do not understand your interpretation..

"2000 year old disease of the Christian West?' Are you stating that ant-semitism's origin began in the West? Perhaps I'm missing some thing


https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/education-outreach/Brief-History-on-Anti-Semitism-A.pdf

[11cents]

7. You said Trump could stop "the attacks"

...with a statement to his supporters. This topic begins with a reference to yesterday's attack; it's hardly an obvious reading that by "the attacks" you meant other attacks but not that one.

Of course I agree that Trump has generated and exploited racial/ethnic hate, including antisemitism. He'll use the recent attacks to ramp up hostility between blacks and Jews, two Democratic constituencies. But as I said, automatically attributing every antisemitic attack to him, or to the right, is simply obtuse and is NOT -- in my view and many others -- a supportive or reassuring gesture for Jews. It implies that our lives and dignity matter when politically useful.

I'm sorry if I was too harsh in my previous post, but if you think there's something you're missing, I recommend the book "Anti-Judaism" by David Nirenberg. It traces the role Jews and Judaism played in the origins of Christian theology, and how those patterns and tropes morphed into European philosophy and political ideology in the modern era. That's what I mean by a 2000-year-old disease.

[abqtommy]

6. In my reading and travels I've learned that today, as in historical times, people tend to follow

the laws and attitudes presented to them by their leaders. For instance, I learned that the Jewish community in Prague thrived under the leadership of King Charles IV (born Wenceslaus) and
experienced prosperity until the 1700s when new national leadership turned on the Jewish community. (I feel that I must point out that during this period things didn't go very well for Christian Protestants there at all. We can study that later.)

When I was in Prague I visited the city, including the Jewish Quarter (Josefov). I viewed an exhibition
of art that was produced by children in the death camps of WWII. I also saw plagues that thanked the Czech military for assistance in the form of training and supplies of weapons that were provided to the new state of Israel.

We can contrast that experience with that of Hitler's Germany and tRUMPs America where the
nazis/fascists are again at work acting out their hate and attempting to normalize it. It's plain to me that a national leader sets the tone for the national attitude.

Yes, there's a long history of religious/ethnic/cultural bigotry that includes violence. Of course tRUMP didn't start it but he's not helping to end it, is he?

Oh yes, I just remembered...when I was in Prague in the early '90s I also saw a swastika spray-painted
on a wall in an alley near my hotel. That's why we can't have nice things....