Anti-Semitism: Then & Now

Leora Musheyev

Throughout the 1930’s, anti-Semitic ideologies were prevalent all over the world. 2,000 years of hatred towards the Jews led to the rise of Hitler and his ideas. Times were uncertain in Germany.  An economic recession and the burden of paying reparations for the War Guilt Clause wreaked havoc and allowed Hitler to gain power, promising employment and salvation from the instability in the Weimar Republic. He became the knight in shining armor.  Communists, Jews, politicians, etc. became the scapegoats and were blamed for all of Germany's woes.  In 1933, Hitler planned the first national action directed against the Jews - a boycott aimed at Jewish businesses and professionals. Additionally, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stated that Jews were not allowed to marry or have sexual relations with people of German descent. Jewish businesses were confiscated, looted and ransacked. Jews had their jobs ripped away from them, they were forbidden from being in public places and children were outlawed from attending school. Furthermore, Nazis in Germany burned down synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, and killed Jews randomly. 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Some Jews even had to pay reparations for the damage caused.

 

The case can be made that the anti-Semitism felt around the world parallels the anti-Semitism of 1930's Germany. Last year many communities  experienced anti-Semitic acts.  In Monsey, a man stormed into a Rabbi's house during a Chanukah celebration and stabbed five people with a machete; the Rabbi died from his injury in March. In Jersey City, killers stormed into a kosher supermarket and killed three people in the process, and in Poway, a gunman entered a synagogue during a Passover service and shot a woman and injured three others. These acts of domestic terrorism are fueled by anti-Semitism.  Germany has experienced similar acts.  The ADL’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents recorded a total of 1,879 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across Germany in 2018, the third-highest year on record since the ADL started tracking such data in the 1970s. This past year there are 61 cases of assault, almost a 60% increase from 2018. 95 people were injured and five people died as a result of these attacks.  It is frightening to realize that Jews, both then and now, did and do not not feel safe in the place they should be able to feel most secure- their place of worship.

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The anti-Semitism does not always manifest in violence.  Jews everywhere face harassment. The ADL found 127 reports of harassment in the US, an increase of 6% from 2018.  Last year, 1,066 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment were recorded, a 5% increase from 2017 and a 48% increase from 721. In Berlin, Germany, an Orthodox Rabbi and a 20 year old man wearing kippot were targets of anti-Semitic slurs. Anti-Semitic attacks in Berlin are up by 14% from last year.  In Berlin, the amount of anti-Semitic attacks have had a spike and is 14 percent higher than last year. Vandalism is another form of anti-Semitism.  There have been 774 incidents of vandalism reported in the US this year. For example, in Massachusetts, 59 gravestones were desecrated with anti-Semitic and Nazi references.

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While most of us at school live relatively anti-Semitism-free lives, we must be aware that anti-Semitic events in the world around us are increasing and if we have learned anything from our history, we know that we cannot be complacent.