Jews will be in the West; in many places they simply will not be welcome.
My friends and I are having a hard time wrapping our heads around the current Jew hatred seen in North America and Europe. We grew up in an America in which being Jewish meant nothing negative. We went to the same schools, played in the same sports, and, growing up in a not particularly religious home, ate at the same restaurants. We didn’t experience even a whiff of anti-Jewish behavior. Fast forward 40 years and we read articles about Jews and Jewish history being removed from Wikipedia or Jewish professors being denied access to college buildings. We imagine that we are reading stories about 1960s USSR persecution of Jews and not events in today’s world. I guess every generation of Jews has had such feelings. I never had the privilege of knowing my grandfathers, but they both served in the German army in World War I. I assume that they got along with their non-Jewish comrades, and I know from my parents’ reports that they had good relations with their neighbors in the small towns from which they came. But they too had to make an exit from the land of their forefathers when the winds changed directions, and Hitler’s words from "Mein Kampf" jumped from the pages and into the antisemitic “Nuremberg Laws” as a prelude to mass Jewish murder. My paternal grandmother was one of three siblings; two made it to Australia, while the third was murdered at Dachau before the war began.
What one often does not appreciate is that for a destructive political phenomenon to succeed, it by no means requires a majority. Lenin did not have that many supporters, but he called his party the Bolsheviks, which translates into “majority.” His clueless opposition gladly accepted the title Mensheviks, meaning “minority.” Rule #64 in politics: never ever let your opponent define you. The word “orthodox” in Judaism was coined by the Reform Movement to suggest that traditional Jews were stuck in the mud and not dynamic and up-to-date like they were. They instantly succeeded in tarring traditional, Torah-true Jews as uncreative old fuddy-duddies, and the name “orthodox” has stuck to this day, with the express acceptance of religious Jews. A small minority can take control of the political narrative and also the nation because it is more focused and more energetic. Americans aren’t into this socialism thing, but it makes no difference: the ones who are spending money and showing up to vote are those who are trying to foist on America a system that has never worked and has only created destruction in its wake. As a recent headline from The Babylon Bee had it: What did Socialists have before wax candles? Electricity.
Those who wish to remove Jews from the public square are definitely in the minority—but so were the Nazis, even when they grabbed power and shut down political opposition. Wikipedia is run by lefty lunatics who are more than happy to make Jewish history disappear. In my one effort to show that Marwan Barghouti was a mass murderer and not the peace-lover presented by his supporters, I added material from an indictment that had Barghouti as knowing about and funding the attack in which my son and I were wounded. My additions were removed in less than 24 hours by a super-editor and relegated to a footnote that nobody reads. The goal of the Western branch of the Muslim Brotherhood/Qatar complex with its lefty friends (before the Muslims kill them) is to simply marginalize Jews in Western society. From Israel to Zionism to Jews, now any old run-of-the-mill Jew is today considered to be some type of IDF assassin with the blood of no less than 20 children on his hands. Jews who have no noticeable connection to Israel are denied opportunities or are harassed for the crime of being Jewish. Again, most Americans don’t behave this way, but it only takes one guy to make a hole in a boat to take 500 people with him to the bottom. People who never thought much of Jews now see them as some type of murderous sect that brought about the October 7 massacre and deserved it. The “Me Too” frauds could not shed a tear or spare a word for the horror that Israeli Jewesses suffered at the hands of Hamas. Jews = too bad.
You no doubt know that the U.S. recently beat Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup. What you probably do not know is that a few months ago, Israel’s national team blanked them 3-0. After the game, the entire Bosnian squad walked past the Israelis and refused to shake the latter’s outstretched hands. Israel for decades has been pushed out of polite society. Why is Israel never in the World Cup? It should be in the Middle Eastern division where it would face off against Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Those countries refuse to play Israel, so she plays in the European division, and Israel just can’t hold its own against France and Switzerland. The locals get to see some pretty good talent every now and then, but Israel can’t advance to the World Cup. Iranian athletes and others have taken losses rather than compete with Israelis. The same will be coming to Jewish American athletes. Not today, not tomorrow. But soon. “Oh, they have a Jew on their squad. We’ll forfeit the match. He’s a murderer. We don’t want to be near such a monster.” The Egyptian World Cup coach made a video showing that they start their day by cursing Jews and Christians. This fellow went on the field with a big “Palestinian flag” while his country has a massive set of walls to keep Palestinians in Gaza and out of Egypt.
I have had the privilege and honor of meeting and getting to know many Americans. To a person, they have treated me with respect and without prejudice or discrimination. Jews will continue to be part of the American fabric, as they have been since well before the founding of the U.S. 250 years ago. Hayim Solomon funded much of the Revolutionary War and died penniless in 1785 when the U.S. did not pay him back the vast sums he raised for Washington’s armies. While Jews will remain in America and not pull up and move to Israel, their sandbox will get smaller. Already, Jewish students are rethinking the universities where they will be most welcomed. Jews will figure out which cities, neighborhoods, and companies are welcoming and which are not. Look how things are going in New York, where the current mayor does not hide his antipathy for Israel or Jews. He described AIPAC supporters as monsters. Israel defending itself from those who wish to erase it from the map is a completely justifiable course of action. American Jews who support Israel are not monsters. Those who march for the Hamas baby killers or, like Mamdani’s wife, support what Hamas did in southern Israel, are the true moral monsters. But just as this one mayor is signaling that his city is not welcoming to Jews, Jews will once again figure out what places are safe. This is not a new drill. President Lowell of Harvard put a hard cap on the number of Jews the university would accept; so Jews went elsewhere, and Harvard reduced its number of future Nobel laureates. By the time I arrived on campus with many Jewish classmates, a quarter to one third of the student body was Jewish.
The U.S. has always been the best country for Jews, hands down. Every European country kicked out its Jews at some point. Not America. Let’s hope never in America. Happy 250th.