Time to get tough on antisemitism

Each day, an entire page in the local Israeli English newspaper is devoted to antisemitic incidents occurring throughout the world – a phenomenon which makes us realize that the hateful genie is not going back into the bottle.

What may have begun as American cross-country campus protests, quickly spread throughout most every continent, where Jews are being attacked, solely on the basis of their ethnicity. Here’s a sampling in recent days.

• Three men attacked a UK Jewish-Israeli music producer in a town in Wales when they lured him into a cottage under the guise of being part of a music workshop.  

• University of Amsterdam has ended its student exchange program with Hebrew University, citing what they claim are human rights abuses presently being perpetrated in Gaza.

• A French rabbi is attacked and bitten after returning from synagogue with his son in a town 74 miles from southwest Paris.

• Al-Quds Day (an anti-Israel event, sometimes accompanied by violent protests) will take place this Friday both in Canada and the U.S. 

• Australia sees a surge in antisemitic attacks, including vandalized homes, synagogues and schools set on fire and the spray-painting of anti-Israel sentiments.  

These are only a smattering of the global daily occurrences, with which it is impossible to keep up, just representing those that are being reported to local authorities.

But in order to effectively fight antisemitism, there must be a few measures in place in order to quell what can only be compared to a rapidly-spreading brush fire which, if not contained immediately, will rage uncontrollably, causing massive destruction in its wake.

A good example of that was the very tepid response we all saw by campus administrators from Harvard, Columbia, MIT, University of Penn and others. Once encampments were permitted and students seized school halls, making outrageous demands of university presidents, who were willing to engage with them, a clear message was sent that their tactics were being tolerated and open to negotiation.

In Europe, which has seen massive migration over the past 20 years, the ability to constrain the large Muslim populations within those countries, has become insurmountable. For many years, it has been known that certain neighborhoods, inhabited by extremists are off limits to local police who dare not enter, for fear of what will happen to them. This kind of loss of control can never be taken back – at least not without a major battle, necessitating military intervention.

Although France’s president Emmanuel Macron came out with a strong condemnation of the recent attack on the rabbi, stating, “The assault on Rabbi Arie Engelberg in Orleans shocks us all. I extend my full support, as well as that of the Nation, to him, his son and all our fellow citizens of Jewish faith. Antisemitism is a poison. We will not give in to silence or inaction,” no specific measures have been implemented.

So, while Macron seems concerned, and even disturbed about these types of worrisome events taking place in his country on an almost daily basis, why hasn’t he initiated some action to deter such hateful attacks from spreading even further? With an estimated half a million Jews who live in France, making it the third-largest Jewish community worldwide, forceful words are simply not adequate to  protect them!

“According to figures released last Sunday by the French Interior Ministry, 1570 antisemitic acts were recorded in 2024, representing 62% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the country, with physical or personal assaults rising 3% each year.”

None of this is new to France. Back in 2019, Macron announced measures he intended to take to combat antisemitism. One of those was to “recognize anti-Zionism, the denial of Israel’s right to exist, as a form of antisemitism. He also promised to dissolve three extremist groups which he said fueled hatred and promoted discrimination.”

While that may have been a modest start, it falls very short as a real means of deterrence to those boldly defiant enough to harm members of the Jewish community. 

If, for example, anyone found guilty of attacking, harassing or injuring a Jew, would lose their citizenship and be thrown out of the country, that could go a long way in curbing the spread of these vicious assaults. 

Although much of the antisemitism seen today began to explode, following the October 7th massacre, when accusations were hurled at Israel’s military defense for being disproportionate, even to the point of asserting genocide, hateful conspiracy theories were ubiquitous long before that.  

One example was how “Coronavirus lockdowns morphed into conspiracy theories, “blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation.”

The notion that Jews secretly conspire to harm civilization has been another source of antisemitism, existing well before this present war. Claims that Jews control the media, financial institutions and much more, have been used as justifications to disparage the entire ethnicity, often resulting in great persecution and centuries of exile from countries where they had lived. 

Periods where Jews were admired or tolerated were few and far between throughout the history of the world, and while such eras did exist, it wasn’t long before the old malevolent sentiments re-emerged, reminiscent of the words of the archenemy Haman, in the biblical book of Esther, who referred to Jews as “an odd set of people who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else.” (Esther 3:8 MSG)

It is that repugnant description of Jews, which always surfaces, singling them out as being different – in a bad way, suggesting they adversely affect society. Such implications account for the spreading of fear, loathing and mistrust. The toxic innuendo, portrays Jewish people as a subclass, not worth considering on the same level of others.

Now that this same spirit has been unleashed over the past year and a half, the idea that harassing Jews is the same as condemning Israel, has become a legitimized way to smear an entire people, without appearing to be blatantly antisemitic or being accused of bigotry. But it’s really a futile attempt, because most everyone can see through the not-so-clever disguise of prejudice.

It’s time to get tough by implementing punitive consequences on ignorant, uninformed people who have decided that Jews are the new enemy. The hatred can be stopped if its spreaders feel the weight of society’s disapproval. Each country should adopt effective deterrents to banish this scourge, because otherwise, it will eventually be their undoing if they allow antisemitism to flourish and become a permanent stain on their history.