Antisemitism and bigotry are on the rise. For the past five years, antisemitic acts and hate crimes against Jews have been on the rise all around the world. As a matter of fact, Israeli researchers reported that violent attacks against Jews spiked significantly in 2018. That year marked the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades, leading to an “increasing sense of emergency” among Jewish communities worldwide. Capped by the
deadly shooting that killed 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, assaults targeting Jews rose 13% in 2018, according to the researchers. They recorded nearly 400 cases worldwide, with more than a quarter of the major violent cases taking place in the United States.
But the spike was most dramatic in western Europe, where Jews have faced even greater danger and threats. In Germany, for instance, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence. A Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry study found that, “Anti-Semitism has entered gradually into the public discourse. Threats, harassments and insults have become more violent, inciting even more physical violence against Jews. It feels like almost every taboo relating to Jews, Judaism and Jewish life has been broken.”
Yet, it hasn’t only been the Jewish community that’s being attacked; here have also been increased attacks on other racial and religious groups. Hate crimes against African-Americans remain the most common racially motivated hate crimes, and there has been a significant rise in violence against Latinos and the transgender community in recent years.
There are even those who might consider the current social climate (with respect to the spike in attacks against Jews and African-Americans) comparable with the rise in antisemitism and bigotry in Europe pre and during World War II. David Nirenberg, the dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, stated in an interview, “We are in an era where many different societies are reviving ways of explaining the complexity of the world in terms of the dangers posed by [] Jews [and African Americans].”
Making Jews, African-Americans, and other minorities the scapegoat for events that they have no control over is an issue that must be addressed now– before it is too late. If we sit idly by and allow for antisemites, racists, and bigots to troll our lives, our fates may be eerily similar to the eleven million people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
We can stop this. We must stop this. After all, stopping bigotry conserves freedoms.
Yet, we can only do it together.
The Jewish Voters League of America (the JVLA), a bipartisan organization whose goal is to centralize voting to put an end to antisemitism and bigotry, is dedicated toward ensuring that our children live in America with no antisemitism nor bigotry of any kind.
And it is through the JVLA’s meetings with politicians and biweekly newsletter open to all our members that we will finally put an end to antisemitism. After all, without civil discourse with our elected officials and the proper education for our members, nothing can get done!
