Is Anti-Semitism On the Rise?
A friend and his wife were recently telling me about an incident that happened to them at a baseball game in Atlanta. They arrived at the game with another couple, and as they were settling down to watch the game, a drunk behind them yelled out, “Well, looks like the Jews are here.”
Throughout the game, this man harassed the two couples with every cliché about the Jewish race. The ultimate insult was when he leaned in between my friend and his wife and, in unprintable language, he asked her why a nice looking woman like her was with “a bunch of Jews”.
My friend did not say whether anyone sitting near them had taken the drunk to task, or if they expressed disgust with his behavior; however I gathered that no one said or did anything. But in general, is it okay to go along to get along, if the insult is directed at Jews? Isn’t this how it all started in Germany?
These days, if someone had made the same type of comments about a person of color, or a person with an alternate lifestyle, it would have been on the evening news and the ACLU would be all over the stadium management about allowing such bigots and racists into the game. So why, in this day and age of political correctness, would anyone feel free to attack four people verbally, simply because of their ethnicity?
Normally, I consider the PC advocates as people who take themselves way too seriously and want special treatment for themselves. However, this really isn’t just a case of an obnoxious drunk at a sporting event. The media, et al, has conditioned us to be shocked if someone uses a racial slur or word, and the same media teaches that we either accept any kind of behavior or lifestyle or we are haters and/or racists. However, little is said about insulting Israel or the Jews. Could it be because our president is not sympathetic to Jews, and seems to favor Islamic groups against Israel? Could it be because Secretary of State Kerry is in the Middle East pushing Israel to give up the land they won in a war? Could it be that Iran is being allowed to continue their nuclear program, even as the PM of Israel protests? All this is being allowed as Iranian leaders deny the Holocaust ever happened and promise that, given the chance, they will eradicate Israel.
Anyone who has read “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” knows how easily freedom—and life–can be lost because of indifference, fear and apathy. Meanwhile in New York, a new “game” has developed among urban youth that targets the Jewish community. Has this been trumpeted on the news? Have the protesters lined up at the State Capitals or in Washington? No, it is not anywhere near as important as the latest over-inflated scandal involving other ethnic or social groups.
We have to be honest; some racial groups get the media’s attention, while others fall by the wayside. No matter what the race, ethnicity or religion, if you say nothing when a wrong is being done, you are condoning it. The same is true with with my friends at the ball game; if you accept anti-Semitism, you are guilty by association and acquiescence.
Above many doorways in Israel, “Never Again” is written in Hebrew.
If it is to never happen again, decent people have to wake up and stop it. If those baseball fans around my friend’s group could not stand up against a hateful tirade by an idiot, then it can happen again.
We must stand with Israel, and we must stop this tide of anti-Semitism brewing, unnoticed, in the United States.
