When the Civil Rights movement erupted in America in the middle of the 20th century, the Jews, way out of proportion to any other ethnic group, flocked to support the Black population. When Black Lives Matter (BLM) became a rallying cry in America, once again Jews gave their support. On October 7, 2023, and its subsequent aftermath, an ephemeral sympathy was replaced by attacks not only on Israel, but on Jews all over the world. Attacks against Jews were made on college campuses and synagogues. Despite all these attacks, there was no comparable JLM (Jewish Lives Matter). While Iran threatened the extinction of the Jewish people, pro-Hamas (demon)strators were becoming an unhinged virus. Using slogans like “genocide,” once reserved for the Nazi approach to Jews, now became a part of the antisemitic lexicon. The very word, “genocide,” was introduced during the Holocaust.
Ironically while other incendiary words like “occupation, oppression, discrimination” were being used to describe Jewish practices, the ladies of the View and Rachel Maddow were comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. We were being told that Trump might put the self- righteous liberals into concentration camps. While Biden was withholding weapons from Israel and Trump had some questionable allies like Tucker Carlson, Americans were caught in a web of antisemitism. A fusion of uncertainty about Jews not only in Israel but in America was conflated into the events of a presidential election.
It was not so long ago that an octogenarian president of another country was faced with similar issues. There was a failing economy, violence in the cities, rampant antisemitism, and a government unable to stabilize the country. Von Hindenburg, the aging president, appointed an “unelected” leader to save his country. The country was Germany and the “unelected” leader was Hitler.
