Combating Antisemitism vs. Promoting Jewish Education and Engagement? |
The recent tragic attack at Temple Israel in the Detroit area is but the latest example of the distressing – and continued – rise of antisemitism in the United States.
Initially, I was shocked and surprised when such incidents first started occurring. As a boomer who grew up at a time heretofore perceived as the Golden Age of American Jewry, I thought that the problem of antisemitism per se was largely a thing of the past. But I am not shocked and surprised anymore.
I am not shocked and surprised anymore after reading Antisemitism: An American Tradition, written by Pamela S. Nadel, the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University. In this timely book, Nadel persuasively argues that antisemitism has a long, continuous – even at times violent – history in the country. Indeed, she emphasizes that the latest manifestation of hatred against Jews is not a new phenomenon or a rupture from the past. Rather, as she meticulously and exhaustively documents, it dates to the colonial era and has disturbingly burst out into the open again in a virulent way after October 7.
In response to this alarming and troubling turn of events, a vast – and increasing – amount of Jewish philanthropic dollars has poured into communal coffers since that fateful day to stem the tide of this disconcerting spike in antisemitism. In fact, it is estimated that approximately $600-$800 million was raised in 2023 (and a similar amount since), which represented a 20-30 per cent increase over 2022 and a 150 percent increase over the previous decade. The beneficiaries of such largesse have been the major players in the........