It has been widely reported that virtually every recent stabbing and attack on Jews in the New York metropolitan area has been perpetrated by someone who is black, Latino, or sympathizes with jihad. It is time for leaders of those communities to face-up to the anti-Semitism within their midst. It’s time for truth telling.  Perpetrators must be punished by legal authorities and shunned in their communities.

New York’s Leftist politicians speak about anti-Semitism, but are not using anywhere near the force of law to bring these perpetrators to justice.  In fact, we’re hearing that last week’s attackers against Jews have already been released, due to New York State’s ridiculous new “bail reform” law and are back on the streets committing more attacks against Jews.  There’s talk about protecting Brooklyn’s Jewish community with police cars, but hardly any talk of punishing those who roam Brooklyn’s streets “looking for Jews.”

Much of the hatred against Jewish people is being fueled by jihadist talk, and yet, because of political correctness, authorities are not doing the pre-reconnaissance that common sense dictates. They call it “profiling.”  Under Manhattan’s leftist mayor and City Council, the sensitivities of the Muslim community hold a higher importance than protecting Jewish lives. 

We’ve heard the evasive platitudes about “extremism,” “intolerance,” and “hate,” but what we are witnessing in these attacks is raw Jew-hatred.  New York’s leftist politicians want us to believe this is coming from a climate of “extremism” and “white supremacists,” but in the metro area the anti-Semitism  is being fomented within the minority communities. 

During an interview on Fox and Friends, I asked Rev. Alvedea King, Martin Luther King’s niece, if African American leaders would begin addressing the anti-Semitic attitudes among some in the Black community. It would be helpful.

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She seemed to ignore and whitewash the whole issue, saying that “love of humanity” will solve the problem. I found the response unrealistic and disappointing especially in light of how much energy the Jewish community put into the Civil Rights movement. 

In fact, in my view, the daily attacks on Jews in the streets, subways, and institutions in the NYC metro area is now the civil rights issue of our era. Here is an astonishing fact: In our lifetime, at least for those under 70, no minority has been attacked as many times in major American cities as have Jews been these past two years.

The major Jewish organizations have failed the Jewish community by not calling out or pressuring the minority communities responsible for these attacks. They are wedded to leftist clichés and goals and, even now, routinely choose to be simpatico with minority communities over the safety of Jewish individuals. Perhaps that is why the politicians act the way they do. They can’t be expected to be more concerned about the Jews than the Jewish organizations. 

They did organize a rally Sunday in New York City, but the headline had no reference to anti-Semitism. The Jewish organizers, UJA Federation and the ADL, entitled it “No Hate, No Fear.”  But, “no hate” can refer to no hate against anybody.  Jews need to stop universalizing everything, including the Holocaust, and speak with outrage against anti-Semitism itself. Speakers spoke about how anti-Semitism is a portent for other forms of hate. In contrast, no one ever denounced racism against Blacks only because it could lead to hate against other groups as well. The insecurity of Jewish spokesmen is pathetic and frightening.

I’m certainly glad there was a rally. However, its failure to specify Jew-hatred and denounce it as a stand-alone evil reminded many of the Pelosi Resolution’s refusal to condemn anti-Semitism per se, and its insistence that anti-Semitism be mentioned only if Islamophobia was equally mentioned, notwithstanding that it was an Islamist whose anti- Jewish remarks sparked the whole controversy.

Unfortunately, the Democrat Party knows the Jewish community will remain an enthusiastic constituency even though the Party is silent while anti-Semitism grows within its midst, as seen with Omar, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and other outspoken members of their caucuses. The whole world watches as the American Jewish Community relinquishes its own self-interest and leverage in service to its undying infatuation with leftism and the Democrat Party. 

During the Holocaust years Stephen Weiss and other Jewish establishment leaders would not spotlight the Jewish Holocaust aspect of WW II out of fear of upsetting President Roosevelt and jeopardizing their power and position in the Democrat party. The Democrat party does not want to hear of the anti-Semitism among many of its members, nor do many of the Black and Muslim leaders, and the establishment Jewish groups are dutifully complying. The rally in New York City had the effect of sanitizing everybody and rescuing the New York Democrat politicians who have been shamefully cowardly and silent. 

Indeed, many of the policies of the mainstream “progressive”/leftist Jewish organizations are militating against solving this crisis:

·         they have been backers of open borders;

·         they have been against necessary vetting of those coming from Muslim countries;

·         they are against what they call ‘profiling’;

·         they are for ‘bail reform’ leading to immediate release of suspects; 

·         they are the first to call ‘racist’ anyone who asks the minority communities to begin fighting the anti-Semitism in their midst, and

·         they are for a virtual ban on guns that could protect people from attacks.

The time for feel-good ‘dialogue’ is over. The time for Federations’ ‘buying’ our safety must end; placating in exchange for “peace” is over. IN with what we need and deserve; Out with the sociology. The Jewish community deserves reciprocity. And, the Jewish organizations must stop prioritizing the sensitivities of ‘minorities’ and their leaders over the lives and safety of the Jewish people.

People ask: why is there not a resounding outcry over the daily violence against Jews as there would be if the targets were black, Muslim, or LGBTQ? The answer is that the high-profile mainstream Jewish organizations that often spearhead public outcries when minorities are attacked are far less angered and aroused when similar attacks happen against Jews if the perpetrators are from minority groups. If these attackers in the NYC metro area had been white or Christian, the establishment Jewish organizations and political leaders definitely would be howling and using the opportunity to condemn America and its way of life.

American Jews need to learn from the Israelis the importance of self-defense. Self-defense is a religious obligation as much as is putting on tefillin.  In communities with hundreds of thousands of Jews, where many are healthy young men, we should be able to protect ourselves from marauders coming into the neighborhoods wherein we constitute a vast majority. 

I’m thankful to Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels for patrolling Jewish neighborhoods, but doesn’t it seem embarrassing that our thousands of young men are not out there, with the blessings of their elders and rabbis, visibly protecting their neighborhoods and families? You bet the Italians and Irish would be doing so proudly. The ethic of protecting one’s family must become a central part of our Jewish way of life.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is spokesman for Conference of Jewish Affairs, author of Push Back and of Why Israel Matters to You, president of Caucus for America, and a frequent guest on Fox News.