"Leaders of the Jewish community in the U.S. and extremism experts have been alarmed to see celebrities with massive followings spew antisemitic tropes in a way that has been taboo for decades."

—Associated Press, December 3, 2022

This new antisemitism should alarm every American.  Antisemitism was never before deeply rooted here.  America's most fundamental values and traditions included and protected Jews.  We have toxic antisemitism today because the "progressive" left systematically attacked and destroyed them during the past sixty years.

Most past discrimination against Jews in America came from the typical mistrust of natives toward all newcomers.  Catholic immigrants from Italy and Ireland faced the same thing.

Jews did well here for many reasons.  First, Jews shared the Old Testament of the Bible with America's Protestant majority.  That included the Ten Commandments and "Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself."  Jews and Protestants often referred to the same Old Testament heroes, stories, and proverbs in everyday conversations.  

Second, our Declaration of Independence held that we are all "created equal" and "endowed by our Creator" with the same "unalienable rights."  Those rights were "secured" by federal and state constitutions, courts, and law enforcement.

Third, America was a land of "boundless opportunities."  Government was limited and inexpensive.  It was mostly used as a referee to make sure everyone followed the same rules.  It was not there to select who would win or lose.  It had no power to decide who had "too much" and "redistribute" their wealth.

Almost every American who worked, planned, and saved found his own way to live a safe, prosperous, and comfortable life.  This included black Americans who left the Jim Crow South during the "Great Migration" after the Civil War.  Americans were free to buy and build on land and go into almost any trade or business without begging for permits or other favors from ruling elites.  Taxes and fees were low.  Poor people quickly gained wealth because they kept most of what they earned.

Those who succeeded were respected and admired.  Those who failed kept trying.  Those who made excuses were told, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"

Finally, most Jews, like most Americans since Benjamin Franklin,  shared a love for objective truth and free speech to find it.  Both were protected by law.  National conversations were easy because almost all Americans spoke English.  Since 1914, legal immigration was limited to roughly 200,000 per year.  Illegal immigration was not tolerated.  Most immigrants quickly spoke English and embraced American culture because they were immediately immersed in both. 

Jews in the past showed love and appreciation for America.  As children in public school, they recited the Lord's Prayer every day with their Christian classmates.   Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas," "Easter Parade," and "God Bless America."

Jews were safe, prosperous, and comfortable in that America.  Sadly, that America is gone.  America today is more like the Tsar's Russia when my grandparents left in 1903.

The Old Testament of the Bible is no longer part of mainstream America.  Several years ago, I heard a radio sports announcer say that a particular football player was "as strong as Samson."  His colleague then asked, "Who is Samson?"

America's Declaration of Independence, and our state and federal constitutions are no longer taught or understood.  Instead, they are ridiculed as "racist" or "patriarchal" relics of the past.  A recent poll found that roughly 70% of Americans born after 1980 prefer a government based on socialism.

America no longer gives "boundless opportunities" for poor people to become rich.  Schools no longer teach the needed skills.  They rarely inspire students with stories of Americans who did it.  They instead teach that wealth and success come from inherited "privilege."

Sadly, that is often true today.  Federal, state, and local governments now require ridiculously expensive permits, fees, taxes, insurance, and other requirements to start up and run even the smallest business.  Most of these requirements do little to benefit the public.  They simply shield established elites from competition.

Few Americans can succeed in America today except through politics.  Some win elections to public office.  Others use "access" to politicians or "diversity" to get government jobs.  Others turn to crime.  Everyone else must depend on "affordable" housing, medical care, welfare, tax "credits," food assistance, utility assistance, "reparations," or other payments from the government.  All of this is paid for by extra direct and hidden taxes on those who are "privileged."

Private business is very rare.  Almost every "private" business today needs a variety of favors from politicians to succeed.  Those favors include permits, use or ownership of government-owned land, "sweetheart" government contracts, exemptions from regulations, tax breaks, and low-interest or no-interest "loans" that are rarely paid back.

This government control of the economy is classic socialism.  Karl Marx may have called for government ownership of the "means of production."  However, later socialists like Hitler, Mussolini, and China's communists found that government control of private businesses works just as well.

We now have majority-rule democracy.  Our Constitution is no longer applied to limit government power or secure" the "unalienable" rights of each individual.  This is bad for Jews, who are a 2% minority.

Because Jews achieved success, wealth, and influence in the past, they can never enjoy the special "victim" status of Native Americans, LBGT, or other "protected" minorities. 

Socialism is especially dangerous for Jews because it transforms the deadly biblical sin of envy into the virtue of  "social justice."  All socialism is built on the basic idea that most "good" people don't have enough, because a few "bad" people have too much. 

According to German Holocaust scholar Goetz Aly, this is why Bismarck's mild, "democratic" socialism in Germany during the late 1800s morphed into Hitler's deadly "National Socialism" that created the Holocaust.

A third evil of socialism is that it cannot tolerate objective truth and free speech.  When success in life depends on getting special gifts and benefits from the government, people need to be part of the group that wins elections and controls the government.  The most powerful groups will use their control of government to widely spread lies to keep their power.  They will "cancel" truths that help opponents.  Because of massive and uncontrolled migration, they will also reach millions of Americans who can't be reached by other Americans because they don't speak the same language.

This is also bad for Jews.  In this political culture, it is easy for people who don't know Holocaust survivors to assume that the Holocaust is another lie used by another ruling elite to keep its power.

The "progressive" left created the conditions that created this antisemitism.  This problem will get worse until Americans again reject socialism and embrace traditional American values.

So far, most Jewish community leaders and "extremism experts" refuse to recognize this obvious truth.  Instead, they systematically and falsely blame anyone defending traditional American values and traditions for causing antisemitism!

Image via Libreshot.