“Reports of anti-Semitism in the US hit the highest number on record in 2021, Anti-Defamation League says” – a title of another article about an event posted on April 26, 2022.  A familiar message to Jews (and everyone) that there are white men hunting for people to blame for the troubles in the world, usually far away.

“In Los Angeles, witnesses said people got out of a car outside a sushi restaurant and began asking indiscriminately who was Jewish. The words “Dirty Jew” were heard. Glass bottles were thrown at the table.”

“Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away,” said Greenblatt.”

When things happen in the world – in this case, the war in Ukraine – people start attacking Jews in their cities, in their neighborhoods; just about anywhere.  They attack strangers and they are often caught and their explanations for their behavior is vague.  Answers come forth about ‘wanting to do something’ or ‘I think Jews are behind it’ or ‘someone said that Jews are behind this[problem]’

Amazing, isn’t it?  People are willing to do something which can ruin their lives based on a furtive instinct to go after innocent people based on an amorphous idea that someone else – Jews are always the ‘other’ – is responsible.  Not DIRECTLY responsible but responsible in a collective way.

This is the history of being Jewish in the world.  We are held accountable for things we have nothing to do with.  Being Jewish (or ‘Jewish-looking’) which is the basis for being attacked.  Looking like something is the basis for these attacks.

It isn’t just Jews – Asians were attacked because of ..COVID-19.  Yes, people attacked Asians because of a disease that originated in a country thousands of miles away.  Disease do not discriminate and they spread quickly so where they originate is meaningless.

For decades it was pretty easy in many parts of the US to attack Blacks for nothing more than living near or among white people without repercussions.  It was only recently that the US instituted laws about ‘hate crimes’ which made these  pointless attacks a crime in themselves; unable to be brushed off as ‘personal issues’ or ‘an argument’.

Who are these attackers?  Usually, they are WHITE, MALE, CHRISTIAN, UNEMPLOYED or UNDEREMPLOYED, FRUSTRATED (in some way) and DIRECTIONLESS.

While these kind of people can find their needs met in the military or in factory jobs those options are not available so much anymore.

I can’t stress enough the book THE TRUE BELIEVER (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer) which explored these themes.

The book is amazing in not only its content but its brevity.  Erich Hoffer explored these themes quickly and succinctly.  Not a wasted word in the short book but what he writs explains why anti-Semitism will never go away and why we must be constantly monitoring our young men for signs that they will gravitate to this thinking or these groups in times of political and financial stress.