Anti-Semitism relates to the discrimination, prejudice, or hostility towards the Jews; it is often perceived as a form of racism (Rebhun, 2014). An individual who assumes such positions are commonly referred towards anti-Semite. Anti-Semitism is also identified as a political ideology which acts as an organizing precept that unites different groupings that are against liberalism. Anti-Semitism is usually demonstrated in various ways; this ranges from expressions of discrimination or hatred towards the Jewish people to organized massacres by military attacks, state police, or mobs on Jewish communities (Rebhun, 2014). The initial governmental episode of anti-Semitism occurred during the U.S Civil War. During this period, Ulysses S. Grant, the U.S General at that time, sanctioned a decree for Jews’ expulsion from regions under his jurisdiction; these regions include Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Anti-Semitism attained gained its peak throughout the interwar era. The most common form anti-Semitism has been a sequence of widely disseminated stereotypes which perceives Jews as economically, religiously, and socially unacceptable to the American way of life.
Anti-Semitic violence during the late twentieth century includes Alan Berg’s murder in 1984, the Goldmark murders in 1985, Neal Rosenblum’s murder in 1986, and the Brith Sholom Kenseth's shootings in 1977 (Rebhun, 2014). During the year 1977 and 1978, the NSPA members, under Frank Collin’s leadership made attempted to tramp through Skokie, a habitation for a significant number of the Jewish populace. The NSPA organized a rally at Marquette Park, located in Chicago; the city’s, administration retaliated by instigating an embargo on all demonstrations in Marquette Park. Following the ban by Chicago, the NSPA sought another venue, Skokie. However, due to the significant number of Holocaust survivors in the region, it was believed that the demonstrations were likely to be disruptive. The town, therefore, declined the NSPA’s attempts to hold the rally at the region. Nonetheless, the United States Court of Appeal allowed the march on 22nd May 1978. Skokie retaliated by presenting the case to the U.S Supreme Court. However, due to Marquette Park’s ban lift, the NSPA, instigated their rally in Chicago, as opposed to Skokie, on 7th July 1978 (Milford, 2017). Despite the strong participation of the Jews in the Civil Rights Campaign, the Black Power Campaign initiated significant friction levels into the African American-Jewish relationship during the war amid the Jewish state and the Muslim world.
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On 14th April 1970, Stokely Carmichael, the leader of the radical Black Power movement, issued racist comments. During the year 1984, Jessie Jackson, the leader of the Civil Rights, identified the Jews as Hymietown and Hymies; this is per the New York City and Washington Post's reports (Milford, 2017). In the Crown Heights rampage, marchers carried anti-semitic signs in their proceeds. Additionally, the Israeli flag was set on fire. In the early 1980s, the far right’s isolationists made preludes to anti-war activists located on the far left in the U.S to conjoin forces against various governmental policies in areas of common concern. During their interaction, various anti-semitic scapegoating conspiracies from the right-wing began seeping into progressive circles. As the campaign against the Gulf War developed towards the cessation of 1990, different anti-semitic and far-right groupings sought alliances with the anti-war coalitions in the left-wing; they started speaking openly on issues concerning the Jewish Lobby which supported the U.S invasion in the Middle East (Milford, 2017).
Over the years, researchers have advanced the conception of new anti-Semitism; this concept centers on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Israeli state, and it further argues that criticism towards Israel and Anti-Zionism are used to castigate the Jews. During the year 2004, many distinguished public figures in the U.S accused Jewish members of George Bush’ government of deceiving the U.S into war or battle against Saddam Hussein as a strategy to help Israel. According to a study done by the United States Commission on Civil Rights on 3rd April 2006, anti-Semitism is a key issue in the U.S college campuses (Rebhun, 2014). The commission further recommended the strong enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a strategy to protect students from the prevalence of anti-Semitism. There were approximately three episodes of swastika drawings on Jewish students’ properties in college dormitories during April 2014. Additionally, two incidences of anti-Semitism in university campuses took place in early September 2014. Fliers were also handed out in California University located in Santa Barbara which asserted that the 9/11 incidence was an outside job; these fliers bore links to multiple websites which generally accused Israel of the 9/11 attack (Milford, 2017).
An anti-Semitic graffiti was later located on a Jewish fraternity residence in Emory University. A similar incident took place in North Eastern University; it involved swastikas drawn on a school event’s flyers. Moreover, in October 2015, some vehicles in UC Davis’ parking lot were vandalized and engraved with swastika sketch and anti-Semitic slurs. Anti-Semitic slurs were discovered on a chalkboard at Towson University. Increased levels of hate crimes directed towards the Jews and other minority groupings triggered the passage of the 1990’s Hate Crimes Statistics Act and prompted forty-one state legislatures. Amid 1979 and 1989, research by the ADL reported over 9618 anti-semitic events; this includes 6400 vandalism cases, attempted bombings and bombings, cemetery desecrations, and attempted arsons and arsons. On 1st April 2014, a former Ku Klux Klan member arrived at Kansas City's Jewish Center and killed three individuals. During the same year, publishing by the Anti-Defamation League on anti-Semitic incidents indicated a nineteen percent decline in anti-Semitic records. On May 2014, a Jewish parent residing in Chicago accused a grouping of eighth-grade students for his son’s bullying and allegations of anti-Semitism (Milford, 2017).
In June, several anti-Semitic hate crimes became prevalent in the U.S; these incidences saw a significant increase in its prevalence in July during the Protective Edge operation in Gaza. In August 2014, two anti-Semitism incidents took place in Chicago and Los Angeles where leaflets with writings that date back to the Nazi era were seen. Six more events of anti-Semitic graffiti took place in the country during September 2014. The subsequent month commenced with an incident of anti-Semitic slurs from an owner of a coffee shop located in Bushwick. In December 2014, a young Jewish man was stabbed around the neck area in New York City. January 2015 commenced with various anti-Semitic graffiti throughout the nation, for instance, racist inscriptions on vehicles. The Anti-Defamation League's publishing in 2015 reported that approximately 912 anti-semitic incidents occurred in the U.S in 2014; this indicated a 21 percent significant increase when compared to the 2013 report. On 2nd January 2018, Samuel Woodward, an Atomwaffen member, killed Blaze Bernstein (Goldstein et al., 2018). Woodward made various anti-Semitic comments before the victim’s murder. On 27th October 2018, eleven individuals were killed in an attack staged at the L’Simcha synagogue located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Goldstein et al., 2018).
References
Goodstein, L., Lyons, K., Eddy, M., & Nossiter, A. (2018, October 30). For Jews in the U.S., A Shocking Burst of Anti-Semitism: Sense of ease is shaken. New York Times , p. A1.
Milford, M. (2017). Veiled Intervention: Anti-Semitism, Allegory, and Captain America. Rhetoric & Public Affairs , 20(4), 605–634.
Rebhun, U. (2014). Correlates of experiences and perceptions of anti-Semitism among Jews in the United States. Social Science Research , 47, 44–60.
