David Suissa’s op-ed about the burgeoning antisemitism on the progressive left is certainly apropos to today’s politics. Most Jews know that antisemitism has historically been a product of right-wing political movements. But as it is said, that was then, and this is now.
There has been a paradigm shift to the left, and in 2024, there is no doubt where this unprecedented danger exists. Undisguised and blatantly incendiary Jew hatred has burst onto the scene from the so-called college-educated upper-class from where it has festered in those incubators of anti-Zionism, namely, the liberal elite universities.
But I believe that too many Jews are stuck in the narrative that in the U.S. it is still the right-wing extremism that is the real danger. There is no doubt that antisemitism exists on the right, and many choose to believe that it flourished during Donald Trump’s term, maybe because of his ambivalence to their random support of his presidency.
Robert Gregory Bowers was one of those individuals who, although not an official member of any right-wing extremist organization, hated Jews (and other minorities) to the point where he decided to act and, on Oct. 27, 2018, committed the worst case of antisemitic violence in American history at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh.
The immediate response was to associate him with Trump and his perceived tolerance of the far-right. But that narrative falls apart upon closer examination. Bowers’ Twitter rants revealed that he detested Trump because he refused to crack down on an “immigrant invasion” severely enough. There remain scattered fringe groups on the right who hate Jews, but they’re obscure and hidden. The real threat is open, on full display and growing.
Ronald H. Beifeld, Conshohocken
This letter hits the nail right on it’s proverbial head. Mr.Beifeld correctly indicts the Jewish community’s near obsession with the right, and by extension, Donald Trump. Joe Biden may like us, but he’s missing the backbone and the moral integrity to do what he must know is right if it endangers his re-election bid. Stopping the deployment of necessary weapons to Israel which is under an existential threat from surrounding Iranian proxies threatens the Jewish states survival. Ditto for largely ignoring the leftist shouts of “Hitler was right” and “gas the Jews” on our campuses.A leader who doesn’t lead at times of danger must be removed from office.