There’s a simple, obvious truth that helps explain why the Jewish community gets so agitated about acts of antisemitism, and it’s not just the hatred.
Everyone knows that our world is filled with racists and bigots and haters of all kinds. But we also know that one of the unwritten rules of society is that most people try to keep those hatreds to themselves. Who wants to advertise that they’re bigots?
The one exception seems to be the Jews.
For some reason, Jew-haters feel a sense of pure brazenness when it comes to showing off their Jew-hatred. They don’t seem to worry, in other words, about consequences.
Look at the latest figures released this week by the FBI. Although Jews make up around 2 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for nearly 70 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2024. Anti-Jewish hate crime incidents were the highest number ever recorded by the FBI since it began collecting data in 1991.
That’s a lot of chutzpah and very little fear.
So, what is it about Jews that make us such a “safe” target for haters?
There are the obvious answers, like the fact that because we’re seen as being powerful and successful and are associated with “white privilege,” we can take it. And of course there’s always Israel as the most convenient weapon for Jew-haters.
But there’s something else, and one clue is the fact that I’m writing this column. Jews have a tendency to try to understand everything and then take responsibility for how we can “change” things. There’s a whole cottage industry in our community of organizations, think tanks and activist groups devoted to dissecting Jew-hatred and figuring out the best strategies to fight it.
Indeed we’re so busy analyzing, recording, exposing and fighting that we rarely take the time to sit back and reflect on the absurdity of it all.
Here are the Jews, the one ethnic group that has arguably given more to America than any other, being attacked more than any other. How does that make sense?
Now take the case of Israel. People routinely hate what happens in other countries, whether that’s China, Sudan, Russia or any number of countries that do horrible things.
But have you noticed that you never hear about people being anti-China or anti-Sudan or anti-Russia?
Evidently, “anti” is an exclusive stain reserved only for the Jewish state.
Have you noticed that you never hear about people being anti-China or anti-Sudan or anti-Russia? Evidently, “anti” is an exclusive stain reserved only for the Jewish state.
Even some Jews who are very upset with Israel are now using the “anti-Israel” label. And many of them are proud of it, too, because they say they’re “living their Jewish values.”
The fact that Jews are very public about their disagreements is especially true in Israel.
Imagine being one of those many Mideast countries without freedom of speech and all you see from Israel is nasty speech from Jews against Jews. You see Jews arguing in public, demonstrating against their government and screaming at each other on news shows. That kind of freedom to bash your own in public is nowhere to be found on Al Jazeera’s coverage of the region.
Add it all up, and Jew-haters may well conclude: Hey, if Jews themselves are bashing one another, what’s the big deal?
Being punished for our habit of airing out our disagreement, however, is a big deal. Yes, this habit has made it easier for bad actors to pile on the venom against Jews. It’s neither fair nor right, but it’s true.
In fact, much of antisemitism has a “piling on” quality. The haters make so much noise with their public protests that people can get caught up in the general fever— what activist like to call “normalizing.”
But there’s nothing normal about it.
Imagine if any of the hundreds of antisemitic acts we’ve seen in America over the past few years were by Ku Klux Klan members marching against Blacks or bigots marching against gays. That kind of hate would never get normalized.
That’s why Jews get so worked up at this epidemic of Jew-hatred. The brazenness is spooky. They understand that this is not normal, but that doesn’t make them feel any better.
