Once upon a time, anti-Semitism was fatal to a politician’s career. No more. Jesse Jackson, four years after he called New York “Hymietown,” carried New York City with 46 percent of the vote in the 1988 New York presidential primary. Pat Buchanan continues to be a well-respected pundit despite having been deemed anti-Semitic by many of his colleagues. Almost immediately after his election, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg met the Rev. Al Sharpton for breakfast. Over the past few years any of our mainstream politicians have groveled in seeking the endorsement of the New York Independence Party, despite leader Lenora Fulani’s history with the New Alliance Party, which was accused by the Anti-Defamation League of “Jew-baiting.”
The American Jewish community, if one goes by its voting behavior in the recent presidential election, apparently did not care that the Democratic Party scheduled Sharpton to speak at its convention during prime time. And candidate Ralph Nader’s comment that the U.S. Congress is a puppet of Israel elicited an understated reaction at best – certainly one not strong enough to cause him even to contemplate withdrawing from the presidential race.
At this point, are you still wearing your rose-colored glasses, shaking your head and insisting that all of the above are aberrations and not the norm? Are you thinking that since terrorism is a global phenomenon, it therefore is not aimed at Jews in New York? That Jesse Jackson has played himself out? That Al Sharpton will play himself out, as will the Independence Party? Perhaps.
But anti-Semitism has begun to impact every Jew, especially visibly Orthodox Jews, in their daily lives, right here in the United States, right here in New York.
I doubt there is a single Orthodox Jew who has not, at some point in his life, been called “Jew bastard” or has heard “Hitler should have killed more of you.” I always attributed these remarks to the ignorance and boorishness of those who made them. Recent events, however, indicate that active anti-Semitism has increased against the Jewish community of New York. I am sure the same is true elsewhere in the United States.
A few months ago, Congressman Anthony Weiner noted that there were 57 bias attacks against Jews in New York City during the period of October through December of 2003. There had been just 31 such occurrences during the same period in 2002. Mayor Bloomberg objected and pointed to a decrease in anti-Semitism during the first quarter of 2004 when compared to 2003.
These comments by the congressman and the mayor were what prompted me to write this. You see, in the last quarter of 2003 my sons were the victims of a bias incident and my entire family was victimized in still another. Neither of these incidents was reported as bias-related.
Halloween fell on an erev Shabbos in 2003. On my way to Mincha that evening, I walked by an intersection that doubles as a hangout for area teens. No sooner had I passed them when I heard a splat – two eggs had been hurled across the street at two obviously Orthodox men on their way to shul. The eggs hit a wall. I passed a pay phone and dialed 911.
That same evening, two of my sons were hit by eggs as they left shul – despite the fact that there was a police officer almost directly across the street. My sons saw the perpetrators run down the block and enter an apartment building. The police refused to make an arrest or consider what occurred a bias crime. One officer actually suggested that the egg was thrown off a rooftop across the street from the shul.
