The Divide of the American Jews on
Anti-Semitism and Refugees
By
Meng Yang
Translator: Tiberiu Weisz
Published in : The Paper (Peng Bai News), Shanghai,
November 11, 2018.
Language: Chinese
About the author: Meng Yang, lives in Shanghai and has an interest in Yiddish language and folklore. Her research is on the Jewish Community in Shanghai during the Holocaust. She wrote this article: “for the Chinese audience because little is known about HIAS background in China and most Chinese have no idea about the Jewish standing in America on the issue of refugees and the diversity of their opinion of Trump and, most importantly, about anti-Semitism in current America.”)
Translator’s Note: The original Chinese article contains phrases and idioms that make sense to the Chinese but do not necessarily translates well. To clarify some of these phrases I attached short explanatory notes in italics).
November 9 was a special day in Germany, it was called Schicksalstag, or Day of Fate. On Nov. 9, 1918, Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II abdicated and the Republic of Weimar was established. On Nov 9, 1923, Hitler launched the change in government in a Munich bar; and on Nov, 9, 1938, on what is called “Kristalnacht, Nazi symbols “adorned” [the Chinese word meihua means to beautify. tr.] the entire Germany while Jewish houses, businesses, and synagogues were smashed robbed and burned (reference to the “Night of the Broken Glass”- tr.], The Weimar Republic government was weak, its economy was in chaos and that offered Hitler the fertile grounds for his rise. Hitler’s popularity and leadership at the “Night of the Broken Glass” was the prelude to the extermination of 6 million Jews, followed by Nazi Germany starting the war, that ultimately ended in her unconditional surrender. Germany was split into East and West [Germany]. Coincidentally, the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, and East and West Germany reunited.
Only two weeks ago, a shooting incident occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with 11 causalities and 16 injured. This was the most targeted terror attack against Jews on American soils since the establishment of America and it attracted the attention of the world Jewry. In the process of laying the blame, many left-wing American Jew pointed a finger at Trump, and the strange fact is that Trump election victory was on Nov, 9, 2016 which gave rise to conspiracy theories.
The Chinese media covers this as an international issue. Regrettably, the same media had ignored the background cause of this issue and treated it as a tragedy of gun control in America. In reality, this incident had exposed the deep divide and fierce debates among the Jews in American under the Trump Administration, and it influenced the attitude of the Jews in the November 6, 2018 elections. At the 80th year commemoration of “the Night of Violence” [Night of the Broken Glass- tr.], we will spotlight its migration from Europe to across the ocean directly to the anti-semitism in times of refugees.
Was it a the plan of madman under the lax
of guns culture?
Many Chinese language media translated the place of the incident as “Jewish Study Hall”, actually it should be translated as “Jewish Assembly Hall” [Synagogue]. Jewish synagogue is not only a place for traditional Jewish rituals [prayers], but also a place to celebrate the holidays and life events [ceremonies]. [The incident] occurred on Saturday, Jewish day of rest, October 27, 2018 about 9:50 AM when three ceremonies took place at the same time. It was Saturday, during the morning prayers when the synagogue was full of people and a circumcision ritual for a new born baby was performed. The excitement can only be imagined.
On the day of the incident, a gunman drove for half an hour from his home to the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh -one of the places with the largest Jewish presence in the US with 26% of the population Jewish. Before he left, the gunman made a statement to a right extremist paper: “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I am going in.” Before this gunman started spaying the synagogue with bullets, he yelled at the assembled Jews :”All Jews must die!” He the police arrested him, he still yelled: “Jews committed ethnic murder against Americans.”
In other words, this was not a simple “madman just picking up a gun and spraying bullets” but a carefully planned attack of a hatred filled madman with the intent of causing serious harm and damage to the target with his tools. He planned the half hour drive, the exact time of the hit, calmly entered the place where those he hated had been congregating and committed this heinous crime. That is anti-semitic crime.
Anti-Semitism at the Times of Refugees
Basically, this terrorist had stated in a far right-wing media that: “The Jewish Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [HIAS] helped the refugees to enter America, harm America so all Jews must die” .
Why did the HIAS get on the nerves of this gunman? HIAS was founded in 1881 to assist immigration and refugees. Since its inception 137 years ago it succeeded in helping over 5 million displaced households. Initially, this non-profit enterprising organization helped East Europeans to start a new life in the US. But their assistance was not limited to Jews only. As early as 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was enacted [restricting Chinese immigration to the US, 1882-1943- tr], HIAS helped the overseas Chinese to bring their case to the Supreme Court to uphold the law for Chinese immigrants. During WWII the organization helped and offered economic assistance to the European Jews to flee to Shanghai. Before the Pearl Harbor incident [1941], HIAS helped the Shanghai Jewish refugees to stay in touch with their relatives overseas and facilitated them to get economic assistance from the outside and to seek asylum in Shanghai. In the 1970’s HIAS was the only organization that helped Jewish immigrants to resettle in the US, and the Defense Department authorized HIAS to help resettle over 3,600 South Vietnamese refugees.
It is worth noting, that the organization helped not only Jews but also held out a helping hand to people from different countries and backgrounds, [different] religion, tribes and refugees. Recently the organization helped Moslems refugees to enter America, and this behavior angered the gunman. After the terror attack, the media in the US had joined in solidarity with HIAS and proposed to offer support and condemn the terrorists.
Once we understand the background of HIAS, it is not hard to see the progress of the violence from “anti-refugees” to “anti-semitism”. From Christian persecution of Jews for a thousand years, to the systematic massacre of Jews by the Nazis, and from the increasing hatred of Jews by Islam to the Palestinian question, members of the “anti-Israel” left-wing” in the West became “anti-semites”. This poisonous hatred of Jews had elevated the “White Supremacist” in America to higher levels. Because of their hatred of immigrants, they vented their poison on the organization that assisted immigrants (HIAS) and turned that cancer towards the entire Jewish population. From here we can see, that anti-semitism today is a culmination of sentiments and attitudes of various hate groups that influenced each other emotionally and ideologically in different countries in the West.
This kind of American anti-semitism was extremely rare in England and continental Europe, but it was well received by the left wing American Jews at top political echelons. The population of Jews in America is about 6 million, or 1/3 of the world Jewish population, and about equal to the number of Jews in Israel. Most of American Jews support freedom, immigration, minorities and women rights to abortion etc. In other words, most American Jews are fans of liberal Democrats leaning towards an environment of social government. They feel uncomfortable with the two year of anti-immigration policy of the Republican Party and of Trump’s policy of limiting immigration and refugees.
American Jews feel historical affinity with the immigrants and refugees. Many American Jews are survivors of the Holocaust and many of their ancestors migrated from Europe to America at the end of the 19th century to follow their dreams. This first generation of dreamers went through bitterly difficult times and hostile immigration policies, and they worked in sweat shops for years. The second and third generation were ready to enter universities, obtain meaningful jobs, and they gradually established roots. They were grateful and proud for the American generosity, and deep in their heart they treated America as their native country. Being a generation of immigrants and refugees themselves, they saw America as the country of free immigration and they sympathized with the refugees. They wanted to extend a helping hands to refugees irrespective of their background.
Within the race conflict in the US, the left-wing Jews assisted many color people in their struggle for equal rights. For example, the late History Prof. Iggers of the University of Buffalo invited the author to a public library that was open and accessible to everybody, (during the separation of races period in the US, public libraries did not allow black people to enter). He also advocated freedom of speech to all and access to education to black people. As a Holocaust survivor, he fled Nazi Germany on the eve the “Night of the Broken Glass”, and entered North America to become a exemplary Jewish representative of the Left Wing. He joined the “National Association for Advancement of Colored People” and for 50 years he struggled for the rights of graduate students and minorities, and selflessly assisted many of the embarrassingly poor Chinese foreign students.
It is worth noting, that although the Arab -Israeli conflict in the Middle East has not stopped, most of American Jews support Muslims Americans, and oppose the “Muslim ban” of the Trump Administration. They welcome the entry of Muslims into the US from Arab countries. This issue became truly the reason for the “white supremacist” to kill Jews. The Jewish left-media reported that because of this incident, Muslim organizations in the US have raised over $180,000 in donation for the families of synagogue victims. Looking at this from a Jewish Muslim cooperation point of view, these two minorities in the US had integrated successfully far better than in Europe.
Although anti-semitic incidents have raised their ugly heads in the US in recent years, but they are pale by comparison to Europe. Just because Jews have not been directly threatened for a long time in the US, synagogues dropped safety precautions. The reason that a white extremist could walk into the synagogue was because traditionally synagogues were open to non- Jews as well. The irony is that this uninvited guest bloodied the synagogue precisely at the same time when rabbi gave a sermon on “Welcome stranger”.
The contrast between Jewish communities in Britain and continental Europe are quite evident. Because of long and deep history of Christian persecution, of the Nazis’ racial legacy, and of support of the Palestinian left by the modern Muslims world, European Jews are highly sensitive to slander from the outside world. Every Jewish synagogue, school, museum and other institution in Europe are under year around, 24 hours security measures. Israel’s Ambassador to Germany advised that Jewish boys stop wearing kipah (head cover. tr ) in public so as avoid trouble and physical harm in the streets. It can be seen that European Jews are cautious in their attitude to assist refugees.
The background of hatred to European Jews and the terror attack on the Jewish Synagogue in the US are incomparable. In Europe, the tide of anti-semitism has been growing more intense, and the European Jews feel threatened by the entry of waves of refugees. In America, the Jews met hatred because they offered assistance to the refugees. The indifference of European Jews to the refugees inflamed anti-semitism; and because the American Jews assisted the refugees they met with hatred from the racist White Supremacists.
The Divide of American Jews in Trump times.
There is a joke in Jewish culture: “Two Jews together have three different opinions”, meaning Jews often have their own opinions, and it is hard for them to agree. The Jewish communities response to this terrorist incident reflected disunity, especially when it came to the issue of responsibility for the crime. Both the left and right contested the issue hotly. It is quite common in the Jewish communities to have different views. But the debate on issues of the terror attack on the synagogue, there were three different views, one from the reconstructionists and two from conservative movement. Because of this [difference of opinions], Chinese readers should not confuse “division” with “disintegration”. Holding different views is often the common thread in Judaism, and Jews call it “diversity” . It is just that in the era of Trump, the question of refugees has been fermenting and added extra stress on the Jewish community.
The Jewish magazine Forward, publishing since 1897, is a leftist publication with the mission to be “Fearless”. This paper has suspended temporarily its subscription policy so that everybody can read it online without charge since Nov. 7, 2018, to attract more Jewish readers. On that day the Chief Editor of the paper, a women called Eisner (Jane) lost no time in writing an essay: “What Has Trump done to us, America?” pointing a finger at Trump and criticizing his two years of speeches and policies. She [Eisner] claimed that Trump’s anti-refugee speeches and hate broadcasts inflamed the anti-refugee sentiments of the White Supremacists and the Jews were met with anti-Jewish terror.
At the same time, she questioned the Jewish right-wing supporters of Trump, who actually helped the rise of nationalism, and to a certain degree, the gunman who used violence against Jews. The woman editor [Eisner] urged the readers of her article to vote on Nov. 6 for change.
The strange thing is, that the gunman was not only anti-Jews, anti-immigration, and anti-refugees, but at the same time, he was also, “anti-Trump”. In his view, Trump is a “globalist” influenced by Jewish money and control. Obviously [the term] “Jews control the government” derived from the classic story of “anti- semitism”. In reality, most American Jews dislike Trump, and consider his administration and policies a failure.
There were many attacks against Jews before Trump in America , but the perpetrators were not the White Supremacists. Anti- Jewish sentiments and haters of Jews had been in America for a long time, but they were not from one defined group, rather from multiple backgrounds. The views of the Chief Editor of Forward, like other leftist writers, and just like their European counterparts claimed that anti-semitism derived from dissatisfaction with Israel’s policies, but this time Trump’s hard policies were the scapegoat. There are Jews on the left who are not willing to confront Trump’s powers, but they used his daughter’s conversion to Judaism as a target, to brush off his anti-semitic tendencies. Not only that, the left has also included Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, and Senior Advisor to the White House, pointing out that his grandparents had benefitted from assistance from HIAS; they fled the oppression in Russia and emigrated to the US. After the incident, he [Kushner] accompanied Trump to Pittsburgh to offer his condolences, but he had yet to voice his gratitude to the organization that helped his parents.
Is Trump an anti-semite? After all, what was his role in the terrorist attack? The writer interviewed Prof. Bauer, head of the Holocaust Memorial and Global Antisemitism Research Department in Israel and Holocaust survivor. He said: “Trump is not an antisemite, but tends towards racism and hatred, and helps create an atmosphere in which white racists can shout that all Jews have to be killed.” In other words, even if Trump is not anti-Semite, he created a climate in which anti-immigration, anti-refugee and Make America Great statements contributed to a social environment that encouraged extremism and racial hatred. This incident became the catalyst for “anti-Trump”.
Yascha Mounk, a Harvard lecturer of Political Science and Technology had drawn a wonderful analogy to address Trump’s responsibility for this incident. He said that there is no way scientists can predict exactly whether or not climate change creates a particular storm, but they can determine that, because the earth is warming, the frequency of extreme weather is intensifying immensely. Comparing this to Trump’s speeches, although there is no way to determine whether or not extreme political speeches lead to crime, Trump’s rhetoric on violence and anti-people has led to increased criminal activities. Therefore, there is no way to judge whether or not Trump is responsible for this particular act of terrorism, but he bears responsibility for the increase of similar criminal activities.
Professor Ruth Wisse of Harvard, an avid supporter of the Republican Party sent her article to the author in defense of Trump. She wrote that the US deployed 4 million soldiers in WWII to fight Hitler, while Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party, was attacking Jews. Now the leader of the US has just signed a bill to punish terrorists; four US policemen courageously helped save precious life; after the violent attack, the people in the US came together so we don’t have to be afraid of anti-semitism.
From the above we can see that two weeks after the most serious anti-semitic violence in the US history, the fight between the Jews on the left and right is getting worse. Recently 80,000 people signed a petition opposing Trump attending the memorial ceremony in Pittsburgh. Even the Mayor of Pittsburgh advised him not to come. But Trump went to Pittsburgh and as a result he encountered an array of his opponents. The gunshots in Pittsburgh blew wide open the sentiments and mixture of racism, of anti-immigration, of white supremacy and of anti-semitism [that has been building up] in America, while served as a wake up call to the American Jews on race relations, both on the left and on the right. In addition, it resonated in what the Jews called the “October Surprise”, just before the US mid-term elections on November 6, 2018.
The difficult road to combat anti-semitism in America
According to a report by the International Jewish Non- Government Organization (NGO), and the US Civil Rights Group - the Anti-Defamation League -- anti-semitic incidents in America rose by 57% between 2016 and 2017. Each year there were reports of 1200 to 1800 cases of anti-semitic incidents in the US. In 2017, the American public thought that 31% of the American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America, therefore they are untrustworthy.
Regrettably, there are a lot of misconceptions between the perceptions of Americans about Jews and the American Jewish identity. American Jews speak English without an accent, all the [Jewish] communities are interconnected socially, and they see US as their native country. The author was invited to celebrate the Independence Day with a New York Jewish community, they hoisted the American flag, ate American food, and cake to celebrate the American Independence Day without any reservations. America is their native country.
For many American Jews, post war anti-semitism is an“old hat” European problem. The writer visited the headquarters of the Community Security Trust in England. The person in charge has stated proudly, but sadly to the author: For many years, the organization has the funds and manpower to protect the British Jewish communities from terrorists attacks. American Jews were smug and believed that they did not need this kind of protection. From now on more and more, American Jewish organizations such as synagogues, Jewish schools, museums need to take safety measures to “emulate” Europe. After this terrorist act, Trump said: “If the synagogue had an armed guard, the casualties would be less serious”.
Although anti-semitism in America today is not as raging as in Europe, but it has been popular for years, and it runs deep. Which way will anti-semitism and the refugee issue go in America under Trump administration? Will the hiatus of the Jewish left and right deepen more? After so many years, will the 80 year old acts of vandalism intersect historically with the policies of the winner of the White House of two years ago? The “Night of the Broken Glass” was a prelude to the Jews in modern times 80 years ago; gunshots still shatter and blood still flows 80 years later. The Jewish fight against anti-semitism in America is increasingly difficult, their “burden is heavy and the course is long.” (A quote from of Confucius: “the warrior must be open minded and with vigorous endurance, his burden is heavy and his course is long”.tr.)
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