A Sunday Review titled Anti-Semitism Is Rising. Why Aren’t American Jews Speaking Up? by Jonathan Weisman was published on March 17th, 2018 by the New York Times. Along with hatred against Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, and immigrants, American Jews are facing increasing anti-semitic hate crimes in the era of Trump. Yet, the leading organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America remains silent.
“Why can’t the domestic apparatus of the American Jewish Committee reconstitute itself at the request of Jewish donors and members, and the Anti-Defamation League assert itself, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, in the arena of bigotry without fear of being charged with partisanship?” said Weisman in response to the lack of involvement of the two organizations.
Although the leading organizations could voice their opinion, they do not survive on their own as they are also actively involved in the political arena. Actions by organizations face potential danger of being charged as partisan. But that should not stop them from fighting for their own innate basic human rights and equality. A good relationship needs communication, and organizations as collective social actors are the best representatives of the minority groups. Their silence creates obstacles for minority groups to fight for what is already limited for them.
Weisman talked about his personal experience of being attacked by threatening voice mail messages and tweets on Twitter by a wave of neo-nazis and anti-Semites. In fact, anti-semitism has been constantly present in American culture, and the era of Trump’s presidency might be a particular dystopia for many minority groups.
Although American Jews have been more accepted into American life than historical times, they were largely underrepresented in politics, business, and other fields. The era of Trump, however, overtly pushes discussion on Islamophobia, judgments towards race, and hatred of undocumented immigrants and minority groups into an open platform through campaigns and political talks.
The existence of racism is, in essence, an absurd slaughter of the moral intuition and basic human rights. It might be their religion, skin colour, race, or any other attributes that make them targets of hate crimes. It is disheartening to see that the idea of racial superiority is still haunting today as the source of many victims’ tragedies, even decades after the emancipation. Minority groups should unite together to defend themselves and the vulnerable others.
Society should not consist of the conqueror and the conquered, it should consist of people who enjoy inalienable equal status as human beings. Race is not something that should be judged by preference, hatred, and hostility, or sense of superiority and prejudice.
As said by Weisman, Judaism as a vital part of America pluralism, minority groups should voice their opinion, but they should not stop at standing against anti-semitism, they should stand against hate.
There are differences amongst ourselves but there will not be the superior versus the inferior.
