The signs are everywhere: Swastikas projected onto a building in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Antisemitic flyers thrown onto lawns in Atlanta suburbs.
A Kanye West post on social media announcing, Im going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.
Eleven worshippers killed in an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Lets start with the basics.
In the U.S. today, theres no simple picture of Jewish life.
In this context, how do you define antisemitism?
What does it look like today?
Its a prejudice like other prejudices a hatred of Jews.
But its also a conspiracy theory that cuts across ideologies, nationalities, ethnicities.
Its someone who says, Jews are all-powerful.
They control the media.
They control the banks, the government.
Or, Jews are all privileged.
It comes from Christians, it comes from Muslims, it comes from atheists.
It even comes from other Jews.
It looks like its increasingly normalized.
Thats whats frightening to me.
Whereas with prejudice against other groups, this lack of privilege is taken at face value.
Theres another way in which antisemitism is different from other prejudices.
With most racial and other prejudices, people simply look down upon the other.
But antisemites punch down and punch up simultaneously.
They look down on Jews and see them as lesser human beings dirty.
And yet, in contemporary America, theres also an admiration of Jews.
Intermarriage rates are high.
How do you make sense of that?
Jews are much admired for their accomplishments, but sometimes that admiration can turn on a dime into hostility.
