Some choice: From bad to worse

 

American Jews just aren’t prepared for the exponential uptick in antisemitism that we are experiencing. In fact, many of us are in serious denial. Life here is too good, so many shrug off the occasional incidents or vile remarks of anti-Jewish and/or anti-Israel sentiments.

Besides, we’re too busy trying to talmudically distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and whether the hate is coming from the left or the right.

“Oh, this is only a reaction to the war in Gaza. All these pro-Palestinian protesters don’t even know which river and which sea,” they say. “It’ll be over shortly.”

So, do you think, now that the Gaza war is “over,” the antisemitism that it catalyzed will disappear with it? Well, the genie is out of the bottle, and she ain’t going back in.

“Jews have been around for thousands of years and have endured sorrow, whether by the Egyptians, Romans, Spanish, Germans or countless others. We will survive,” they say.

I don’t feel that comforted at all. Imagine some partisans entering a shtetl not yet overcome by the Einsatzgruppen and telling the townspeople: We’ve survived for centuries, we will continue to survive. (Excuse my overreaching, but I think I have made my point.)

Also, American Jews aren’t cohesive, particularly when we need to coalesce. Polls say 35% of New York City Jews are voting for state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Socialist Democratic on the mayoral ticket. Many claim that they hate his challenger, Andrew Cuomo, running as an Independent, for various misdeeds during his governorship of New York. And the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, has little chance of trouncing Mamdani. This visceral hatred of Cuomo, justified or not, sounds a bit like Trump derangement syndrome—a knee-jerk reaction that could have unintended consequences.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t always offer up a good or a bad solution; sometimes, the cards we are dealt are bad or even worse. That’s where we are now, as Jewish New Yorkers have a choice of voting for a bad candidate or a poisonous one.

There have always been antisemites in America, but more recently, it was poor form for them to speak about their bigotry in polite society. American Jews knew it existed, but it was below the surface. We knew it was there, though we tried to move forward and ignore it.

There have always been people like Mamdani in America, yet they were essentially marginalized. We always thought that they’d run out of steam. These days, however, Mamdani has a healthy, vibrant and receptive listenership. And while he can make all the ugly remarks he wants, the real problem is that thousands of people are listening to him.

And it’s not limited to New York. His far-left messaging is being repeated across the country. Many feel that a Mamdani win may create a tsunami of like-minded politicos. I don’t want to make an analogy, but the Nazis never “told” people in conquered Eastern European countries to start pogroms. They just planted seeds of the idea, and they knew that crowds would form and do their dirty work for them.

I am much more concerned about Mamdani’s followers and those who are yelling bravo and showering him with kudos. They are dangerous to our schools, our synagogues and our Jewish communal institutions.

Mamdani would never publicly condone or suggest an antisemitic attack against our community; he’s too smart for that. I can’t, however, speak for his listenership.