Tag Archives: Jews

George Soros, the wealthy Hungarian-American financier and philanthropist, is the bogey man of the American right wing. They trace whatever they don’t like about liberalism or progressive politics back to Soros’ imaginary machinations. Soros is the puppet-master. George Soros is a Jew. These are antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Hanukkah began Sunday. And like all American Jews, I am a little nervous this year. Hanukkah ends on Dec. 26, creating an unusual confluence of holidays. And it comes during a time of growing antisemitism in the U.S. and the world. The number of antisemitic incidents in 2021 was the highest in nearly 50 years, and 2022 is going to be worse.

This essay will begin with a sad story — about a family in turmoil. Their story mirrors what is happening in the larger society — the struggle over politics, culture and how to engage each other on those topics. I tell this story with the permission of the person involved. It is not pretty.

I have never seen anything like our current anti-Semitic climate. Jews understand this dynamic in the same way Black Americans understand racism in ways white Americans cannot. We know the dog whistles, the coded language that anti-Semites use to signal their hate.

Violent anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. rose 50 percent last year. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were a total of 56 against Jewish victims.

Jews and Christians are different and one way to understand each other is to ask questions. Sometimes, said Levine, we think, "yes, but shouldn't we already know this" and then we make stuff up because we think we understand it.