The weather here on the east coast of Florida is dark, gloomy, and wet, the countless spoonfuls of rain a portent of the category five hurricane threatening from the east. It has been like this for a couple of days now as Floridians await the storm’s arrival full blast in the Tampa area. We are in the southeast, where we only suffer the fringe drops. Still, there were no newspaper deliveries today, so my news is TV-sourced as well as from the internet via my cell.
Today is the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, and much has been written about it. Protests abound. There is reportedly a roving protest in New York City — unfortunately, the weather is clear there. Perhaps the frightful weather here will discourage any protests. Though much has been written, there is much left unsaid, with hostages still underground and unaccounted for. I am sorrowful for their plight.
The anti-Semitism that has surfaced after the devastation in Gaza cannot be easily explained away. I personally do not feel any of it. However, my granddaughter, a junior in college, will not wear her Star of David necklace for fear of provoking an attack. My 13-year-old grandson is more cautious than ever walking to his high school in New York City, always looking over his shoulder. Growing up in Rochester, New York, in the 1940’s and 50’s I never felt threatened because I am Jewish. Perhaps the beating I took walking home from school one day in the 9th grade was a bit more than bullying? My daughters, who grew up in East Hampton, were once called “dirty Jews,” but upon investigation, we learned the youngster who uttered the slur had a history of troublesome behavior.
Last spring college campuses throughout the country were overwhelmed with anti-Israel protesters. This fall, things are quieter, but the offensive sentiments persist, and many Jewish students say they still feel unsafe. I do not believe all of this anti-Semitism arises from the war in Gaza. Much of it is pent-up hostility unleashed by current events. At one level, it is the same anger toward migrants who have overwhelmed our borders, taking the lowliest kind of work that no one wants to do and at low wages. At a different socio-economic level, it manifests as perhaps a type of resentment because Jews, though a very small percentage of the overall population, disproportionately occupy so many of the highest positions in law, finance, commerce, media, academia, and the arts.
Jewish stereotypes run through our culture from Shakespeare’s Shylock to the myth of the Jewish cabal that controls all the levers of society. Anti-Semitism exists below the surface of daily rituals. It took a horrific act of terrorism on October 7th to provoke the Israelis into their devastating response — a response Hamas certainly anticipated and now, counting on the humanity of the Israelis to not deliberately target innocent civilians, use their own women and children as shields. It was a response by Israel anticipated and sought after by Hamas. We all now suffer the good and the bad.