Imagine if I wrote an article stating how I love the KKK and think the Grand Wizard is great – or that slavery was a great boon to the United States; too bad it was abolished.
To paraphrase the great Chuck Schumer: “There would be a whirlwind around me which I won’t know what hit me.” Of course, he was talking about conservative Supreme Court Justices. And you know what? I would deserve it.
Well, here we have the infamous and vile rapper Kanye West, who says he loves Hitler and the Nazis and regrets nothing he said about how awful Jews are. Yet he shows up to the Grammy Awards with barely a whimper.
Doesn’t he realize that Hitler and the Nazis hated Blacks almost as much as they did Jews? Remember the treatment of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany? Blacks do not exactly live up to the characteristics of the Aryan race. No question he does realize that, but it’s okay as long as Hitler hated Jews more.
It reminds me of 1969 when I was fishing in a lake in Ulster Heights, New York, where my parents vacationed for the summer. Across from us was a colony of miserable Polish-born anti-Semites. While I was fishing, a group of kids from that colony pulled up in a rowboat and pitched pennies at me to taunt me as a Jew. Then one of them asked me if I caught anything. I told him, “Yes, a few of your people, but I threw them back in.” He wasn’t too happy with that response and started to curse me and wished that Hitler would have killed all the Jews.
I said to him, “But don’t you realize that Hitler killed millions of Poles?” He was stunned for a second and then said, “Yeah, but he got more of you Jews!”
Anti-Semitism coming from Blacks in the streets of Brooklyn or popular ones like Kanye West, philosopher/theologian Cornel West, conservative thinker gone crazy Candace Owens (I remember cheering for her), or movements like Black Lives Matter and the NAACP, both of which support Hamas, puzzle me more than any other form of Jew-hatred.
What have we done to the Blacks to deserve this hatred? It was the Jews who were in the forefront of the Civil Rights movement, starting with Rabbi AJ Heschel marching with Rev. Martin Luthor King Jr. in Selma. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Let me make it clear for those whose antennae are up. I am not singling out Blacks for anti-Semitism. So don’t jump on me for that. The African Americans I interface with in New York and Baltimore in malls and offices are truly the kindest people I know - never a hint of anti-Semitism from them. I am saying when it does come from Blacks, it is the most hurtful.
I do not see the outrage against any of the hate-filled comments leveled at Jews. Imagine had a prominent Jew made an openly racist comment. All of the machers and Jewish organizations would have been tripping over themselves to condemn the person.
I’ll bet somehow some readers of this article will say I’m racist, for some twisted reason, for bringing up the topic. It’s all part of the lunacy that still exists in too many circles.
In a recent release, over 100 Jewish organizations, including the Reform and Conservative establishment and many JCRCs (thankfully I did not see New York in the pile), signed a proclamation critical of Trump’s dehumanization of (illegal) immigrants, scapegoating transgenders and people of color, the freeing of insurrectionists, etc… They didn’t seem to have a problem with commuting the sentences of heinous murderers or pardoning one’s son after he promised not to.
And you gotta love this statement included in the epistle: “History has made clear that the safety of Jews is inextricably linked with the inclusive pluralistic democracy with the rights and safety of all people…”
Hello! Why learn from history? Why not learn from the present? We have been seeing for the last year and a half that “inclusive pluralistic democracy” includes everyone but the Jews. All the leftist justice warriors declared war on the Jews everywhere. Those who screamed loudest for women’s rights were totally silent when it came to the horrific violation of Israeli Jewish women by Hamas. Where’s the inclusion? Hollywood and the publishing industry, those liberal bastions, have become hotbeds of Israel-bashing.
College campuses from the most elite leftist colleges showed how inclusive they were. Jewish students were stunned to learn that their leftist fellow best friends in school declared war on the Jews. How did Biden/Harris work out for Jews last year? I’ll tell you how. Anti-Semitism in America skyrocketed to numbers never seen before. The administration’s response? Empty platitudes!
Trump’s response? Anyone on a foreign visa caught supporting Hamas will be deported. I hope he implements that ASAP. I am sure the same 100 signatories will condemn Trump for that, too. It makes them itchy. Just now it is being announced that, thanks to pressure from Trump, PLA leader Abbas has agreed to stop the notorious “pay for slay” policy, which rewarded terrorists for killing Jews. I seem to forget how Biden/Harris dealt with that. Oh, yes. They reinstated it after being stopped by the Taylor Force Act. I am sure we will see the same 100 organizations thank Trump for that. More likely, they will condemn Trump for depriving poor Palestinians from their livelihood.
Now we have a president who, with all his flaws (are you flawless?), put together a dream team of appointments who are on the wish list of anyone who loves Israel: Rubio, Stefanik, Hegseth, Leavitt, Bondi, and Huckabee, to name just a few who have been outspoken in support of Israel. Who does the “Left guard” trash? Trump, of course!
It is so unfortunate that the Reform and the whole leftist Jewish community have no problems publicizing whatever drivel they feel is sacred, often shoehorning their credo into the dictates of the Bible. Yet the Orthodox, as we have said many times before, refuse to take a public stand on anything that might offend some radical component of their flank. They will tell you, “We do things behind the scenes.” Baloney! I’ve been associated long enough with Jewish organizations to know exactly what that means. It means: “We don’t want to get involved.”
This is exactly why the Coalition for Jewish Values was created.
This goes to show how philosophically and politically obtuse those Jews on the left are. I am dismayed to learn that this includes members of some of the most prestigious Orthodox synagogues. This would be funny but it’s no joke. How can we expect the Administration to fight for us when we fight against ourselves? We are more interested in all the other ethnic groups. Just not Jews. Once again, I ask: How crazy are we?
So, you want to see how much your liberal loyalties have done for Jews? Go West.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
