On January 12, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report on antisemitism in the United States. It isn’t hard to see why many American Jews found ADL’s findings disheartening; according to ADL, “Over three-quarters of Americans, 85 percent, believe at least one anti-Jewish trope, as opposed to 61 percent found in 2019.”
Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin, an outspoken Never Trumper, doesn’t mince words in her scathing January 18 column. Analyzing ADL’s findings, Rubin blames far-right MAGA Republicans and their “kooky conspiracy theories” for the increase in antisemitism in the U.S.
“Right-wing Republicans have their fingerprints all over the rise of antisemitism in the United States,” Rubin explains. “The latest data make this clear.”
Rubin goes on to note some specific examples of “antisemitic tropes” that the ADL cited in its report, including the claims that American Jews are “clannish” and are “more loyal to Israel than the United States.”
“Much of this sounds like the rhetoric coming from the MAGA movement, and specifically its leader, defeated former President Donald Trump,” Rubin observes. “How many times have you heard Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, prattle on about George Soros, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant, as if he is the chief string-puller controlling the Democratic Party? Trump, meanwhile, routinely demonizes Jewish Democrats for not supporting him and the Israeli government.”
Rubin continues, “The far left is not blameless for the rise of antisemitism, of course. But the entire project of white Christian nationalism is to marginalize those who are not White and/or not Christian as something less than real Americans. More than one-third of those who responded to the ADL survey said, ‘Jews do not share my values.’ The chant ‘Jews will not replace us’ in Charlottesville in August 2017 was a visible reminder that the right wing considers Jews as much a threat to their vision of democracy as immigrants from Central America. Hatred of ‘elites’ and suspicion about urban dwellers often is a thinly disguised swipe at Jews. ‘New York values’ is often the buzz phrase.”
MAGA Republicans, in response to criticism of antisemitism in the MAGA movement, will often respond with “whataboutism” and say something like, “What about Louis Farrakhan?” Rubin calls out antisemitism on “the far left” in her column, but she stresses that it doesn’t let MAGA Republicans off the hook.
“That antisemitism has roared back with a vengeance is thanks mainly to a party that embraces white Christian nationalism and kooky conspiracy theories,” Rubin laments. “Republicans need to clean house to rid their party of purveyors of rabid anti-Jewish hatred. Meanwhile, Democrats must continue to make it clear that statements against Israel that veer into antisemitic tropes have no place in our political conversation.”