Anti-Semitism didn't just crawl out from under its rock

The following letter was published in the MetroWest Daily News on November 25, 2018:

In her op-ed, "Anti-Semitism crawls out from under its rock," Cantor Jacqueline Breines well expresses the shock, heartbreak and anger unleashed by the recent terror attack and deaths of eleven people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. However, anti-Semitism in America didn't exactly just "crawl out from under its rock." It's been going mainstream for years, particularly in the thinly-disguised form of anti-Zionism, the movement which seeks to uniquely deny to the Jewish people the right to national sovereignty granted to other peoples.

Jews are harassed on college campuses for refusing to condemn the nation-state of the Jewish people. Speeches by Israelis are disrupted and cut short by violent protesters for whom the right to free speech does not extend to supporters of the only democracy in the Middle East; other speeches have been canceled because colleges decided they could not guarantee the safety of the students or the invited speakers.

Leaders of the Women's March are proud admirers of Louis Farrakhan, a blatant and unrepentant anti-Semite, and mainstream groups continue to work with them and even honor them.

The founders of the BDS movement have made clear their goal is the liquidation of world's only Jewish state, yet earlier this month several supporters of that inherently and irredeemably anti-Semitic movement were elected to Congress No, anti-Semitism didn't just "crawl out from under its rock" with the mass shooting in Pittsburgh; it's been rearing its ugly head for years, with murderous results not just in Israel, but in London, Paris, Mumbai, Buenos Aires and many other cities. The only novelty in Pittsburgh is that anti-Semitism again turned deadly in America.

Alan Stein
Natick