A moment of reckoning for American Jewish leaders
JVL Introduction
In this analysis in +972 Magazine, Natasha Roth-Rowland investigates the deep splits emerging within the American Jewish establishment in the face of growing threats of fascism.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) dared to draw parallels between the situation in 1930s Germany and the US today.
The American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, expressed outrage at this alleged demeaning the memory of Holocaust victims.
But then ex-ADL CEO Abraham Foxman and Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt, endorsed the JDCA’s message, as did a number of academics.
The American-Jewish establishment has hitched itself to the American state and lauded its support for Israel. It is at a loss as to how to respond when antisemitism, and the violence it inspires, emanates from the White House itself; and a “love” for Israel has gone over into reckless polices of support for Greater Israel expansionism.
Many other Jewish groups are not so hesitant to make the obvious historical comparisons…
This article was originally published by +972 magazine on Thu 1 Oct 2020. Read the original here.
A moment of reckoning for American Jewish leaders
A spat over a comparison between present-day America and 1930s Germany showed the American-Jewish establishment is unequipped to protect its community.
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Glad to see this +972 magazine article and thank you JVL. It looks like Natasha Roth-Rowland is establishing herself as someone who will be well worth following, in similar way to Jamie Stern-Weiner. She has nicely summarised the contrasting and sometimes vacillating stances by American Jewish leaders. As someone with rural roots the expression “running with the hares and hunting with the hounds ” came to mind.
Her references are on point and I found the twitter feed to the AJC very illuminating, as regards the change in Jewish opinions. It may be that because of Trump more people are now prepared to speak out against faulty leadership, using straight forward sensible comments. I noted a good tweet by Dr. Alan Maddison. Tweets by members of other minority groups show the widening solidarity. Since the US has been the main supporter of Israel, this is very encouraging! Much respect to our Jewish Israeli allies too!
I fully agree with Deborah Lipstadt endorsing the JDCA’s message of comparing pre-Holocaust Germany to the situation in the US. I would extend it to saying that sadly again we have managed to come to a cross roads scenario where the establishment appears to encourage neo-nazi groupings and sentiments. We need to act together to stop it in time. I am so relieved that someone else is seeing the parallels I was seeing. I did not dare say it out aloud for fear of getting into trouble.
Another enlightening article about the US situation. I liked the way it examined why there was this reaction from the Jewish establishment groups to something which appeared more clearly to others. We need more of this type of analysis if it is to be tackled in a united way. Thank you JVL.