Jewish communal leaders and media always look for the worst interpretation

JVL Introduction

Jewish communal bodies and politicians who should know better continue to work themselves up into a froth about the omnipresence of antisemitism and the imminence of doom and disaster.

We’re in the midst of one such moral panic and it is instructive to learn that we in Britain are not alone.

This story from New York City come from a quite different context from what we face in Britain; yet the structure of the response is similar.

Communal spokespeople anticipate the worst. Mainstream media and politicians play along.

The result? Often the real threat of antisemitism is ignored because its source is misunderstood or ignored, while political positions that aren’t liked become transmogrified into existential threats.

Libby Lenkinski asks simply: “Why are we hearing so much more about the Jews who object to Mamdani’s policies than the many of us who embrace them?”

It is, she says, “ A story in which Jews are perpetually under threat from everyone around them. A story in which Muslim politicians and Jewish communities are naturally destined for conflict. A story in which any evidence to the contrary must be minimized, reframed or treated as suspicious.”

Sound familiar?

RK

This article was originally published by the Forward on Wed 27 May 2026. Read the original here.