Before the establishment of Israel, the destiny of millions of Jews was decided by the whims of Christian Europe and the Muslim world. What has changed dramatically is that today there is a powerful Jewish state.
We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Jewish diaspora. While the anti-Semitic terrorist attack against a synagogue in Pittsburgh is a grave warning for American Jewry, the danger for Jews in Scandinavian countries, France and Britain has been evident for some time.
The Jewish diaspora is the most enduring exile in human history. For 2000 years, the Jewish people has been scattered across the globe and contributed disproportionally to humanity. Against all odds, Jews have survived persecution from the times of Babylon and Rome to the Spanish Inquisition, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Islamist terrorism.
Before the establishment of modern Israel, the destiny of millions of Jews was decided by the whims of different non-Jewish rulers in Christian Europe and the Muslim world. Being forced to flee with short notice with little more than a suitcase was the harsh reality for generations of Diaspora Jews. Islamist Jew-hatred has virtually wiped out once thriving ancient Middle Eastern Jewish communities from Morocco to Iran.
As late as 1939, most of the world’s Jews lived in Europe and Russia. As a result of Nazism, Communism and emigration to Israel and America, only a fraction remains. Seven decades after the Holocaust, European Jewry is ageing and assimilating while facing increasing levels of antisemitism from Islamism and extremists on the Right and Left.
Generations of Jews have referred to America as “The Golden Medina” – the golden country of endless freedom and opportunity. The American Jewish community is the largest and most successful Jewish population in the history of Jewish diaspora. In fact, many assimilated US Jews with little affiliation with Israel and Jewish peoplehood, no longer consider themselves living in exile at all.
Historically, antisemitism in America was relatively mild compared to traditional European Jew-hatred. Anti-Jewish discrimination and bigotry in the United States rarely translated into European-style pogroms. However, an increasing number of US Jews are gradually recognizing that there is a growing trouble in their cherished American home. A recent report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, shows that 72% of all religious hate crimes in Los Angeles in 2017 targeted Jews. While many liberals talk about Islamophobia, only 12% of all religious hate crimes targeted Muslims. Furthermore, the reports shows that the proportion of religious hate crimes against Jews in Los Angeles have increased from 68% in 2016 to 72% in 2017. For sure, Jew-hatred in America is by no means limited to Los Angeles.
Jewish leaders in Sweden recently admitted that there is likely no Jewish future in Sweden. According to a 2015 poll, 58% of British Jews doubt whether there is a Jewish future in Europe.
Private talks with family members and friends whether to stay or emigrate, is no longer limited to European Jewry. An increasing number of US Jews privately ask themselves whether there is a Jewish future in America. The recent anti-Semitic lethal attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue is certainly not reassuring.
More and more US Jews who for generations viewed America as a blessed final stop, are starting to look at alternative places like Canada or Israel. Even most pessimists don’t believe that a Holocaust could take place in 21st century America. However, the American Jewish community is not as confident and certain as it was a few years ago.
Many Jewish and non-Jewish liberals blame President Trump for the growing antisemitism. However, President Trump has strongly condemned Jew-hatred including the latest anti-Semitic attack in Pittsburgh. President Trump has also been far more supportive towards Israel than his predecessors have. Jew-hatred in America existed long before Trump. While threats from fringe Neo-Nazis are real, Islamists and Leftist extremists are responsible for the majority of Jew-hatred in Europe and America.
Some post-Zionist critics have argued that the most dangerous place for Jews is Israel. The Jewish state does face serious challenges from hostile neighbors. However, unlike Diaspora Jewry, Israeli Jews have a Jewish state and a Jewish army to protect them.
The number of lethal terrorist attacks in Israel have dropped significantly since Arafat launched the Second Intifada terrorist war on Israel in the early 2000s. By contrast, Islamist terrorist attacks have increased dramatically in America and especially in Europe.
Affected by 19th century romanticism, Theodor Herzl wrongly believed that return of the Jewish people to its ancestral homeland Israel would end antisemitism. However, pragmatists like David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin did not harbor these illusions.
Antisemitism will not disappear any time soon. What has changed dramatically is that today there is a powerful Jewish state. Only in Israel is the Jewish people capable of defending itself by itself.
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Daniel Kryger is a writer and a political analyst and a Fellow at the Haym Salomon Center.
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Daniel K always gets it right, but I also think that big changes are afoot also in the diaspora. The questions I would focus on are those related to the future.
Yes, the diaspora happened because of the Romans being a bit unpleasant to our lot, in around 100 BCE, but it had already happened earlier when Joos had left their original homes to go East to Persia and Mesopotamia, and to start on their long trek along the Silk Road towards China.
I met with a Joo in Ashkebad who family had lived in Khiva for at least a thousand years, and the Jews of China must have left the shores of the Mediterranean before the time of the Romans (as you can see on my Silk Road page, Chinese traders were already in the London area in Roman times).
So putting a more positive slant on the Diaspora issue, I would say that it has been instrumental in creating the intellectual mix which has lead to the creation of a massively prosperous Jooish world (far more prosperous than the Arab World of which people talk too much about). I would add that were one to consider writing a future history of our people, the next “diaspora” will be to return to the old haunts of the Silk Road, and to its trading bases, in India, China and Central Asia, where the next few centuries will see amazing growth, and innovation, and therefore opportunities for diaspora Joos, but this time a connected diaspora, integrated with a dynamic culture of opportunities.
what’s with the word joo and joos, Engel?
I think American liberal JINOs (Jews in name only) , by continuing their relentless and demeaning attacks against President Trump, will ignite the anti-semitic backlash which will grow and grow.
Yes, there are white racist neo-nazi nuts with guns, and yes we are stupidly bringing in more and more moslem “refugees” with their built-in hatred of israel and Jews (thank you, you dumb sh*ts at HIAS).
but it’s the bigmouth liberal jews and half-jews at the NYTImes and WPost, in Silican Valley, in Hollywood, at CNN and the fakakta media, at colleges and high school all over–and yes at the levers of power in Washington (Adam Schiff, Gerold Nagler, Diane Feinstsein, et al) who are still determined to impeach and remove and crucify Trump– who will really ignite populist anger, which is easily transmuted into hatred, towards “the Jew.”