November 2018 warnings about anti-Semitism ring truer than ever

 

I wrote this story in November 2018 --- almost two years into the presidency of Donald Trump. Anti-Semitism was on the rise, and the warnings by Jonathan Weisman --- the then-deputy Washington editor of the New York Times, who at the time was getting ready to speak to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island about the rise in anti-Semitism on social media, and threats that he received online during an uptick of threats against Jewish journalists --- were chilling.
His experiences are worth sharing more than two years later --- especially in the wake of the siege on the Capitol, where at least one white supremacist was seen carrying a huge Confederate flag through the halls of the Capitol, and others were seen wearing T-shirts with chilling anti-Semitic messages:

This story was published in November 2018 in Jewish Rhode Island of Providence, which was then known as the Jewish Voice:

The author of a new book on the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States says it will take a collaborative effort between American Jews and other targeted minorities to effectively counter the marked increase in hate speech and crimes since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump.
Jonathan Weisman, who will be among the speakers at the Evening of Jewish Renaissance, to be held by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17 at the Dwares JCC, traces the rise of this latest wave of anti-Semitism in “(((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump,” which was published in March.
The most alarming fallout from the sharp rise in anti-Semitism in this country, a synagogue mass shooting, took place Oct. 27 during a Sabbath service that included the celebration of a bris at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The suspected gunman, Robert Bowers, 46, allegedly opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue, killing at least 11 people and wounding six others, including four police officers responding to the incident. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in the nation’s history.
The triple parentheses bracketing the word “Semitism” in Weisman’s book title are neither a typo nor a mistake; they’re at the heart of how Weisman, 53, a 30-year journalist and the deputy Washington Editor of The New York Times, discovered how widespread the rise of anti-Semitism has become, he said during a phone interview.
Weisman’s saga started during the 2016 campaign when he sent out a social media message referencing a column by neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin and said all he got back were the parentheses around his name. The three parentheses bracketing a name are what the alt right uses “to mark a Jewish journalist,” he explained.
“Once a journalist is tagged like that, you get an avalanche” of hate tweets and emails, he said, adding during the 2016 campaign, Jewish journalists saw “an absolute deluge of hate attacks.”
In his case, he wrote in an op-ed column published after the Pittsburgh shooting, he said he was “showered with the ugliest, most violent anti-Semitic imagery imaginable, my face photo-shopped on Holocaust victims, my path into Auschwitz accented by gates that read ‘Machen Amerika Great Again.’ “
After the election, Weisman wrote a couple of pieces on the subject about it for the Times, and his agent suggested that he write a book to be released to coincide with the mid-term elections.
Weisman said the term alt right was coined during the Bush years, but “we didn’t know it existed until 2016, when it burst out during the campaign.” Before that, he said, “we didn’t give enough credit or pay too much attention to it.”
Weisman said social media continues to be a prime source of the spike in hate-laced thought and speech directed toward Jews. Evidence of that came from the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, who had recently posted: “All Jews must die.”
Weisman said that, to properly understand the rise in anti-Semitism, especially on social media, it’s important to put it into a global context. “Intolerance is on the rise all over the world and not just in this country,” he said.
Exacerbating this surge in anti-Semitism, he said, is that people have had no filter when it comes to hate speech since Trump’s election. “I think this is just a moment in our country when hatred and bigotry are more tolerated. People will say things in public that they wouldn’t have dreamed of saying years ago,” he said.
Asked about possible remedies, Weisman said countering anti-Semitism depends on minorities cooperating and supporting each other. “I think there has to be a lot more coalition-building aimed at hatred itself,” he said. “Anti-Semitism’s only one manifestation of this,” he said, pointing to an increase in bigotry toward others, including Latinos, Muslims and immigrants.
Politically, a return to civility is also needed. “There are certain aspects of society that can be neither Republican nor Democrat,” he said. “Standing up against intolerance is not partisan. We need a little more bravery in the public.”
Reaction to the book from the American Jewish community has been mixed, he said. Some people have embraced the notion while other Jews, he said “have been really upset by the book. They think that Trump’s policies toward Israel negate the bigotry” espoused by some of the administration’s supporters and part of his base.
Weisman believes that kind of division among Jews is counterproductive and won’t help combat anti-Semitism. “We have spent so much time arguing over Israel that we’ve neglected to talk about our country,” he said.
Weisman, who describes himself as a “well-traveled journalist,” has also worked for The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
Besides his current book, he’s published a novel, “No. 4 Imperial Lane,” in 2014, which was a Chautauqua Prize finalist, Amazon Best Book of the Month and Great Group Reads pick at the Women’s National Book Association.
Asked about which type of writing – fiction or non-fiction – he prefers, he acknowledged, “I have more fun writing fiction, but sometimes you have things to say.”