Anti-Semitism, hate groups make it a less than ‘sweet’ New Year

With the Jewish New Year beginning at sundown today (Sunday, Sept. 25), Jews in the United States and around the world are facing an uncertain future due to the sharp rise in anti-Semitism and the increased boldness and hatred of right-wing hate groups --- both online and in person. Their hateful rhetoric is in danger of making the Jewish people sitting ducks again --- and God forbid --- spawn a new Holocaust!
This column, which was published Friday, Sept. 23 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, examines that disturbing trend.

The link to the column, as it appears on The Sun Chronicle website, follows: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-for-jews-it-hasnt-been-such-a-shana-tova/article_3f28e9be-5028-5112-97a0-182acb7742df.html

The Jewish New Year 5783 will start Sunday evening (Sept. 25) with the start of the two-day observance known as Rosh Hashanah and will end 10 days later at sundown on Wednesday, Oct. 5 with the conclusion of the 24-hour solemn fast day, the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. The period from the New Year to the end of Yom Kippur is known as the Ten Days of Repentance and is set aside for reflection, prayer and introspection.
The new year is also a time to renew hope for the future as people wish each other “l’shana tova” or “shana tova” (a “good year).” In addition, a mealtime tradition calls for dipping the traditional challah bread and-or apples in honey as a way of encouraging others at the dinner table to enjoy a sweet year.
But it won’t necessarily be either a “good” or “sweet” new year, because a frightening rise in anti-Semitism is making American Jews feel more unwelcome than they’ve been in decades, but don’t just take my word for it.
A report issued in April by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New England, which covers every regional state except Connecticut, reported that anti-Semitic incidents increased by 42 percent in 2021, with 155 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to the ADL.
The increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Massachusetts alone was particularly chilling, with 108 in 2021, a 48 percent increase from 2020, when 73 were reported, according to the ADL. The same report noted that the increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the region was higher than the 34 percent hike nationally in 2021, when 2,717 incidents were reported --- the highest since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979. 
The situation has only grown more dire in 2022. Extremist hate groups have been making their presence felt often, and at least one group brazenly paraded through downtown Boston over the summer.
Then in September, the Jewish community was specifically targeted when, during the observance of the 21^st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, extremists hung a banner on Route 1 in Saugus with this message: "Jews Did 9/11." That was as hurtful of a lie as the one that went around social media in the summer of 2021 that the California forest fires were started by “Jewish lasers.”
Saugus police fielded complaints about the 9/11 lie about Jews, but because hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, the banner and the extremists who stood by it weren’t forced to disperse.
But that didn’t erase the fact that what the banner said had only one purpose: to spread the dangerous lies similar to those authored by the Germans in the 1930s that led to the Holocaust, where the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews and 5 million people of other ethnic backgrounds during World War II as they herded Jews from nations they conquered off to deadly concentration camps.
The ADL condemned the banner incident, although given the overwhelmingly apathetic state of the American people these days toward hate speech and the spreading of wild, and patently false, conspiracy theories, it’s debatable whether the ADL’s repeated condemnations of similar incidents are getting through to anyone.
Nonetheless ADL New England Regional Director Robert Trestan released this statement:
“On Sept. 11, a day when we remember a great tragedy experienced by our country and the loss of too many, a number of highway overpasses in our Commonwealth were tarnished with anti-Semitic banners, held by cowardly masked extremists, blaming these terrorist attacks on Jews.
“The scapegoating of the Jewish community is an age-old but exceedingly harmful anti-Semitic trope that must be called out and condemned whenever and wherever it occurs. Using this tragedy to spread false, destructive and divisive narratives harms our communities and sense of security and disgraces the memory of the victims from that day."
But it’s not just well-organized extremist groups spreading such hate; ignorance has been on the rise for the last several years, and an incident this summer in a Rhode Island town illustrates the role that misguided “jokes” and ill-advised offhand comments play in promoting anti-Semitism.
During a heat wave in July, a post on Facebook by the Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant in Tiverton, R.I., did what far too many people --- including many politicians and elected state officials and members of Congress --- have been feeling empowered to do these days where hate speech has been deemed acceptable: use the Holocaust for a "joke" and-or a political talking point.
Last year, it was officials comparing COVID-19 vaccine requirements to the Holocaust and Jews being forced to wear Stars of David by the Nazis that tested the limits of good taste, and this year it was an outrageous Facebook post masquerading as a “joke.”
The post featured a photo of Anne Frank --- the same Anne Frank whose diary of her hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam apartment has inspired millions over the decades. Frank was 15 when, after being captured by the Nazis in 1944 after two years of hiding, was killed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.
But that didn't stop this restaurant from, in its haste to complain about the heat, showing utter stupidity and callousness by using a black-and-white portrait of Frank as it posted this meme: "It's hotter than an oven out there ... And I should  know!"
That “joke” defied good taste --- something that thanks to the Wild West nature of social media, is in extremely short supply these days.
What these incidents show is that there’s no dearth of hatred in today’s America --- and that’s sadly making a Holocaust in the United States a lot less unthinkable or unlikely than it seemed just a decade or so ago.
Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com