The recent increase in antisemitism, as well as the drive to remove Christianity from the public square, is a reflection of the incompatibility of the Judeo-Christian ethic with the increasing power of the left.
Throughout the 20th century, dictators including Stalin, Hitler, and Mao shared a hatred of religion. The Washington Times notes that “Left-wing antisemitism goes back to Karl Marx. In his 1844 tract ‘“’On the Jewish Question,’ the godfather of progressivism wrote: ‘What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Hucksterism. What is his worldly God? Money.’ Marx was about as subtle as Mein Kampf.”
The rise of socialist politicians in the United States is a clear threat to religious freedom. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Marion Smith argues that “No amount of hope or hermeneutic effort can cleanse communism’s record of blood—especially the blood of religious adherents. Every communist regime has sought to purge the faith of its people. An atheistic ideology, communism is not only irreligious but antireligious. The communist hatred of faith is a feature, not a fault. Karl Marx said so himself. Most are familiar with his line that religion is the “opium of the people.” What follows is even more pointed: “The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.”
The reason is clear: any hold on the public conscious other than government is seen as a rival for power, which totalitarian regimes and philosophies cannot abide. The concept of each human being having worth and having rights that come not from government but from God stands squarely opposite to the current push to establish an all-powerful government on the socialist model.
It is not surprising, then, that updated FBI statistics indicate a 20% increase in antisemitic hate crimes. PBS reports that “Antisemitic hate crimes rose in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, home to the country’s three largest Jewish populations, according to their police departments.”
It is more than just street crime. The New York Post reports that “A group of left-leaning New York City Council members, including Brooklyn’s controversial Charles Barron, failed to back a resolution to establish an ‘End Jew Hatred Day’ in the Big Apple…Four other Democrats from the borough — Rita Joseph, Alexa Avilés, Jennifer Gutiérrez, and Barron — all opted to abstain.”
Nor is it shocking that the recent assault on a Christian school in Nashville is reportedly based on the perpetrators “manifesto” that authorities are reluctant to release, which may indicate the shooter’s hatred of Christianity.
On the national level, Democrats have been reluctant to criticize the anti-Semites in their midst. In 2019, when Rep. Ilhan Omar made bigoted remarks, the party was hesitant to specifically condemn them, and, eventually only agreed to a watered-down disagreement with “hate speech” in general.
Due to their minority status, Jews are clearly the most vulnerable in the Left’s disdain for religion, but they are the canary in the coal mine.
Leftist elected officials on both the local and national levels are increasingly open in their anti-Semitic perspectives. Steven Lubet, a Williams Memorial Professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, stresses that “It is no secret that American progressives have become increasingly unsympathetic – some might say antagonistic or hostile – toward Israel… expressions of anti-Semitism [cannot] be brushed off as only anti-Zionism. Regrettably, there is a demonstrated tendency among American progressives to make excuses when their confreres use overtly anti-Jewish memes or stereotypes directed at Israel, to the point that anti-Semitism is becoming a normalized aspect of liberal discourse in the United States.”
The editorial board of National Review points out that “Anti-Jewish attacks did not spring forth in a vacuum. Increasingly, the American Left has gone beyond mere criticism of the Jewish State (of the sort that is made against other nations) and adopted the kind of virulent strain of anti-Israel rhetoric that was once mercifully relegated to far-left college campuses. In this environment, Squad members Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib can falsely accuse Israel of being an ‘apartheid state’ and of employing U.S. military aid to target civilians and children — a new spin on an old blood libel — and experience almost no rebuke from their own party.”
Antisemitism is the first wave of an attack on individual rights. Its increase is a warning of further assaults on freedom.