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Europe's Ubiquitous Anti-Semitism

(Atlantic) Ben Judah - Anti-Semitism is like the flu: uncomfortable, sickly, occasionally deadly, but constantly with us. Every few decades, it mutates into an epidemic. As a British Jew, I kept on telling myself that it would pass. I kept thinking it is just not that important, unless I decide to live and work in Cairo or Tehran. I kept thinking that even after I was pinned to a wall, throttled, and punched in the head by supporters of George Galloway in 2015 shouting, "Get out, you f...ing Jew." I made a mistake. I felt a creeping horror when eight Labour MPs left their party, in no small part because of the protracted anti-Semitism crisis. I felt it again, stronger, when I saw the footage of the Jewish intellectual Alain Finkielkraut being mobbed by yellow-vested protesters who yelled, "France belongs to us" and "Dirty Zionist." A protest movement sparked by fuel prices was now all about the Jews. The days that European Jews could lead public lives not defined by anti-Semitism were over. We were back, not to the days of Hitler, but to the days when being a Jewish public figure was a constant struggle - a process of endlessly navigating an ever-mutating conspiracy theory against you.
2019-03-01 00:00:00
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