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How to Fight the Rise in Antisemitism in America
(Fox News) Joe Lieberman - In my public and personal life, I have faced no antisemitism. That is why the recent outbursts of hatred of Jews have shocked me. During the 40 years the people of Connecticut elected me to state and federal offices, our state's Jewish population was never much more than 2%. The great majority of votes I received in all those elections came from people who were not Jewish. There was never even a hint of antisemitism being used against me in any of my campaigns. In 2000, I was honored to be selected by Al Gore to be his running mate, the first Jewish-American to run on a major party national ticket. Again, I faced no antisemitism. The ticket on which there was a Jewish candidate received 545,000 more votes than the other ticket in a great affirmation of the fairness of America's voters. The rise in antisemitism in America in recent years means that something serious has changed. Since the war in Gaza began, public expressions of hatred of Jews has reached a fevered pitch. The likely cause is the erosion of our previous national consensus against such hatred and the general loss of civility in speech and behavior in our country, where undisciplined and uncivilized behavior has reached a peak in recent years. Fixing this cause of hatred cannot be done by laws alone. It will take personal decisions to discipline our speech and behavior to stop the hatred that is dividing and weakening our country. The Jewish-American community cannot defeat antisemitism without help from the rest of America, any more than African-Americans alone can stop racism. It will take the broadest possible coalition of Americans coming together to fight hatred. The writer, chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran, was a U.S. senator (D-Conn.) (1989-2013).