It has mostly escaped notice in the political class - if not for want of trying - but there is, indeed, a rather vociferous movement to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Though it has been hampered by rather ineffective organizing, the occasional association with Palestinian terrorism and, indeed, good, old-fashioned anti-Semitism of the kind you may have thought perished in the ruins of Auschwitz, it exists, and now, it is heading for the borough of Brooklyn.

Indeed, it is already here.

Specifically, some members of the Park Slope Food Co-op - full disclosure: I am not a member thereof - want the collective store to de-shelve products from Israel, pointing to that country's often objectionable treatment of Palestinians in Israel proper and the occupied West Bank as cause.

If you think that smells more than slightly like Deutsche, kauft nicht beim Juden, you'd be correct. Like every nation state under the sun, including our own, Israel and its government do things we may find troubling. To give just one example, China is, step by little step, obliterating the existence of Tibet as a distinct entity within the People's Republic.

Yet oddly enough, I'm unaware of any attempts to take Chinese products off any shelves.

The quintessence of anti-Semitism as it relates to the state of Israel is to single it out for treatment not afforded any other state. I have a very hard time believing that the Co-Op would consider being a party to this.

Racism and anti-Semitism rhetoric has become increasingly acceptable among the right wing. Intolerance has become an accepted value among all too many Republicans. The latest example of this is Republican nominee for NY Governor Carl Paladino. It seems this guy isn't just infamous for his racism and love for bestiality videos (I kid you not!) but also his anti-Semitism and trivializing the Holocaust.

From the Huffington Post:

"If I could ever describe a person who would fit the bill of an Antichrist or a Hitler, this guy is it," Paladino said. "I'm sure Chris had no -- absolutely no -- intention whatsoever of insulting the Jewish faith or the ethnic group or religion."--Carl Paladino

Of course this comes in addition to Paladino's blatant racism:

Paladino has sent emails that include:  read more »

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. By sheer coincidence, or through some sort of subconscious trick, I just finished re-reading the book Voyage of the Damned, the story of the ship carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in 1939 that was refused entry into Cuba or the United States and so most of the refugees were returned to Europe...mostly to their ultimate deaths in concentration camps. I want to mix in my thoughts on Voyage of the Damned with something I wrote last year on Yom HaShoah, and remind us all that "Never Again" has yet to be achieved and that we bear a responsibility to not fall into the same trap that people fell into in the 1930's and 1940's.

And the anti-immigration mood in the United States of the late 1930's bears a considerable resemblance to the anti-immigrant mood today, and Voyage of the Damned is as much a condemnation of the inaction of the United States as it is a condemnation of what was happening in Europe.

It is Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is the time we remember the 11 million people (including he 5 million non-Jews too often left out of our remembrance) who were killed by the Nazis in WW II.  read more »

I have been reading a book on the history of the Ostjuden, or Eastern European jews, a sub-branch of the Ashkenazim. One almost constant theme during several hundred years of East European history is that whenever there was a major political conflict, Jews were blamed often by both sides for the problems of the country. Each time Poland rebelled against Russia, the Poles attacked the Jews for beings sympathetic to Russia and the Russians attacked the Jews for being sympathetic to Poland. Often the Jews just tried remaining neutral, but still were blamed by both sides. At times the Jews fought side by side with the Poles, defending Poland from invaders. And yet the Poles STILL often blamed the Jews when they didn't win. When Poland finally did win independence after WW I, anti-Semitism grew as Poles suspected Jews of having been pro-German. Simply put, Jews were blamed no matter what.

The same thing happened in Romania...and Czechoslovakia...over and over again for centuries. Somehow, no matter what happened, the main thing all Eastern European people could agree on (other than hating eachother) was to blame the Jews any time something went wrong.

Well, even today, even on another continent, the same tradition continues. In Honduras somehow the Jews and Israel are being blamed for the coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya. Now my sympathies lie with Zelaya, the democratically elected President of Honduras, but his followers apparently are carrying on the age old tradition of blaming the Jews for something Jews have nothing to do with. From the Anti-Defamation League:  read more »

I have argued for some time that the right wing use of hate speech to stir up its base into a frothy tizzy has led to an increase in intolerance and hate crimes in America. Almost the entire Bush Administration saw a constant rise in hate crimes, most particularly anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-immigrant hate crimes. There have been attacks at a Holocaust museum and at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. In Indiana, a prominent Republican told a group of Jews that their opinion on the recitation of Christian prayers at legislative sessions didn't matter because they only made up 2% of the population. There have even occastionally been what can only be described as pogroms here and there. There have even been hate crimes right in our subways, even as violent crime has overall been declining in NYC. I believe the blame for this increase in hate crimes is not just the continuing effects of Bush's Republican economic collapse. It is also thanks to the violent, intolerant rhetoric of people like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. [UPDATED AT BOTTOM]

This week we have two examples of American right wing intolerance coming to Brooklyn. One has already happened and one is scheduled for this weekend.  read more »