“Antifa” is just another word for "Let's just blame the Jews"
Instead of scapegoating groups, let’s target policies. And those who would presume to be our kings.
I wish scapegoating were as amusing as this meme implies.
It’s not, unfortunately. And as the Trumpian Media Industrial Complex directs its full attention toward demonizing the peaceful, determined, overwhelming, and joyous protests of No Kings Day, they are trying to convince the world that it is all the work of their anti-fascist arch enemies. Led by, of course, George Soros. A Jew.
Just today on Fox News, the stench of another antisemitic, anti-Soros, anti-antifa crusade:
It always comes back to the Jews. It’s the Orban playbook. According to the BBC, the Hungarian illiberal leader was advised to make Soros into a hate figure for political gain by a Jewish American political consultant. Those accusations were denied by the Hungarian government. But whoever proposed it, Orban went all-in. And Trump dutifully followed.
The demonization of George Soros is classic antisemitism. Trump promotes it openly. According to Vox, the constant attacks on Soros have turned him into a “stand-in for a certain kind of Jewish ‘rootless cosmopolitan’ that allows politicians to appeal to antisemitism without having to do so explicitly.”
Whenever you hear the phrase “Soros-backed,” think Protocols of the Elders of Zion.1 Think Shylock.
I’ve been fortunate to experience very little antisemitism first-hand in my life, but one such time was when our 2017 Europe group crossed the bridge from Slovakia to Hungary, and what greeted us was this sign.
It did not say, “Welcome to Hungary, Jews.” We had literally just come from Auschwitz and before our wheels even set down on Hungarian soil, we see a sign stating, “We can’t let Soros get the last laugh.”
Well, we all need to dedicate our lives to getting the last laugh against those who traffic in antisemitic tropes and strike fear in the hearts of Jews and others, against those who scapegoat.
That’s why I’ll be out there at a No Kings protest this weekend, fighting all hate, including the hate that hits closest to home.
Admittedly, it’s hard to be a Jew these days. At the same time Republican staffers are openly sharing their admiration for Hitler, a mayoral candidate for New York City is refusing to completely disavow the most notorious, murderous group of this generation, Hamas, who on Oct. 7 targeted Jews for annihilation.
The far left considers me a genocidal fascist and the far right wants to send me “back” to the gas chambers. No wonder a poll this week indicates that most American Jews prefer to hide who they are and fewer than 1 in 5 feel very safe.
There’s not much that I can do to influence the far right. Their entire raison d’être is to divide and conquer. They live for scapegoats. But those who will be protesting at the No Kings rallies need to rise above the hate. Resist the temptation to scapegoat groups. As an aside, no matter what your feelings about Israel, if the name of any group from that region comes up at those rallies, it will not further the ends of weakening Trumpism’s grip on our nation. It will only serve the Divider-in-Chief.
We Jews can tell you all about scapegoating. We prompted the term, from the goat in Leviticus who was allowed to escape with the sins of the nation attached (the word was actually coined by a Protestant minister, William Tyndale, in 1530, when translating the Bible into English). And we’ve been scapegoated more than anyone else.2
Instead of blaming groups, let’s target policies - along with those individuals who would presume to be our kings.
Protocols explained on Holocaust Museum website:
From the American Jewish Congress, web page on “understanding scapegoating.” They forgot to add Soros and antifa.
Thank you, Rabbi Hammerman, for this excellent page from your Notebook. Here is a small addition ;) which is what an ex-pat and student of history has observed living in Germany over the years:
A big problem we have in Europe are the former members of that eastern block behind the former Iron Curtain. Countries who were part of the K&K monarchy like Hungary were from the get-go anti-semitic. Interestingly, many of the big industrialists (ie. in Vienna) who were often philanthropists pre-WW1 were Jewish, and often had family connections all over Europe. After the Hitler years, eastern Europe fell into the hands of the Soviet Union. West Germany, being under the control of the U.S. and its European allies, went through a systematic "anti-nazification" program. Those countries controlled by the Soviet Union did not, especially East Germany. It´s painful to see the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany), cheered on by Musk and Vance, move up the charts to being the top competitor today for the ruling CDU (Christian Democratic Union)/SPD (Social Democrats) coalition. Most of the Neo-Nazi movement originated and festered on the other side of the Berlin Wall. Like a cancer, they have spread throughout "modern" Germany, and have become strong political players. What I fear is that too many Germans will awaken too late to this danger from the far-right (which has spread to some other European countries). These small, fragile Jewish communities in Germany live in fear, not daring to wear any signs of their Jewishness in public. Police patrol in front of the "fortress" housing the Jewish school here in Munich 24/7, holding machine guns.The complex, built in 2006, houses the safest buildings in Germany, including the main Synagogue Ohel Jakob and the Jewish Museum. The threat comes less from the German public, than from near-eastern immigrants. And, once again, ignorance fuels and falls for right-wing propaganda. I just hope German citizens awaken to the danger soon enough! And that Israel´s leader stops fueling anti-semitism world-wide.
Re the BBC report that Orban first got the idea to focus on Soros from "a Jewish American political consultant" - a quick search online confirms that the reference is to the notorious GOP strategist Arthur Finkelstein, who died in 2017. The guy was an evil genius. His fingerprints are all over many of the Republicans' most disgusting and divisive political ads and strategies. One example: He came up with the idea of making a campaign issue out of opposing gay marriage to help George W. Bush wi the 2004 election. Finkelstein himself was gay and had a long-time partner whom he eventually married in a legal ceremony in Massachusetts. A documentary film about Finkelstein came out in 2022 entitled "The Consultant."