海角大神

Rabbi Romiel Daniel felt something particularly poignant this Hanukkah season as he and his congregation sang the words of 鈥淢a鈥檕z Tsur,鈥� a 13th-century Hebrew poem that is sung each night during the ceremonial lighting of the menorah鈥檚 candles.

鈥淚t is a song about the victory of the weak over the strong, a victory of good over evil, a victory of the holy over the unholy, as such,鈥� says Rabbi Daniel, head of the Rego Park Jewish Center, a synagogue in Queens. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about the fact that all this was possible, not because of man鈥檚 strength at all, but because God was on our side.鈥�

But Ma鈥檕z Tsur, which recounts the history of God鈥檚 saving acts and is often translated as 鈥淩ock of Ages,鈥� also carries a lamentation: 鈥淥ur salvation takes too long, and there is no end to the bad days,鈥� worshippers sing in the final stanza.

There have been at least 10 anti-Semitic attacks in the New York region during this year鈥檚 holiday celebrations, officials say, but many of the city鈥檚 Jewish residents remain most stunned by the attack of a machete-wielding man who burst into a rabbi鈥檚 home in Monsey Saturday evening, injuring five of a group who had gathered to celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah.

The attack came 2 1/2 weeks after a pair of assailants in Jersey City, New Jersey, a man and a woman, targeted a kosher supermarket in a Jewish neighborhood, shooting and killing four, including a police officer. Since then, Jewish residents, most of them from Orthodox and Hasidic communities, have been accosted on the streets.

This April, a gunman shot and killed a worshipper in an attack on a synagogue in Poway, California, wounding three others. In October 2018, a gunman stormed into Pittsburgh鈥檚 Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 and wounding six.

鈥淲e cannot overstate the fear people are feeling right now,鈥� tweeted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called the recent acts of anti-Semitic violence a crisis and a nationwide epidemic. 鈥淚鈥檝e spoken to longtime friends who, for the first time in their lives, are fearful to show outward signs of their Jewish faith.鈥�

Such feelings, says Rabbi Daniel, have come as a shock for many of the members of his synagogue, who include a number of Holocaust survivors, such as the Jewish Center鈥檚 chairwoman, Ruth Lowenstein, who witnessed the burning of her family鈥檚 synagogue in Berlin.

鈥淭he climate has changed鈥�

More than half the residents in this part of Queens are part of the kaleidoscope of Jewish traditions represented in New York, which include many different Hasidic and Orthodox traditions, as well as Conservative, Reform, and secular. Tens of thousands of Russian-speaking Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have also made their homes here.

鈥淧eople were always quite comfortable here 鈥� even I have always been very comfortable here, to tell you frankly,鈥� says Rabbi Daniel. He notes, as others have, that Jewish people in the United States, and in New York City in particular, have always felt an unprecedented level of inclusion and equality when compared with other countries, and other times of history.聽

鈥淏ut suddenly in the last two or three years, the climate has changed,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is something where you tend to always look over your back all the time. It鈥檚 a constant feeling, that it is not as safe as it should be, even here.鈥澛�

His synagogue decided to install a series of bulletproof glass doors a few years ago, just inside the . Visitors are now required to buzz into the office and school, along with other security protocols.

Indeed, as the Monitor reported in 2018, there has been a reawakening of overt and violent anti-Semitism throughout the United States and Europe. In New York City, anti-Semitic hate crimes are up 63% this year, officials say, with 152 reports of crimes in 2019, compared with 93 in 2018.

鈥淲e are in some ways where we have always been, which is that humans are prewired to see an us and a them,鈥� says Ken Stern, an expert on anti-Semitism at Bard College in New York. 鈥淎nd there are lots of messages in society from politics, from media and other places, that reinforce that sort of view of the world 鈥� that we鈥檙e not all one big happy human family, but we are looking and highlighting and searching for differences.鈥澛�

鈥淎nti-Semitism is one of those manifestations of that world view,鈥� continues Professor Stern, 鈥渂ecause historically Jews are seen as an other, a danger, and conspiring to harm non-Jews. We do know that when there is a glorification of the us versus them mentality, anti-Semitism is always going to rise.鈥�

But one of the most disturbing aspects of this particular epidemic of violent anti-Semitism, many experts say, is the fact that it is transcending ideological and cultural boundaries. Even though many of the attacks can be linked to neo-Nazis and classic white supremacists, it has been coming from many other parts of society as well.

鈥淥n the radical right, they often glorify violence,鈥� says Gunther Jikeli, who studies the history of anti-Semitism at Indiana University Bloomington. 鈥淲hen you saw how the radical right were discussing the Pittsburgh shootings, nobody questioned the violence. They either glorified the murderer or said, 鈥極h, he鈥檚 stupid, just killing elderly Jews.鈥欌��

鈥淥n the left, it鈥檚 more to do with their worldview of anti-imperialism and anticolonialism, where the Jews are somehow in line with imperialists and the colonialism of the state of Israel,鈥� says Professor Jikeli. 鈥淵ou have American college campuses where pro- or even neutral Israeli sentiments are attacked in the name of ideology that has its roots in Mao, Che Guevara, and Third World-ism.鈥�

When hate doesn鈥檛 fit in a box

At the same time, the violence cannot be bifurcated into easy right- and left-wing political categories, observers say.聽

鈥淲hile we have seen an increase in extremist movements, we鈥檙e also seeing new groupings of possible extremists that either aren鈥檛 clearly identifiable, or who are a mixture,鈥� says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. 鈥淲e saw that with the El Paso terrorist, who borrowed from ecofascism and [fears of] automation.鈥�

鈥淭oday鈥檚 world is not this boxed lunch, but everything is spilled over with each other,鈥� says Mr. Levin. 鈥淭here is anti-Semitism on the left, misogyny being shared by fundamentalists and nationalists of all stripes, ecofascism, and appropriations of cultural symbols.鈥�

The attacks this holiday season have drawn attention to the anti-Semitism within many black communities, which also manifests in varying ways, experts say.

One of the Jersey City assailants was a member of the Black Hebrew Israelites, more than 100 branches of which have been designated as hate groups according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. After the shooting rampage, one of the city鈥檚 Board of Education trustees, Joan Terrell-Paige, the outpouring of grief and support for the Hasidic community.聽

鈥淲here was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the Jewish community?鈥� Ms. Terrell-Paige wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. Though her words praising the attackers sparked outrage and calls for her resignation, she told reporters she did not regret what she said.聽

鈥淎nti-Semitic ideas ... they can be on the radical right, but they are also available in other forms on the left and in other forms in African-American communities,鈥� says Professor Jikeli, author of 鈥淢uslim Antisemitism in Europe.鈥� 鈥淭hese boundaries to voicing anti-Semitism are not as high as they were 10 or 20 years ago.鈥澛�

鈥淭he media has difficulty in addressing that and naming this group of perpetrators,鈥� he continues. 鈥淭hat means that the boundaries are less high for those on the margins than for others,鈥� a phenomenon he often sees in similarly marginalized communities in Europe.

The lowering of such boundaries can also be seen throughout the kind of discourse that has risen within the anonymity of the digital age, its increasingly siloed communities, and the rise of nationalism throughout the globe, many observers say.聽

鈥淭he people who are most susceptible to fear 鈥� and that includes people with mental conditions and the angriest among us 鈥� the more that fear is validated by a bully pulpit and overall coarse political milieu, that makes this a wildfire that crosses both sides of the ideological ridge,鈥� says Mr. Levin.

Responding to Jewish leaders, officials in New York have in many majority Jewish neighborhoods, and civic groups such as the Guardian Angels have announced they would also be patrolling areas where many of the attacks have occurred.

Yes, the fear is potent, and his people have felt such fear for millennia, says Rabbi Daniel. But that鈥檚 the precise meaning of this year鈥檚 just-completed holiday celebrations, and the song they sing each of the eight nights they light the menorah.聽聽

鈥淗anukkah is really a time when we say, yes, these things have happened throughout our history, but though we were not too strong at those times, we were able to overcome much stronger enemies,鈥� he says.

鈥淭his is what really gives hope to many people, who are in the same place even today, saying that, OK, we鈥檙e not alone,鈥� continues Rabbi Daniel. 鈥淕od is never going to let you be alone, so there鈥檚 no reason why we will not be able to overcome any of the problems that we have today. And that gives us hope, that gives hope that lingers on through the ages.鈥�