A Brief History of Antisemitism in America

(Note.  Much of the information in this post comes from an article by Seth Mandel in the May, 2024 edition of Commentary magazine.  Obviously, the personal history is mine.)  Unlike many of my fellow Jews on the left, who have long thought that we are still in the America of the 1930's and 1940's, I have often said that the United States is, outside of Israel, the best country in the world for the Jewish people.  However, recent events after October 7, have made many Jews of all political persuasions, express concern about whether the United States will continue to be that beacon of light.  For all people.  

In the 1930's, Jews were often not welcome in many institutions.  The elite universities put quotas on the number of Jewish students who would be admitted each year.  Restrictive covenants in deeds to houses not only forbade the sale of those properties to blacks, but often to Jews as well.  Country clubs and other private clubs barred Jews from joining.  Mandel reports that "the student body at Columbia's College of Physicians went from 50 percent Jewish to 6 percent, the latter number soon becoming the new average at medical schools."  

My very first job as a new attorney was at a primarily Jewish law firm, Rose Klein & Marias.  The firm started when Victor Rose, in 1936, opened his law office.  Alfred Klein joined him in 1940, and then Eugene Marias joined in 1946.  When I joined the firm in January, 1978, Gene Marias was already considered one of, if not the most, preeminent attorney representing injured workers in California workers compensation claims.  The firm also handled personal injury cases, as well as labor law.  Insurance companies defending workers compensation claims were, back when the firm started, not particularly interested in having Jewish attorneys represent them.  

I still remember, very shortly after I joined the firm, Gene Marias coming into my office and asking me to get up from my desk and walk over to the window with him.  Putting his arm around me, he pointed to the building across the street and asked me if I knew what it was.  I had no idea.  He explained that it was a private club, with membership being by invitation only.  As a young attorney, he received a call from the club advising him that someone had suggested him for membership.  He replied:  "do you know that I'm Jewish?"  The caller simply said "thank you," and then hung up.  Gene's reaction to that call is not printable here.  

Similarly, when Jews were barred from country clubs, they started their own.  Of note is Hillcrest Country Club in West Los Angeles.  When I was interviewing for my first legal job, I recall the attorney at one firm asking me what kind of name was my last name, and where my family came from.  I could tell immediately what he was getting at.  But Jews have never considered themselves to be "victims."  If they needed to work harder, they did.  If they needed to set up their own law firms and businesses and private clubs, they did.  

But today feels different.  It is no longer either the subtle, or even blatant antisemitism of the past.  Today, it is outright Jew hatred.  At an Oakland City Council meeting, one speaker claimed that "Israel murdered their own people on October 7."  Another said that "the notion that this was a massacre of Jews is a fabricated narrative."  I'm guessing that these people do not believe the Holocaust was a real event.  But now they are out there in public.  And, of course, we see signs, and hear chants, of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."  That phrase calls for the elimination of the one Jewish state in the world.    

Today, cities and school districts are passing resolutions in support of the Palestinians.  But, by ignoring the atrocities committed on October 7, these entities are actually supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.  Mandel reports that the Massachusetts Teachers Association planned a curriculum "around 'Israel and Occupied Palestine.'"  It also passed a resolution asking the President to "stop funding and sending weapons in support of the Netanyahu government's genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza."  What about the genocidal acts by Hamas on 10/7?  What about the expressed intentions of Hamas to continue to commit atrocities, such as those committed on 10/7, over and over and over again.

It is important that everyone understand this point by Mandel:  "...it must be stressed that these are public bodies and public schools giving Jew-baiting the imprimatur of the government."  My college alma mater, Rutgers, has proven to be one of the worst of the Jew-hating universities.  Rutgers is the state university of New Jersey.  The Rutgers president was called to testify before Congress, along with the chancellor of UCLA and the president of Northwestern.  The pro-Hamas crowd at Rutgers made 10 demands of the university, before they would agree to dismantle their encampment.  The president agreed to eight, and said the university would consider the other two.  Spineless administrators usually prefer appeasement as a course of action.  

According to Mandel, one Rutgers professor, having tenure no less, gave a lecture in which she asserted that "Israel harvests Palestinian organs."  There is almost no lie that Jew-haters will not tell.  A week or two ago I saw a Rutgers student on one of the cable news shows.  He said the pro-Hamas encampment had signs saying "Fuck the Jews."  It is outrageous that the university would permit such signs to be displayed longer than the time it would take to remove them.  UCLA, my law school alma mater, has been another offender.  Mandel reports that the medical school "required its students to attend a lecture at which the speaker, masked and with her shoulders wrapped in a kaffiyeh, led the class in chants of "Free, free Palestine!"  

According to Mandel, the UC Berkeley Law School has been sued for civil rights violations.  The suit alleges that "no fewer than 23 Berkeley Law student organizations have enacted policies to discriminate against and exclude Jewish students, faculty, and scholars."  Some student groups, per Mandel, require applicants to support the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against Israel.  Some will not accept any speaker unless they "repudiate Zionism."  Antisemitism today is often disguised as anti-Zionism.  Yet, Zionism is nothing other than the belief that the Jewish people are entitled to have their own homeland, their historic homeland.  And, Berkeley is a public university.  

In the 1930's and after, Jews would often change their last names, in order to have them sound more Americanized.  In order to fit in.  Today, Jews are also hiding their Jewish identity in public.  They avoid any outward use of obvious Jewish clothing (such as a yarmulke) and symbols (such as the Star of David).  So, the question is - is America back where it was nearly 100 years ago?  Will America continue to be the best country for the Jewish people, outside of Israel?    

Mandel:  "It is monstrous that even in the America of 2024, Jews must fight for the rights and recognition that others can take for granted."  

(It seems that I continue to face criticism for being so vocal, some would say obsessed with "politics."  After October 7, most of my posts have been about Israel, and the war with Hamas, and the rising antisemitism in this country.  Here is a quote by Rabbi Abraham Kook, that explains my admitted compulsion after 10/7 to speak out on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people:  "I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the luxury to remain silent."  As far as I am concerned, no Jew should currently feel that they have the luxury to remain silent.)