POLITICS JANUARY 11, 2011
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The papers have mentioned it mainly in passing. Had this happened a decade ago, I would not have fixed on this detail. But Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish. And her alleged assassin, Jared Lee Loughner, is reported to have admired Mein Kampf and claimed ties to the anti-Semitic hate group called American Renaissance. Was this an anti-Semitic attack? There is no significant evidence to conclude as much, since we know hardly anything about the suspected killer. And yet, I’m confident that I’m not the only one today with a gnawing worry.
Shortly after September 11, 2001, Jonathan Rosen wrote an essay for The New York Times Magazine that quickly became a near-classic, an essay in which he described a childhood free of the fears of anti-Semitic persecution that had plagued his—and my—parents’ generation. But, among the many casualties of the attacks, Rosen wrote, was the sense of security, the (false?) comfort that murderous Jew-hatred was a thing of the past, at least on America’s shores. Not much younger than Rosen, I shared his experience, and his foreboding. The news of the years since September 11 has been full of more anti-Semitism than any decade in my lifetime, from the murderous kind in Mumbai and the banlieues of Paris to the “genteel” variety espoused by Caryl Churchill and Stephen Walt and John Mearshimer. Much of it has been blithely tolerated.
Let me be explicit: None of these people is in any way responsible for the Arizona murders, any more than is Sarah Palin (who endorsed a map with crosshairs over politically targetable districts, including Giffords’s). I think it’s demagogic to blame words and speech, however objectionable or contemptible, for a killer’s action. My point is not to place blame but rather to call attention to the chill in the air, the silent worry—harbored, I suspect, in more quarters than we will hear from in the news media.
Forty-two years ago, when Sirhan Sirhan murdered Robert F. Kennedy because of his support for Israel, Americans everywhere despaired that the nation was coming apart at the seams, but Jews felt no special sense of fear. Today, in contrast, for all the Tea Party extremism, the streets are still calm. And yet, the sense of anxiety felt specifically by the Jews of America is, I suspect, considerably more acute.
Contributing Editor David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2010-11 academic year.
10 comments
Mr Laughner owns many books and Mein Kampf is only one of them. Why is his possession of Mein Kampf more important than his possession of the Communist Manifesto? Or Aesop's Fables, another book owned by Mr Laughner? It might be more important -- indicative of some larger purpose -- if there existed any evidence to suggest Mr Laughner was aware that Rep. Gifford is Jewish and that, if he possessed such knowledge, it would matter to him. There is nothing in Mr Laughner's writings or online rants about Jews and his declared lack of trust in God is more likely an indication of atheism or distrust of organized religion than hostility to Judaism. What little we know of Mr Laughner indicates grammar matters more to him than God. Is there any evidence that American Jews are more acutely anxious today because of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gifford? The author provides no evidence to substantiate his suspicion. If Mr Laughner intended to terrify American Jews, he probably would have tried to murder someone like Sen. Chuck Schumer or Rep. Barney Frank -- a public official whose Jewishness is more widely known. I suspect Rep. Gifford's Judaism is news to the vast majority of American Jews -- and to Mr Laughner himself.
- DC Spence
January 11, 2011 at 8:52am
I have no idea if this is correct or not, but Mother Jones is reporting this: Tierney believes that Loughner was very interested in pushing people's buttons—and that may have been why he listed Hitler's Mein Kampf as one of his favorite books on his YouTube page. (Loughner's mom is Jewish, according to Tierney.) Loughner sometimes approached strangers and would say "weird" things, Tierney recalls. "He would do it because he thought people were below him and he knew they wouldn't know what he was talking about." Source: Mother Jones, "Exclusive: Loughner Friend Explains Alleged Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords" [ http://bit.ly/gj1c1s ]
- DC Spence
January 11, 2011 at 9:08am
Wow! It hadn't even occurred to me that the Jews would try to exploit this terrible event as a means of silencing scholars like Walt and Mearsheimer, who showed real courage in standing up to this kind of thing when they published their book. Bravo, Mr. Greenberg!
- tomsca67
January 11, 2011 at 11:09am
How is it that anything that happens in this world is twisted by TNR contributors to be relevant to Zionism/Jews? Guess what, it isn't. The world doesn't revolve around that subject.
- tnmats
January 11, 2011 at 11:36am
No, it can't happen here. A rising chorus of right-wing anger and near hysteria, the historical connection between right-wing extremism and anti-semitism, and the first Jewish Congressman from Arizona gunned down in a shopping center. Mr. Greenberg, what are you worried about?
- rayward
January 11, 2011 at 3:51pm
Walt and Mearshimer as anti-Semites? I thought TNR was better than this sort of absurd propaganda. I won't be renewing my subscription.
- ssif21
January 11, 2011 at 9:25pm
Wow. Why are you guys so defensive? I don't mean TNR, I mean people who think that there might be antisemitism out there and that Jews might actually be vulnerable. The author of this piece is correct. Since 9/11, not only the news but the blogosphere has been full of antisemitism and it has been tolerated. It's been quite vicious on the the Left, where it tends to take the form more usually of antiZionism, but it's seen on the not-so-far Right also - albeit in different form. I'd put MW in the right, people who constantly bang the "Liberty" drum on the right - of course conspiracy theories can be found on all sides of the political spectrum. I find it most worrisome. Americans (and Brits!) (especially right wingers but also anti"Zionists" on the left) - don't seem to be willing or able to recognize a simple fact about crimes like the Shoah or Rwanda: they were preceded by vicious speech and vicious lies that stereotyped people and dehumanized them. Incidentally - some truly vicious antisemites have had Jewish ancestors. Look at Gilad Atzmon. Having a Jewish parent doesn't mean a person can't be an antisemite and want to harm a Jewish person. So the proposition, true or otherwise that if the Tucson shooter has a Jewish mom his crime can't be anti-Jewish is wrong headed to begin with.
- Sophia
January 12, 2011 at 2:22am
Whoops I mean people who DON'T think Jews might be vulnerable (to antisemitic attacks). Sorry - I do think there's a lot of denial about this.
- Sophia
January 12, 2011 at 2:23am
I think that you are barking up the wrong tree here. Besides I read that Gifford's grandmother was not Jewish which would make her a faux Jew in any case.
- paskunac
January 12, 2011 at 6:50am
"I think that you are barking up the wrong tree here. Besides I read that Gifford's grandmother was not Jewish which would make her a faux Jew in any case." What's a faux Jew? "Giffords’s Jewish Journey: From Israel To Service and Study" Read more: http://forward.com/articles/134641/#ixzz1B1J2JSIL
- arnon
January 14, 2011 at 9:30am