Discussion: Letter From Berlin: Europe’s Jews Don’t Need America’s Panic

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Discussion for article #233040

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IAPEC has raised billions on this myth to help Lukid in Israel establish an apartheid state. It’s really quite devious and evil.

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Apparently there is no correlation between numbers of Jews in a country and its rate of anti-semitism (see recent rise in anti-semitism in Poland, which now has very few Jews, as well as a rise in philo-semitism, with Poles acting the roles of Jews in tourist towns, etc.)

Looks like the same holds true for Saxony and Islam.

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From what I have seen about the experiences of French Jews, afraid in many cases even to wear their yarmulkes, they are in trouble, period.

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Note to Ms. PInes: America is not panicking. American media may, I suppose, be overhyping, but I, myself, and I think most Americans really don’t think about this particular subject much. Maybe that’s a shortcoming, and we should unceasingly focus on how safe Jews in Europe do or do not feel, but most of us just don’t. We have problems closer to home. I think the problem is that you are mistaking the DC media bubble for America at large.

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Well “America” isn’t panicking…its just that the right wing is desperate for some sort of biblical type of conflagration, this time with Islam. So there’s bound to be irrational fears hyped up around various prominent biblical peoples and the tendency for atrocities to be visited upon them every so often, and how war is the answer to everyones salvation. So, maybe stop relying on Fox News for information about America. Don’t let yourself get caught up in that reactionary circus, it isn’t about you its about them.

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Thanks for the demonstration.

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Thanks for your letter. My wife and I are making our first trip to Berlin in May and we are looking forward to it. A couple of quick thoughts: (1) I’m not aware of any panic in the United States, so I think that’s something you just assumed by anecdote; and (2) I think the metric for tolerance is how Jews who are observant and more visibly “Jewish” are able to live their lives anywhere in Europe. Berlin I think is a total red herring by the way on that score; it’s a great city, period. And I’m not that observant Jew per se; I just think their treatment is the better metric.

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Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and the West Bank’s PLO all have restrictive laws against Jews. That makes them genuinely apartheid (whereas Israel has no laws restricting other religions from working or living there). You are an ignorant bigot.

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News to me. This hadn’t even occurred to me. Probably just the 24 hour news cycle looking for fresh meat. ARE CANADIANS PANICKED THAT SPACE ALIENS WILL WANT ALL THE ROUND BACON TO FIT IN THEIR FLYING SAUCERS? DETAILS AT ELEVEN.

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I think it’s the context and the history. When I hear garden-variety antisemism in the US, I mostly don’t think “gosh, am I going to be safe in this country”, but when I heard it in Germany (haven’t been there for 20 years, sadly) it raised my hackles in a different way. Of course, I’m old enough that it was my parents’ generation who emigrated, and they quietly inculcated their discomfort.

(And btw it seems to be the nature of rabid prejudice to spring up most frothingly in places where the objects of prejudice are thin on the ground. That’s why the Aryan Nation is in Idaho rather than Brooklyn. Much easier to tell crazy stories when there are no obvious counterexamples around.)

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This reminds me of a similar phenomena here in the states. The congressional districts with the fewest Latinos tend to have more animus toward immigration.