Campaign 2016's anti-Semitism has me feeling conspicuously Jewish this Christmas season

[oberliner]

Like many secular Jews in the United States, I celebrate Christmas. My wife, who is nominally Christian in much the way that I am nominally Jewish, bought a little fake tree with lights, and on the 25th we'll hang stockings and exchange presents. Why not? My Judaism isn’t central to who I am. I’m not particularly conscious of it, and it doesn’t set me apart.

At least, it didn’t until recently.

My country has long let me hold my background loosely. When I was in middle school, there was an incident or two during which kids threw pennies at me — because Jews are greedy, get it? That was 30 years ago, though, and since then I can't think of many instances in which I've faced discrimination or faith-based bullying. Despite the nose and the name, most people don’t notice that I’m Jewish. Lots of people claim that they don't see race, but in the U.S., at least, Judaism is often truly invisible.

Donald Trump and his cronies, however, are working hard to change that. Trump dabbled in anti-Semitic dog-whistles throughout the campaign. His final advertisement before the election suggested that Hillary Clinton and Jewish bankers had joined forces to strip “our country of its wealth.” He plans to appoint as his chief strategist Steve Bannon, a man who as editor of Breitbart trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and who has expressed anti-Semitic views personally. The president-elect has been lauded and endorsed by the neo-Nazi alt-right, and anti-Semitic Twitter trolls have targeted Jewish journalists reporting on Trump.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-berlatsky-jewish-christmas-identity-20161223-story.html

[msongs]

1. palestinians are also semites. did that make the writer feel conspicuosly palestinian too? nt

[oberliner]

2. The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews

It was a term made up by Wilhelm Marr in the early 1880s to make Jew hatred appear more scientific sounding.

Perhaps a new term for prejudice against or hated of Jews ought to be coined to avoid confusion.

Do you have any suggestions?

[Behind the Aegis]

3. How pathetic.

It took the recent events for the author to start feeling "conspicuously Jewish". I suggest he take a hard, long look. He will find it has always been around, and not just from the "usual suspects." There has been a normalizing effect in regards to anti-Semitism, and if anything, recent events really shine a light on to it.

He will likely be shocked how few people will give two shits about anti-Semitism, even go out of their way to distract from it or try to redefine it, in order to take away from the Jews' as victims of bigotry.

It isn't the "Greeks" we need to be wary of, but those in their "horses" too.