Alex Goldenberg and Becca Wertman-Traub
National Post, May 13, 2023
“This is not just an American phenomenon, as similar trends have emerged in Canada.”
If there is anything positive from Kanye West’s anti-Jewish screeds last fall, it is perhaps that more people are now aware of both fringe and mainstream actors who, with the support of social media platforms, are promoting anti-Jewish racism. This is a hatred that, for thousands of years, has seesawed between the fringe and the mainstream — much like a dormant virus reawakened periodically in a compromised immune system.
Although these attempts to normalize Jew-hatred are nothing new, what is novel is that these ideologies, which once took months — or even years — to manifest, now spread with a single click.
Jews were accused of causing the Black Death in the 14th century, blamed for socioeconomic calamities in early 20th-century Russia and scapegoated for Germany’s defeat following the First World War. Historically, when Jew-hate goes viral, violence follows. It is therefore more critical than ever to pay attention to today’s fast-spreading social media trends.
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