The article in August 26th Boulder Jewish News by Bruce Ticker was a puzzler. It was entitled “Trump Scares Judge’s Synagogue from a Day..or an Evening at the Beach.”

Ticker attempted to blame Trump for antisemitic threats received by the synagogue after the judge signed the warrant to raid Trump’s Mar a Lago residence. Yet I saw no evidence that Trump had anything to do with these threats. Ticker then went on to lambast other instances of antisemitism on the right. 

But there is a deeper problem here: the desire of many journalists, politicians and even Jews to only acknowledge and condemn antisemitism on the right despite an alarming amount of antisemitism from the left and Muslims. Ticker did not mention the many attacks on Jews in New York not by Trump supporters, such as the recent cases of the Jewish woman verbally assaulted and harassed on the subway and the two attacks on Jewish men brutally attacked with a fire extinguisher. Nor did he say anything about the latest antisemitic rantings of Congresspeople such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib or AOC. How about the explosion of antisemitic outrage from leftist groups against Israel and Jews every time Israel is forced to defend herself from terrorist attacks? So many celebrities make antisemitic comments without any condemnation. For example, popular model Bella Hadid recently said she would like to see the destruction of Israel.

The antisemitism on campuses has been getting worse and worse over the last few years. Many Jewish students have expressed that they are not comfortable because of intimidation and harassment. There have been resolutions by student unions against Israel and supporting BDS, Jewish students kicked out of groups just because they’re Jewish, antisemitic speakers invited to campus and personal harassment of Jewish students. Studies have shown that the group Students for Justice in Palestine has stimulated much of this antisemitism. Unfortunately, these examples are only a handful of the many examples I could mention. And antisemitism from the left is all the more serious because it comes from influential parts of society: the media, big tech, politicians, Hollywood etc.

If we are going to stand against antisemitism, we must do so no matter what direction it comes from.

Mimi Ito