Where have all the Jews gone? Jews are fleeing from cities and nations that were once safe havens. Joel Kotkin
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/31/where-have-all-the-jews-gone/
The killing of two young Israeli embassy staffers, allegedly by a college-educated, left-wing activist earlier this month, provided yet more evidence – if any were needed – of the perilous situation in which Western Jews now find themselves. Almost a century after the early rise of the Nazis, it seems anti-Semitism is on a roll again. And it is energised increasingly by campus-minted radicals in academia, the media and the culture at large.
Elias Rodriguez, the suspected assassin, is a case in point. He attended the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois, where he studied English, a shrinking discipline largely captured by ‘progressives’ and their narratives. Rodriguez, as a Hispanic, no doubt felt part of those supposedly ‘oppressed’ by the oppressor white establishment, which now includes Jews.
After his education (or perhaps indoctrination), Rodriguez worked for leftist non-profits, supported Black Lives Matter and later enjoyed a dalliance with the communist Party for Socialism and Liberation, a vehemently anti-Israel group. He epitomises the shift in the sociology of anti-Semitism, from the ill-educated far right to left-leaning college graduates.
Once the beloved object of Jewish ardour, universities are now one of the principal sources of anti-Semitic inculcation. Countless courses actively promulgate anti-Jewish and Israelophobic tropes. This is hardly a surprise given the generous funding leading universities have received from brutal Islamic states, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Given the extent of ideological indoctrination it’s no surprise that young Americans are far more likely than older cohorts to side with the Palestinians than with Israel. Indeed, the longer young people stay in education, notes a recent Anti-Defamation League study, the more likely they are to adopt anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views. Further research shows that this trend is particularly pronounced among minorities.
The growth of anti-Israel sentiment among young people is not based on any increase in knowledge about the situation in the Middle East. Indeed, the majority of people under 25 wrongly think Israel, not Hamas, has controlled Gaza over the past decade.
Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump’s assault on academia in the name of combatting anti-Semitism, there’s little doubt that elite Ivy League schools have a serious problem. In the immediate aftermath of the 7 October atrocities, Harvard student organisations openly excused Hamas and blamed Israel for the rape and murder of its own citizens. At Cornell University, one professor called Hamas’s pogrom ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energising’. And since then, across campuses, professors and students alike shout about ‘globalising the intifada’ – a cry that justifies the harassment, and even murder, of Jews everywhere.
There has been some pushback. This May, Jewish students filed a lawsuit against George Washington University in Washington, DC, not far from the site of the alleged murder of the two Israeli embassy staffers. They accuse GWU of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allowing a ‘hostile educational environment’ for Jews to develop over several years, particularly since 7 October 2023.
Similarly, the Louis D Brandeis Centre for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness have filed a lawsuit against Berkeley, alleging ‘longstanding, unchecked’ anti-Semitism. This includes attempts by 23 student organisations at UC Berkeley’s School of Law to mandate support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which demonises Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and calls for its economic and cultural isolation. The student organisations also called for ‘Palestine 101 training’, and the banning of speakers with Zionist views.
The takeover of universities by the Israelophobes bodes ill for the future. Self-righteous authoritarianism has often attracted academics, as was clear in Nazi Germany and among the supporters of Communism throughout the West well into this century. And what is nurtured in universities does not stay there. The frothing violent fringe of campus activism is becoming increasingly mainstream.
It means that Hebrew schools and synagogues, including my own in California, are now routinely patrolled by private police. At local community events, we count on the Orange County sheriffs much as Rome’s Jews have to rely on the carabinieri to guard their own cities’ famed Jewish ghetto.
As many Jews are discovering, they can’t always rely on the police. In Washington, a local rabbi, assaulted by pro-Hamas demonstrators, alleged that cops told him that they were instructed not to protect Israeli or Jewish institutions. This echoes the criticism of British police, who seem more tolerant of anti-Semites than those who oppose them, having arrested several protesters for accurately describing Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups. In November last year, in Amsterdam, a long-time haven for Jews, Arab-Dutch gangs went on a ‘Jew hunt’ during and after a football match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv. The police were accused of doing nothing to protect Jews during and in the immediate aftermath of the game.
Throughout America and the West more broadly, Jews now find themselves menaced at every turn. They now have a shrinking number of ‘safe places’. In response, some are seeking safety in homogeneous, insulated environments. Others meanwhile are on the search for more congenial places to live. The wandering Jew has returned, now with his laptop in a backpack, seeking some form of security.
Things could change. The current Israeli rightist government, which is the ostensible object of so much activist anger, won’t be around forever. A new government could lead to softening in attitudes towards Israel and a reduction in anti-Semitism. But that probably will only work on the margins. History shows that it’s the continued existence of Israel itself that really motivates its critics around the world. Indeed, they were demonising Israel long before the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu came to power and long before the war in Gaza. They have vented against the Jewish State regardless of whether it was ruled by socialists, liberals or, as the case today, the hard right.
Anti-Zionism the world over has always been entwined with an intense Jew hatred – a hatred that is, ironically, pushing Jews towards Israel. In the Middle East, some of the oldest Jewish communities have been obliterated. As recently as the mid-20th century, there were a million Jews in Arab countries, places they had lived in for hundreds of years. Today, there are estimated to be barely 15,000.
In Europe, too, Jews are a rapidly diminishing population. In 1939, there were 9.5million Jews living in Europe, which dropped to 3.8million by 1945. Today, there are barely 1.5million Jews left in Europe. Due largely to the Holocaust and decline of Europe’s Jewish community, the world Jewish population, estimated at just under 16million, is still smaller than it was at the onset of the Second World War.
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