By Donovan Gibbs, Staff, Writer
The term anti-semitism has been making multiple waves of notoriety in the headlines recently. Many celebrities, athletes and politicians have publicly shared their views.
Some have wondered what brought this rise to a popular level. Rapper Kanye West has been seen as the unanimous frontrunner to this wave of antisemitism. Using tweets such as, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” as well as expressing his views in various interview appearances. These views received praise and criticism from social media users.
NBA player Kyrie Irving also is seen as an influence to this wave of antisemetic ideals. The superstar point guard for the Brooklyn Nets was suspended for 8 games and lost his Nike brand deal for screenshotting a link to the movie “Hebrew to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.” Some players, like Jaylen Brown, came to Irving’s defense saying that the punishments were too harsh. Irving even had the support of the Israel United in Christ (IUIC), a Black Israelite group. IUIC members were seen standing in front of the Barclays Center in support of Irving’s first game back.
There’s two major factors involved. The first factor has been seen in more of a racial light. The rise of antisemitism has a very deep racial context to it.
“The biggest problem is that their starting to mix up antisemitism with other oppressions. That shouldn’t be happening,” freshman social work major Leo Weiss said.
The role of free speech has played a factor as well. The CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk’s, recent ownership of Twitter has led to people with antisemitic views to be provided an opportunity to spread these ideas on social media with little repercussion.
“It makes people feel comfortable sharing their antisemitic thoughts if its so accepted in the media,” sophomore communications major, and Jewish Leadership Association (JLA) secretary, Jenna Melman said.
That hatred doesn’t stay online and leads to hate being spread in real life, putting the lives of Jewish people at risk. Two men were charged after making threats to attack a New York City synagogue on Nov. 20. The AMCHA annual report revealed there were 254 attacks on Jewish college students on 63 different campuses that had a high Jewish population.
“It’s scary, because there’s certain places where you can’t even go wearing a Jewish necklace without the possibility of danger. No one should be forced to hide their identity,” sophomore speech language pathology major Sharon Kariyev said.
Some students feel there’s a lack of respect shown at Post towards the Jewish community.
“We are really struggling with professors accommodating us on our holidays. Every other week we hear professors give outrageous statements about the jewish community,” Weiss added.
Many wonder how this issue can be fixed. JLA member and junior marketing major Daniel Tellerman has a few ideas.
”It’s about education.and just having a presence. A big part of what we’re doing as the JLA is embracing jewish life on campus. But also, we’re trying to put the message out there that the words and animity can’t be as powerful as they believe it can be,” Tellerman said.
The JLA’s president spoke in regards to having a strong base on campus.
“We are building a community on campus. There is more awareness and a sense of `we will represent you’ and now we’re building in numbers,” JLA president and junior art therapy major Renee Haimov said.
Anti-semitism is a problem that causes damage and hurts many. This new wave of these ideals hasn’t shown any different from the chaos caused in the past. With groups combating it like the JLA, the wave has all the possibilities of crashing out sooner than later.
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