When Will Congressional Jews Pull the Fire Alarm?
JNS.org  As a Jew residing in a suburban Jewish bubble, my congressman, Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), has been largely unseen where the mounting antisemitism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is concernedwith one exception. He seems not to grasp fully the stark reality that the nations hallowed halls are bleeding pure, unadulterated racism. He and his 25 Jewish colleagues in the US House of Representatives remain compliantly huddled under the shadow of party boss, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi, calculating the necessity of appeasing Rep. Omar (D-Minn.) and her progressive colleagues, has skillfully wielded her political bludgeon to keep Schneider and his fellow Jews from outbursts that might crack the delicate veneer of party unity. In response to growing Jewish angst, however, she did allow 12 Jewish members to squeak a response to Omars latest antisemitic attack, which American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris called beyond shocking and beyond reprehensible. But she quickly closed the lid on all further action or discussion, casting the matter back into seclusion. Related coverage A Response to Rolling Stone: Many Young Jews Like Me Support Israel Marisa Kabas frames her May 21 Cultural Commentary for Rolling Stone by telling readers how torn she is about Israel...  Platitudes and flowery statements reflect uncertainty. Conversely, demanding that Pelosi take concrete actions, such as censure and committee reassignments, would convey a clear recognition of the gravity of the matter. By failing in the face of such undiluted race-baiting to challenge her preference for rigorous party discipline, Jewish members are in fact validating the obtuse notion that the ongoing barrage of antisemitic epithets has become somehow protected under the First Amendment. Its almost like a zero-sum game in which, at the expense of Jewish targets, blackness, brownness, Islamism and LGBTQishness have been elevated to statures meriting incredibly delicate trigger mechanisms that, even if minorly challenged, release a Congressional fusillade. I listened recently to an executive with our local Jewish federation in Chicago bemoaning the rise in the number of complaints from Jews who have become afraid to wear kipot or other identifiably Jewish accessories. It seemed for a time that physical assaults on Jews and vandalism of Jewish institutions had been limited in scope to London, Paris, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. Apparently, the tides are shifting.