It was always easy to be a Jew in America. What changed?

Published: 9 November 2018

Last updated: 4 March 2024

HADLEY FREEMAN: The day after Pittsburgh, it already felt as if something fundamental had shifted. All the time US Jews were being shocked by events in Europe, they didn’t realise what was fermenting at home

RECENTLY A CLUTCH of American relatives came to visit me in London. I don’t get to see my extended family so much these days, but thanks to the internet they see me all the time, reading my articles and sending messages so supportive they occasionally reject English as insufficiently adoring and opt for Yiddish.

They ask me about the different things I’ve been writing about: celebrities, feminism, and so on. But when they made the transatlantic trip this time there was a rare consensus: they all wanted to talk about the rise of antisemitism in Europe.

“What is going on? It’s just crazy!” one uncle said to me after I wrote about protesting against antisemitism in British politics.

By contrast, Jewish-American identity seems like it should be a pretty straightforward thing – after all, where is it easier and safer to be Jewish than in the US?

FULL STORY From Seinfeld to bagels, it was always easy to be a Jew in America. What changed? (Guardian)