Anti-Semitism is rising

World
Europe

On October 27, a shooting occurred in a synagogue in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At present, at least 11 people were killed and six people were injured, including four policemen. The US media have called it the "deadliest attack on Jewish in US history."

And the United States is not alone. Anti-Semitic hate crimes reached a record high in the United Kingdom last year. While Germany reported more than 1,400 incidents over the same period.

According to the anti-defamation league, Anti-Semitic attacks in the United States rose 57 percent in 2017. It's an alarming trend.

The alleged gunman in the Pittsburgh shooting posted on social media that he did not vote for Trump and claimed the president was too influenced by the Jewish community. But many blamed Trump for creating a adverse political environment. President Trump is supported by racists in the so-called alt-right movement

James Kirchick, the journalist and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center on the United States and Europe, stated that this is not the first violent anti-Semitic attack in the United States.

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Kirchick points to the the increasing popularity of conspiracy theories as contributing to the rise in anti-Semitism.

Now some say that we are seeing an environment in which anti-Semitism has moved from the margins to the mainstream. Not only is the political environment contributing to this, but social media is amplifying and accelerating it in shocking ways.

“Social media allows the extremes to connect with one another,” said James Loeffler, a history and Jewish studies professor at the University of Virginia. “There is an environment of polarization and conspiracy thinking in this country.”

President Trump has failed to condemn and had critically firmly hate groups in the United States. In fact, after the tragedy in Charlottesville in Virginia where a young lady was killed, President Trump said they were fine people on both sides and said both sides are to blame for this.

Martin Ganslmeier, the correspondent and the bureau chief for ARD German Radio in Washington, stated that President Trump's ambivalence created a fertile ground for anti-Semitic and white nationalists.

The casket of Irving Younger, 69, a victim of Saturday's synagogue shooting, is carried to a waiting hearse after his funeral at Rodef Shalom Temple in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, October 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

Some argue that Trump's lack of condemnation for white supremacists, along with his vicious rhetoric on immigrants and Muslims, have only empowered the right-wing movement.

(The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.)