While the situation of Jews remains far more precarious in Western Europe than in the U.S., there is plenty of reason to worry—such is the consensus of a panel of experts who recently gathered to discuss the subject. The veteran pollster John McLaughlin cites extensive survey data showing overwhelmingly favorable attitudes toward Jews and Israel among Americans (19:12), while Mitchell Silber, a former New York Police Department intelligence analyst, surveys the far more disturbing data from Britain (53:28). Elan Carr, the State Department’s anti-Semitism envoy, in an overview of the threats to Jews on both sides of the Atlantic, notes a disturbing trend whereby “If you call yourself an anti-Semite they run you out of town; if you call yourself an anti-Zionist, you get tenure” (1:19:17).
Going back to the early 1990s, the French journalist Marc Weitzmann explains the strange convergences of far-right, far-left, and Islamist anti-Semitism—and their anti-American corollaries—in his country (2:03:04). Finally, the French Jewish activist Simone Rodan-Benzaquen urges American Jews, and their allies, to avoid the mistakes made in Europe, where Jews did not begin fighting back vigorously against rising anti-Semitism until much of the damage was already done (2:35:22). (Moderated by Ken Weinstein and Nina Shea. Video, three hours.)
More about: American Jewry, Anti-Semitism, European Jewry, French Jewry