We at JDFI were deeply troubled by what we saw in New York City on Veterans Day, a day when we honor the men and women who have worn the uniform of the American armed forces.
Thousands of marchers filled the streets of that city calling for a second Holocaust to "kill the Jews." The marchers carried many flags, but none of them were the U.S. "Stars and Stripes." Instead, they carried the flags of terrorist groups and radical Islam.
In Columbus Park and elsewhere in the city, they actually tore down the American flag and raised the flag of Hamas. This is the terrorist organization that carried out the blood-thirsty attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th that included the rapes and murders of over 1,300 Israelis, among them many Americans.
There are reports that during this march, Jewish residents of the city were told by officials to shelter in place. This happened in 2023, in America's most well-known city. This is disgusting and beyond unacceptable! It is an insult to our veterans who fought Nazi Germany and to our fellow American Jewish citizens. The spirit of Adolf Hitler was on full display in New York. City officials should be ashamed of themselves for tolerating this display of raw hate and anti-Semitism.
Recently, Bari Weiss, a former New York Times editor and writer, delivered a speech to the Federalist Society in which she warned of the current and growing danger facing Judeo-Christian civilization. She explained specifically why Americans who are not Jews should be deeply concerned about the explosion of anti-Semitism in our country as well as Western Europe.
She pointed out that: "…the proliferation of anti-Semitism as always, is a symptom. When anti-Semitism moves from the shameful fringe into the public square, it is not about Jews. It is never about Jews. It is about everyone else. It is about the surrounding society or the culture or the country. It is an early warning system—a sign that the society itself is breaking down. That it is dying."
She continued: "It is a symptom of a much deeper crisis—one that explains how, in the span of a little over 20 years since Sept 11, educated people now respond to an act of savagery not with a defense of civilization, but with a defense of barbarism."
She closed with this admonition: "There is no place like this country. And there is no second America to run to if this one fails. So let's get up. Get up and fight for our future. This is the fight of—and for—our lives."
Bari Weiss is correct. Judeo-Christian civilization has produced more liberty and more opportunity for more people than any economic-political system in history. Today, we face grave threats internally and externally from forces that want to rip us out of the rich "soil" of Judeo-Christian civilization.