Yes, we know that anti-Semitism (or, at least, people's comfort level with openly expressing it) is on the rise around the world. Right now, though, we're concerned with what's going on in our own back yard: the US and Canada.
The Anti-Defamation League reports that 1,879 incidents of anti-Semitic hassling, vandalizing and outright assaulting took place in the United States in 2018 — a slight improvement over 2017, which saw 1,986 such events occur. But that's cold comfort since last year's total was the third-highest since the 1970s.
And for anyone who thinks that our Neighbor to the North is more civilized than we are, head's up: Anti-Semitic incidents are at record highs. The League for Human Rights, a branch of B'nai Brith Canada, tracked 2,041 of them, with 709 of them in Quebec alone.
Why is this happening? It's probably best not to indulge in pat answers, because many factors could be at play. But we completely blame Bigot-in-Chief Donald Trump, who has legitimized the lunatic fringe's hateful views and emboldened them to act on them.
It really does make a difference what the voices with the biggest bullhorns say. Just ask the 800,000 victims of the Rwandan genocide, who were tagged as "cockroaches" and worse by their tribal enemies. We cats long for the day when incendiary rhetoric no longer flows from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and we HISS.
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