In August 2013, we noted that Jews in Europe past their expiration date, based on the superb article You Only Live Twice by Michel Gurfinkiel in Mosaic Magazine:
There is no future left for Jewish communities in Europe.
That’s the inescapable conclusion of You Only Live Twice by Michel Gurfinkiel in Mosaic Magazine.
The lengthy article is a long trip down the death during World War II and then rebirth of Jewish communities in Europe, and how that rebirth is being snuffed out by renewed anti-Semitism from multiple directions, particularly leftist demonization of Israel and Islamist anti-Semitism.
This Leftist-Islamist coalition, centered around hatred of Israel, is a topic we’ve explored here many times in connection with anti-Semitism in Malmö, Sweden, on British campuses, in the BDS movement, in the academic boycott movement, among other places.
The fact is that while intellectually one can distinguish anti-Israeli fervor from anti-Semitism, in reality, on the streets of Malmö and Paris, and elsewhere in Europe, they are one and the same.
That was a year before the 2014 Gaza conflict, which so many blame for the rise of anti-Semitic violence in Europe. It’s not about Gaza.
Jeffrey Goldberg has an equally epic account of the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?
As we have pointed out, Walking While Jewish in Europe is dangerous.
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, a Swedish Jew, adds to the narrative, writing in Mosaic Magazine, Time for Swedish Jews to Leave?
They canceled Jewish winter camp. It sounds like a little thing, but in Sweden, where we have very few venues in which to lead our Jewish lives, it means a great deal. Winter camp is a yearly highlight, a place where our children can learn and play with other Jewish children, without worry. This year, they won’t be able to go, and for a simple reason—because it’s not safe….
Now that there are policemen with automatic rifles outside our children’s schools, guards outside our synagogues, and no go-zones in our cities, the community has at last awakened to the harsh truth. This is no longer a matter of fighting a ban on kosher slaughter, or of retaining the right to circumcise our sons; at risk is the security of each and every Jew in the country, whether affiliated with the community or not, whether religiously observant or not, whether politically left, right, center, or none of the above….
Today I don’t know what’s next for me, or for Europe. But I know that for my children and for me, this is not living.
It’s not just the threat of Islamist violence. In Malmö, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is going door-to-door to businesses to intimidate store owners not to stock Israeli products (h/t Elder of Ziyon):
Join Malmö’s Apartheid Inspectors when they visit stores and companies around Malmö to investigate dangerous levels of apartheid-supporting products! Support the inspectors to inform shop-owners and consumers on how they through consumer-boycott can push for apartheid-free zones.
Columnist Luke Berggren writing in Varlden Idag says:
Scary rhetoric is being used, which is unfortunately reminiscent back to the 30s. “Support inspectors in their efforts to inform shopkeepers and consumers about how they can promote the apartheid-free zones through consumer boycott.” In practice, this will disadvantage Jewish businesses in Israel. There seems to be no distinction between Israel Criticism and pure hatred of Jews. Talk about apartheid.
Many shopkeepers will be pressured to not buy Israeli goods. Let us do the opposite. Ask your retailer for Israeli goods. And buy Israeli goods. Boycotts of this kind suffered by Jews and is another worrying sign of the growing anti-Semitism. We can not accept this.
Europe is toxic for Jews.