Eighty-five years after mobs destroyed synagogues, shattered shop windows and assaulted Jews in a spasm of hatred known as Kristallnacht, Jews in Europe fled for their lives again, this time in Amsterdam.
A “Jew hunt,” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called the attacks surrounding a soccer match between Israeli and Dutch teams, pointing out that the haters had said more about "Cancer Jews” than about Gaza. “Grotesque as the phrase is, it can no longer surprise,” he continued, punctuating his point with a reminder of recent anti-Jewish abuse and assaults in America as well as in Europe.
Even as Stephens was writing, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, was flying to Amsterdam to meet with the Dutch prime minister, justice minister and national security adviser as well as leaders from the local Jewish community. Writing in USA Today after his trip, he warned about what the violence in Amsterdam and the hostility on American campuses may foreshadow. “As history has shown us time and time again, antisemitism starts with the Jews – but never ends with the Jews.”
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is honored to welcome Jonathan Greenblatt and Bret Stephens for a conversation addressing the question of whether the Gaza War caused the new eruption of antisemitism or whether it simply uncorked the flow of ancient hatred, the media’s downplaying of Jew hating and the ways forward.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt is the CEO of ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and its sixth National Director. As chief executive of ADL, Jonathan leads all aspects of the world’s leading anti-hate organization. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovative leader with deep experience in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.
Bret Stephens is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and the founder and editor-in-chief of SAPIR, a new quarterly devoted to issues of Jewish concern.