Black Lives Matter and the Jews: Silence by media, elites noted

FPI / July 12, 2020

Black Lives Matter rioters on May 30 rampaged through Fairfax, the oldest Jewish community in Los Angeles. During the Shavuot festival, the rioters looted most of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue. Five synagogues and three Jewish schools in the community largely populated by ultra-Orthodox Jews were vandalized.

Allyson Rowen Taylor, a co-founder of StandWithUs, an organization which supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism through education, shared an account in which the rioters chanted, “F**k the police and kill the Jews,” as Daniel Greenfield reported at Frontpage,

Aryeh Rosenfeld, whose store was looted, told The Jerusalem Post that when he came to defend his store there were people driving through the streets screaming “effing Jews” at the Jewish store owners.

The leftist media, not surprisingly, ignores the devastation wrought by Black Lives Matter. Many in the major media even blame Israel for alleged police brutality in the U.S. since many U.S. police forces receive training from Israeli security forces.

But, a columnist asked, why are America's Jews not speaking out about the anit-Semitic BLM?

"The silence of the Jews of America in the face of rising anti-Semitism is stunning," Caroline Glick, author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East”, wrote for Israel Hayom.

"Why are American Jews refusing to stand up for themselves? Three explanations present themselves. Either they are afraid to speak up, or they are unaware of the danger, or they are part of the problem," Glick wrote.

"Like their non-Jewish counterparts, many Jews whose businesses were looted by BLM expressed support and concern for their attackers. While some of them may actually sympathize with the people who destroyed their income source, no doubt many are too terrified to criticize them. They don’t need any more trouble. And in the current atmosphere of mob rule, where the police charged with defending them are themselves under attack, caution may be the better part of valor.

"The ignorant are a product of their environment. Most American Jews are Democrats and most Democrats get their news from the very news organizations that, as members of the identity-politics-dominated Left, are not reporting what is happening. Large organizations and liberal synagogues are openly supporting BLM. How are average Jewish Democrats supposed to know what is happening?"

In his report for Frontpage, Greenfield revealed that the Jews were not incidental victims in a larger night of “anti-racist” rioting by Black Lives Matter, noting that BLM in Los Angeles is led by outspoken anti-Semites with intimate ties to the virulently anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.

Glick noted that, over the past several years both the BLM-L.A. head Melina Abdullah and her daughter Thandiwe Abdullah, who is the co-founder of the BLM Youth Vanguard, have racked up long records of anti-Semitic rants and fawning praise for Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan. Farrakhan, who has praised Hitler, recently called Jews “termites” and obsessively rails against Judaism and Jews.

The Black Lives Matter charter states: “The U.S. justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.”

According to the BLM charter, U.S. military aid to Israel is the foundation of America’s problems.

The charter accuses Israel of being an “apartheid state,” and supports the anti-Semitic boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel. It calls for local, state and federal action against Israel.

"So for BLM, anti-Semitism isn’t a bug. It is a feature. Hatred of Israel and the Jews is part of its DNA," Glick wrote.

Aside from a few Jewish reporters and Orthodox websites, the media largely ignored the BLM attack on LA's Jewish community.

"And when it was reported, the deliberately anti-Semitic character of the attacks was either downplayed or ignored altogether," Glick noted. "The media’s refusal to cover the pogrom makes clear that most U.S. media outlets have accepted the limits on freedom of speech dictated by the Left. Identity politics now dominate the Left in America. BLM controls identity politics."

The graffiti painted by rioters on the Beth El synagogue in Fairfax told the tale: “F**k Israel, Free Palestine.”

While it was no surprise the media would ignore an anti-Semitic attack by BLM rioters, Glick noted "the low-key responses it generated from the Jewish community. Aside from a pro-forma statement by the Anti-Defamation League’s Los Angeles office, the Jewish organization that proclaims itself the go-to place for calling out and fighting anti-Semitism has been mum. Even the modern Orthodox communities in Los Angeles failed to condemn the attack on their ultra-Orthodox neighbors."

Greenfield reported that while the modern Orthodox synagogues quickly removed their Torah scrolls from their prayer halls to protect them from possible looters, the modern Orthodox communities refused to condemn the rioters even as they quickly removed their Torah scrolls from their synagogues to protect them.

"Rather than condemn the BLM rioters targeting their community and expressing solidarity with the victims and the police who stopped the riots from spreading, local modern Orthodox leaders told their communities to support BLM bigots and atone for their own imagined racist crimes. Only the ultra-Orthodox cheered the police and thanked them," Glick wrote.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal "called on members of the political left to wake up and oppose the thought policemen of identity politics," Glick noted. "Sadly, it appears that the Jewish victims of those policemen will be the last to hear or heed the call."

Free Press International