Anti-Semitism in the U.S. rises 99% in four years.

My Personal Response

This is Dr. Jim Dinnisance, the Daily Article podcast for Thursday, May 2, 2019.

Imagine beginning your worship service this weekend with an announcement about where the exits are

in case a shooter attacks and people need to run for their lives.

We're locking your doors once the service begins, or training your congregation in ways to

respond to a live shooter. Imagine installing airport-style metal detectors and security guards

at the entrances to your church, or being harassed by demonstrators outside your building,

carrying signs celebrating those who murdered six million followers of your faith. This is life for Jewish people

today. Not just in France, where anti-Semitic violence has risen 74%, or in Germany, where 1,646

anti-Semitic acts were reported last year, or in the UK, where 1,652 such incidents

were reported, or in Canada, which recorded 2,041 anti-Semitic acts, but in America.

Six months ago, a man who said he wanted all Jews to die attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue

in Pittsburgh,

killing 11 people and wounding seven.

Last Saturday, around 100 people held a vigil at the synagogue to honor the victims of a similar

shooting in San Diego.

Last year, anti-Semitic acts in the U.S. were 48% higher than in 2016 and 99% higher than in 2015. Why is such horrific prejudice

and violence increasing in our country? Conspiracy theories are one factor. At a 2017 confrontation

in Charlottesville, Virginia, neo-Nazis chanted, Jews will not replace us. The teenager accused of the Poway

shooting in California apparently embraced conspiracy theories that refugees and immigrants are

replacing the Christian European majority. Some white supremacists call this the Great

...