No room for antisemitism on Long Island
Long Island, like much of the country and the world at large, has long been plagued by the virulent stain of antisemitism. No matter how often or strongly it is condemned by however many political and religious leaders and regular folks, it keeps rearing its ugly head.
Most prominent among current examples is the recent dinner former President Donald Trump hosted at Mar-a-Lago where one of the guests was noted antisemite, white supremacist, and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Some prominent fellow Republicans have not condemned Trump while others took far too long to do so, columnist Cathy Young writes, concluding, “The Fuentes fiasco is the latest sign that Trumpism is leading the GOP into some dark places.”
The incident followed closely the arrests of three young men, one from Long Island, in connection with threats against Jewish people or synagogues. The editorial board writes that “it is unfortunate – even tragic – that this particular disease of antisemitism would be repeated by this particular generation, which should have been well-schooled on the horrors of the Holocaust and the lies and crimes against humanity of the Nazi regime.”
The disease has been nurtured in parts of Long Island, which once hosted a summer camp for Nazis in Yaphank. Columnist Randi F. Marshall writes about an off-Broadway play whose opening put Camp Siegfried back in the news. Beneath the suburban beauty on stage, she writes, is “a disturbing portrayal of extremism, violence, and the hate that bubbles beneath the surface …"
Reader Andrew Malekoff draws a straight line from Camp Siegfried to the dissemination of antisemitic flyers in Rockville Centre and other LI communities as “far-right white nationalist extremism in America has reached a fever pitch.” The anonymous perpetrators must be exposed, he writes: “Sunlight is needed to help them scatter out of the darkness and shatter their secrecy.”
After those flyers were denounced by Republican leaders in Nassau County, Randi Marshall chastised those officials for not also denouncing what was on the back side of the leaflets – ugly attacks on the Democratic Party. That, Marshall writes, added context to the hate, making it “politically motivated antisemitism” that also deserves reprobation. “Condemning the hate, while important, means little without condemning specific haters – even if they’re your voters,” Marshall writes.
Both Young and Marshall see the incipient danger of antisemitism creeping into the mainstream of one of America’s major political parties, a truly awful development that would only nurture further one of mankind’s worst diseases.
- Michael Dobie
