On a golden age - Rachel Timoner in Haaretz:

‘It is a frightening time to be an American Jew.
As the senior rabbi of a large Brooklyn synagogue, I can confirm that the antisemitism Foer documents on the left and the right is real. Our people are in pain. October 7 shattered us, and every passing day fills us with desperation for the hostages to come home and the catastrophe in Gaza to end.’

(…)

‘In his article, Foer says that experts declared the end of antisemitism in the mid-1990's, but he also argues that safety for American Jews started to end on September 11, 2001, just six years later. So, when exactly was the period we'd call the "Golden Age"?’

(…)

‘The question is what path will lead us to safety? Just as Foer described, to the degree that the second half of the 20th century was a golden age for Jewish Americans, it was because we used those years to join together with other minorities for a shared vision of liberal democracy with rights for all. That work is far from finished. We understood and must still understand that an agenda of civil liberties and equity for all is what's best for other Americans, and what's best for Jews.’

(…)

‘The stories we tell ourselves matter, and the story of an ended Golden Age is dangerous. As Jews we are prone to always be preparing for the next Holocaust. If the last few years have taught us anything, it's that antisemitism remains a pernicious threat to the Jewish people and is also a tool for dismantling liberal democracy.’

Read the article here.

American Jews are mostly highly assimilated Americans. I have no desire to underestimate the resurgence of antisemitism, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that for a highly assimilated i.e. almost non-religious Jew the threat of Jew-hatred is what makes him or her a Jew.
This mechanism can be seen everywhere. Israel shaped Palestinian identity, Russia shaped Ukrainian identity, European antisemitism was the midwife for Jewish nationalism.

Wasn’t it a bit naïve to believe that antisemitism after World War II would disappear forever? And golden age or no golden age, in many Western countries the Jews are still the favorite minority of the political establishment.

The idea that Jews are always preparing for the next Holocaust gives credence to paranoia. Most antisemitism doesn’t end in Auschwitz. Also, it’s not always clear where antisemitism begins and once again criticism of Israel ends.

I notice a slightly perverse pleasure in the notion that antisemitism is on the rise again. The pleasure of assimilation that turned out to be an impossibility.

Especially in the US, I’m not so sure about this. The Jewish-American experience and let’s say he Italian-American are not that far removed from each other. Of course there are exceptions, but I’m talking here about people who are third or fourth generation American.

Nostalgia, folklore, belonging and (sometimes) a cloud of non-belonging in the tea.