https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-shock-of-facing-american-anti-semitism-00acc234?mod=opinion_lead_pos6
It’s a long story how I came to be standing some years ago in Archbishop’s Palace in Naples alongside six Italian-Americans from New York—four academics, a monsignor, and a New York Supreme Court judge—to meet with the cardinal. Each of the others kissed his ring as he went down the line. I, at the end, turned his hand vertically and shook it. His eyes widened. Someone explained that I was Jewish, which delighted him, and for the next hour he directed all his answers to me, regardless of who had posed the questions.
Outside afterward one of the academics asked why I didn’t kiss the cardinal’s ring. Before I could explain that we kiss liturgical objects, not men, the judge shouted: “They only kiss a—.”
They.
Two of the others physically restrained me from drop-kicking his family jewels into the Bay of Naples. I was in my 40s, and this was my first authentic, unambiguous anti-Semitic comment from the mouth of another American.
I assumed that it was a one-off and rarely thought of the judge for years. But now I can’t stop thinking about him—that is, how much company he has and apparently always did. How could I have missed that? How had we all?
There isn’t an American Jew I know whose worldview wasn’t trampled by the anti-Semitism that has been displayed in this country with such fervor and pride since the barbaric attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. Millions more Americans than we ever imagined consider us less than human and would like to see us dead. That’s a lot to deal with so suddenly and unexpectedly.
