Tal Fortgang Stopping Anti-Semitism Goes Hand-in-Hand with Stopping Crime Soft-on-crime policy is “kindness to the cruel.”
https://www.city-journal.org/article/jewish-anti-semitism-crime
Amid open support for terrorist groups on campuses and city streets, violence against Jews has risen once again. The latest piece of evidence is the New York Police Department’s 2024 hate crime data, which show a decline in prejudice-driven crimes overall but a seven-percentage-point increase in anti-Jewish crimes compared with 2023. While Anti-Jewish hate crimes had been a plurality in past years, in 2024 they were a majority, accounting for 345 of 641 total hate crimes. It’s no wonder that Jewish life in America is migrating away from the five boroughs and toward the friendlier climes of South Florida.
While it’s a tragedy that Jews are bearing the brunt of hate-motivated violence, anti-Semitism is rarely, if ever, about the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors. Anti-Jewish violence is, fundamentally, an indication of a sick civilization. Activist harassment against Jews is incidental to widespread contempt for the West, the promises of which the Jews—economically mobile, academically high-achieving, and largely law-abiding—show are within reach. Street violence against Jews is an outgrowth of the sickness identified by Jewish sages two millennia ago: “Those who are kind to the cruel are destined to be cruel to the kind.”
The anti-Jewish crimes tend to consist of petty violence, such as assaults, harassment, thefts, and vandalism. They’re often perpetrated by individuals who know that Jews (especially easily identifiable Haredi Jews) are unlikely to defend themselves. Petty thieves make off with money taken from Jews they likely see as enriching themselves by exploiting hardworking people. More often, these acts are driven by inchoate resentment against a people who look funny, behave differently, do not act tough, and yet, on the whole, seem to succeed.
The criminals rarely face consequences. Hardly any of the crimes in the anti-Jewish-violence repertoire get prosecuted, and those that do increasingly result in diversionary-justice measures rather than prison time. New York is under immense pressure from anti-incarceration groups to empty jails and prisons, especially of those held “only” for crimes like assault and battery.
This softness toward crime licenses lowlifes to attack Jews. Cultural undercurrents and voices from Kanye West and Louis Farrakhan to anti-Israel progressive activists encourage Americans to see Jews as exploiters. And the incentive structure created by reticent district attorneys and “decarceration” groups alone makes Jews unsafe. It reasonably leads would-be offenders to ask: Why not?
Violent streets are paved with good intentions. Weakness on crime is a form of kindness to the cruel. By going easy on those who prey on Jews, cities like New York become cruel to the kind.
Thanks to the outpouring of bigotry after October 7, 2023, many Jews and New Yorkers have become newly alert to long-simmering Jew hatred. “What can we do about anti-Semitism?” was the question of the year in 2024.
On the one hand, the question represents a harsh return to history, in which Jewish lives are significantly shaped by those around us wishing us harm. On the other, it represents the gift of being Jewish in America, where millions of decent people rush to our aid with genuine concern.
It’s also a question that defies easy answers. Here in America, blessedly, we do not punish people for having evil thoughts—even anti-Semitic ones. That is an essential part of what has made this nation so special. But it does make addressing anti-Semitism, as an ideology or intuition, complicated as a matter of public policy.
Educational efforts to reduce anti-Semitism may succeed someday, but for now, we have little indication that anti-anti-Semitism training is anything better than counterproductive. That is unlikely to change as long as such trainings get subsumed within DEI efforts that foster resentment of groups perceived as successful, law-abiding, and pro-Western, like the Jews.
The good news is that for every elusive –ism there are less elusive –ites. We cannot drum the hatred out of anti-Semites, but we can put them in prison when they commit crimes. (Indeed, we can imprison more criminals, regardless of which citizens they victimize.) In the end, good anti-anti-Semitism policy is just good criminal justice policy: stop being kind to the cruel.
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