Opinion: Antisemitism Grows in Troubling Times but We Are All Part of the Same Biblical Tree

Several months ago, a woman I never met named Renate reached out to me and members of my family. Renate lives in Germany and is writing a book about children who fled Nazi oppression. Amazingly, my father and his two siblings were the subjects of one of her stories. Renate had all kinds of information about my family that had never been known before. She had medical records of my grandmother, detailing the state of her mind when her husband was taken from her and her children were placed in an orphanage. Renate had a copy of a pamphlet that listed which businesses to boycott in Frankfurt because they were owned by Jews, including my grandfather's cobbler shop. As the situation in Germany deteriorated, my grandparents somehow were able to send their children to the United States. My father was forever indebted to the kindness and compassion shown by the Americans who quite literally saved him, his brother, and his sister from certain doom. He became a proud patriotic veteran and civil servant.

Nearly a hundred years later, the trends that led to my father's escape from Germany are being echoed today in our beloved America. Populist nationalism, economic inequality, a fractured parliament influenced by extremes on both the left and right are all the ingredients that led to our family's misfortune in the 1930s. Authors in the last few years have shown how this perilous concoction of populism, extremism, and economic disparity have led to a line of authoritarians that link Mussolini of Italy to Venezuela's Chavez to Erdogan of Turkey and Orban of Hungary. When researching these autocrats, what's remarkable is many of them were elected in fledgling democracies, quite often as a minority political party that eventually consumed and suppressed any opposition. In fact, even the Nazis were elected to power, first with 18% of the vote in 1930 and then 37% in 1932, eventually consolidating all power a few months later when the fear of a potential communist takeover forced President Hindenburg to make Hitler chancellor.

With all the challenges of our current day, the toxic environment that infects school board meetings, airline travel, and even sporting events, what's concerning to me is the rise in antisemitism that mimics what my father experienced as a boy and how our current environment has roots in the past. On Halloween, my own congregation here in Austin, Congregation Beth Israel, suffered an attempted arson attack by an 18-year-old extremist. Numerous antisemitic events have occurred in Austin in the last few months, echoing what we had thought we had left behind 80 years ago. And just this month, there was a hostage situation at another Congregation Beth Israel, in Colleyville, Texas, that thankfully ended with no harm to the captives.

How did we get to this eerily similar point? Economic disillusionment? Social media? Erosion of our educational system? Pandemic exhaustion? Or simply history repeating itself? It is hard to know the answer to pinpoint a resolution. Simply putting down our phones and talking to our neighbors is a start, especially to those from different backgrounds, faiths, experiences, or political views. Challenging our elected leaders and potential candidates for public office to represent the best of us, and not our left or right extremes, is another opportunity to tamp down the discord and hostility.

Finally, lost in the news about the Colleyville event is that it occurred the same week Jews celebrated the holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the celebration of trees. Trees give us sustenance, clean air, and shelter. And in a metaphorical sense, the major Western religions all come from the same tree of Abraham. In fact, in his writings, George Washington would often reference "sitting under the vine and fig tree" to foster freedom and prosperity. Let's nurture that biblical tree for all its unique features and for all the different types of fruits it bears rather than try to prune any of its branches. All faiths nurturing each other can build a wonderful grove that enriches us all.

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Bob Feiner is an executive in the technology industry and has been a member of Congregation Beth Israel in Austin since 1999.