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Photo credit: Alyssa Pointer, AFP for Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama seemed to blame his successor Donald Trump for the recent rise in anti-Semitism.
Between 2015 and 2019, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States reached near record highs, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 2020 saw the third-highest number of assaults, harassment and vandalism against American Jews since the ADL began tracking the numbers in 1979.
In a written interview published Monday by Jewish Insider, Obama referred to a speech he gave to the Israeli presidency in Washington DC at the end of his presidency.
I said that the seeds that gave birth to the Holocaust have always been with us. They have found their roots across cultures, religions and generations. And they have reappeared again and again, especially in times of change and uncertainty, Obama wrote to J-Insider. When I gave this speech, it was clear that anti-Semitism was on the rise around the world. People’s anger over everything from immigration to inequality was overflowing and many of them were looking for someone else to blame. And for four years, we had a president in the White House who kindled these flames.
Obama then adopted an optimistic tone, noting that hatred has often been countered with “much broader expressions of solidarity.”
“So while I never anticipated what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6, some of the negative and conflicting trends that we have seen at home and around the world have contributed to an increase in anti-Semitism and ‘other forms of hatred,’ he said. “In many cases, I have been delighted to see these acts of hate thwarted by much broader expressions of solidarity. People recognize that we all have a responsibility to stand in solidarity against bigotry and violence, not to remain silent, but there will always be a need for vigilance against anti-Semitism.
He added, “Well, we can never erase hatred from every mind, but we have to do everything we can to fight it. And more and more people are realizing that. This dynamic, more than anything, is what gives me hope.
Obama’s interview comes just weeks after the Israeli-Palestinian fighting that killed at least 243 people in Gaza and left 12 people dead in Israel, including two children. The intensification of the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting protests in America have caused a 75% increase in anti-Semitic acts according to the ADL.
In the email exchange, Obama also addressed the political divide in America and criticized right-wing and social media for allowing “people to live in bubbles.”
“America has been fractured by a combination of political, cultural, ideological and geographic divisions that seem to be deepening day by day,” Obama said. “I think a lot of it has to do with changes in the way people get information. I’ve talked about this before, but if you watch Fox News you are faced with a different reality than if you read The New York Times. And it’s all amplified by social media, which allows people to live in bubbles with other like-minded people.
Obama noted that “democracy will not work” until Americans can distinguish fact from fiction.
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