OPINION:
When I read “Bill Maher says Democrats can discuss faith openly, ‘as long as it isn’t Jewish’” (Web, Aug. 22), I recognized an old and disturbing pattern.
It is one that I have seen throughout my lifetime, but it predates all of us: When societies face problems they cannot easily explain, they look for someone to blame. All too often, they blame the Jews.
We tell ourselves we have evolved. Too often, we have simply learned to rebrand.
I was reminded of this by a biting parody song circulating online: “When you run out of luck and your life really sucks, just blame the Jews.” It is funny — until you recognize the history behind the joke.
Plague? Jews supposedly poisoned the wells. Economic hardship? Blame Jewish financiers. Political upheaval? It was Jewish conspirators. The accusations change, but the target remains remarkably consistent.
The czar’s secret police used antisemitism. The Nazis built an entire political movement around it. Soviet regimes disguised it as anti-“cosmopolitanism.”
Today, someone with a microphone, a podcast and millions of followers can recycle the same ancient conspiracy theories while presenting them as independent thought.
The technology is new. The conspiracy is not.
This does not mean that criticism of Israel or the Israeli government is inherently antisemitic. Nor is criticism of Zionism automatically antisemitic. Legitimate political disagreement is essential in a free society.
But the line is crossed when Jews collectively are blamed, stereotyped or demonized — or when “Zionist” becomes merely a substitute for “Jew.”
That distinction matters because scapegoating thrives when people discard facts that do not fit the preferred narrative. Oct. 7, 2023, the hostages, Jewish history and the extraordinary diversity of Jewish political thought cannot simply be erased because they complicate a convenient conspiracy.
Antisemitism is more than prejudice. It is a warning signal. When a society stops looking for evidence and starts looking for a convenient villain, reason has already begun to fail.
We need to recognize the old song before we start singing it again.
LEONARD KARP
Rancho Mirage, California
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