An American Crisis
By Steve Huntley
January 9th, 2026
Just over 110 years ago a mob broke into a Georgia prison, kidnapped a man named Leo Frank, lynched him and took photos of his body hanging from a tree, which sold as picture postcards for 25 cents in local stores for years afterward. Frank, wrongfully convicted of murdering a 13-year-old girl in his employ, was a Jew.
Afterward, half of Georgia’s population of 3,000 Jews reportedly left the state. “Those who remained,” according to the New York Times, “hid behind locked doors, forced to survive a widespread boycott of Jewish businesses.”
This shameful episode helped inspire the establishment of the Anti-Defamation League, its organizing principle to fight antisemitism specifically and bigotry in general.
Now, 1915 may seem like long ago, but it’s not ancient history. To use a personal perspective, my father was two years old when Frank was murdered. I was born only 28 years later.
Yes, our world thankfully is far from that one. Still, the ancient curse of antisemitism haunts America again. Our country is experiencing an eruption of Jew hatred that was unimaginable as recently as Oct. 6, 2023.
That was the day before the horrific attack by Hamas terrorists and a mob of Gaza men on peaceful Israelis, many in their homes, others attending a music festival. Some 1,200 were killed, women and girls raped, bodies of babies mutilated and burned, and 250 people, grotesquely some of them dead bodies, were taken hostage.
As shocking as that was, American Jews were further stunned to see an outburst of demonstrations at our prestigious universities aimed not at the terrorists, but at Jews and Israel. Jewish students were harassed, intimidated and threatened on elite campuses. Several Ivy League university presidents, questioned by Congress, couldn’t bring themselves to denounce outright this antisemitism.
More was to come. American Jews, overwhelmingly liberal in political outlook, have a long history of supporting all sorts of causes — the civil right movement, feminism, gay marriage and other liberal projects.
Yet there was mostly silence from the activists of those movements over the atrocities of Oct. 7. The voices of civil rights groups were muted. Too many feminists cast their eyes away from the rampage of sexual violence against Israeli women and girls. “Queers for Palestine” — a laughable concept if the stakes weren’t so high — attacked Israelis for defending themselves.
It’s obvious and undeniable that antisemitism constitutes a powerful strain — maybe a dominant one — within mainstream liberalism and the Democratic Party.
Further evidence: Even before the Oct. 7 massacre, Whoopi Goldberg, one of ultra-liberal hosts of the ABC network show The View, tried to whitewash the Holocaust. She described it as just one group of white people inhumanely persecuting another group of white people, depriving it of its central and fundamental characteristic of race hatred. After an uproar against such unhistoric nonsense, she apologized but maintains her perch in The View.
Now liberal New York City — a metropolis with the largest Jewish population of any single city in the world — has elected an antisemitic Muslim as mayor. Zohran Mamdani won’t denounce the left wings and Palestinian sympathizers’ call to “globalize the intifada” — an appeal to kill Jews wherever they are found.
He’s even himself spouted this repugnant call to murder in the past. On his first day in office, he revoked a New York City executive order defining antisemitism and condemning “hatred toward Jews.”
As we’ve seen recently, the right isn’t immune to the ancient curse of antisemitism.
Tucker Carlson, the most prominent podcaster among conservatives, embraced a virulent Jew hater, Holocaust denier and fan of “cool” Hitler as well as a pseudo-historian who claims British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the villain in World War II, not Hitler. Insiders in the conservative movement report that such poison indeed affects a significant number of young rightwing men.
Kevin Roberts, the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, rushed to defend Carlson, his friend. Vice President JD Vance, also a Carlson friend, avoided coming to grips with the antisemitism by saying he wasn’t looking “to denounce or to deplatform” any conservatives. Hardly a profile in courage for a man with presidential ambitions.
Yet, there is an important difference between the eruptions on Jew hatred on the left and right.
The leadership of the liberal movement and the Democratic Party have — with few exceptions like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman — refused to denounce the “globalize the intifada” crowd. They cling to the radical ideas of “liberation” politics and “critical race theory” that divide the world into the oppressed and oppressors and justify any violence on behalf of those deemed to be oppressed.
In contrast prominent leaders on the conservative side rose up to denounce and push back against the antisemitic venom.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, in the finest moment of his career, declared, “In the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right than I had in my entire life” and urged Republicans and conservatives to “stand up and be clear” in fighting Jew hatred.
President Donald Trump ordered his administration to root out antisemitism in colleges and universities and moved to deny federal funding to those that won’t reform themselves. He remains a strong supporter of Israel in its fight against radical Islamist jihadists.
At the Heritage Foundation, several board members and more than a dozen prominent staff resigned their posts in revulsion to Roberts’ defense of Carlson giving an unchallenged platform to antisemites. Roberts eventually apologized to Heritage but, like Whoopi Goldberg, he kept his job as president of an organization he had grievously wounded.
Which illustrates another characteristic about antisemitism. Carlson says Israel has too much influence in Washington because of campaign contributions to members of Congress from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sound familiar? Far left Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis attributed Capitol Hill support for Israel to “it’s all about the Benjamins baby.”
When it comes to Jews, the fringe of the conservative world is in complete harmony with the Democratic far left, which increasingly looks like the mainstream of liberalism.
It is sadly crystal clear that pervasive antisemitism in our society is a crisis for American Jewry. Although our country has at times failed to live up to its aspirations, the fact is that we as a nation have from the Declaration of Independence aspired to the highest of human rights goals.
An early example: In a letter to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island, President George Washington wrote, “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
Today American Jews have cause to be afraid.
It’s true that the vast majority of Americans are free of stench of antisemitism, but the rot is found in powerful places. It’s a driving force in our oldest political party. It has a voice in the halls of Congress. Its hands are on the levers of government in our largest city. Demonstrations on college campuses celebrate it. Popular podcasters give it a platform.
A hesitancy to confront it directly, forcibly and in all its manifestations stains the leadership of the liberal movement, the legacy media, elite universities, the office of the vice presidency and a think tank that once was known exclusively as the intellectual arsenal of conservatism.
So, Jews have reasons for their fears. There are likely more than a few homes where American Jews are for the first time thinking of making aliyah, the Hebrew word for immigrating to the homeland of Israel.
That Jewish Americans are even whispering that means the wildfire of antisemitism is not just a crisis for them, but also a crisis for our country.
Cruz put it perfectly: “It is a poison. And I believe we are facing an existential crisis in our party and our country.”
It is an American crisis. And it must be confronted before it becomes an American tragedy.
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Steve Huntley is a retired Chicago journalist living in Austin, Texas, who spent most of his career, almost three decades, with the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a feature writer, metro reporter, night city editor, metropolitan editor, editorial page editor and a columnist for the opinion pages. Before that he was a reporter and editor with United Press International (UPI) in the South and Chicago, and Chicago bureau chief and a senior editor in Washington with U.S. News & World Report. Northwestern University Press has issued soft cover and eBook editions of Knocking Down Barriers: My Fight for Black America by Truman K. Gibson Jr. with Steve Huntley, a memoir of a Chicagoan who was a member of President Roosevelt’s World War II Black Cabinet working to desegregate the military.
Comments 12
Astounding that this sort of bigotry even survives. What concerns me equally is the sort of Jewish persuasion that thinks this is all okay. Pritzker, Schumer, Schiff, Goldman. The ADL and Southern Poverty Law Center, once the definitions of defending this cause, now are some of the biggest haters on the planet.
Until the MSM makes this distinction, I’m afraid we’re in for more of this.
Agree 100%. Astounding we seem to never make progress, that we don’t identify, teach and celebrate our successes in race relations, our progress, and victories and build on them
I think this kind of bigotry in the society is accepted today as normal because of the present immigrant make up in this country. Disproportional 3rd world presence aided by chain migration is making it worse. During his first election campaign, Trump had this agenda of stopping/trimming the chain migration but not anymore. Survival – political/national is taking the main seat.
Strange how Jewish politicians like Schumer, Nadler, etc…hold hands with other Democrats like Omar, Tlailib and other anti- semites in a show of solidarity. Jewish celebrities in Hollywood raise millions of dollars to get them elected and keep them in office. To force your money on those who hate you. BILLIONS of dollars donated by wealthy Jews to universities that persecute their children. I don’t understand it. Thanks for highlighting a horrific example of mob justice that is mostly forgotten, even by the Jewish people themselves. There were also other tragedies. The largest mass lynching in this nations history took place on March 14 1891 when a mob in Louisiana broke into the city jail and lynched 11 men held there for the murder of the local sheriff. The men were all of Italian descent. All from Italy. These incidents are largely forgotten since neither of these ethnic groups choose to accept victimhood status for the persecutions and prejudices of the past. I’m sure if you spoke to anyone of Italian heritage in the forties or fifties they would rather talk about Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano. Or slugger Joe Dimaggio. Or the many Italian American success stories in the science, film and music industries. The same with Jewish Americans. Better things to talk about. My wife and I laugh when we hear the phrase “blacks and browns”. This is a victim reinforcement term used by the Left to push the narrative of inferiority and to nurture a culture of victimhood among Hispanics and Blacks. A perception to lay blame for your shortcomings on another ethnic group. I am sure there are many, many other horrible acts of violence in this nations history that are largely forgotten. Most of us have moved on, why drag along the spector of negativity from things that happened a hundred years ago with you? Let it go, forget about it. Move on.
Well said. I also think some of the profound hatred of Israel – even amongst progressive Jews – has to do with Jews refusing to assume their historical role of victim. A Jew who fights back – rather than obediently march to the gas chamber – is not “normal.” LOL.
Excellent point. Guilt seems to go hand in hand with getting into bed with those who literally want you destroyed. That would be you Pritzker and Goldman.
Thank you, Larry. I neglected to mention that the other issue that really pisses off the American socialists and commies about Israel is Israel’s transformation from a failed socialist nirvana – based upon the Israeli kibbutz – to a robust thriving capitalist country
The irony here is that the ADL has evolved from an organization fighting for the rights of Jews into the exact opposite: one dedicated to the far left Democratic Party litany: DEI, CRT, transgenderism, micro-aggressions, anti-Zionism. Further irony: until recent revision – due to blistering criticism – the ADL definition of racism ensured that only white people (like Jews) could be racists. And that was the very definition – right out of the ADL playbook – that Whoopi Goldberg was using! The ADL, like Pritzker and Schumer, have drunk the Kool-Aid of antisemitism and think it is some other beverage. The larger question – the elephant in the room so to speak – is why did an estimated 30% of NY Jews vote for an antisemite for Mayor of NYC? Why are a substantial but influential minority of Jews so guilt ridden and self-loathing that they support folks who want to exterminate them?
As far as Mayor Mandani revoking the NYC definition of antisemitism, this raises another issue besides antisemitism. Such definitions, though well-meaning ultimately result in the chilling and suppression of free speech and free ideas. Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism impinges on a broad swath of speech protected by the First Amendment. Involving government in defining what is and what is not “antisemitic” speech is a slippery slope. What will be next? Defining what is and what is not Islamophobia? Will criticism of Islam be considered anti Islam and then in some way be “prohibited” speech. No good can come from speech codes or governmental definitions of what is and is not appropriate speech. In fact Jews – and other minorities – have enormously benefited from the foundational bedrock of our country, the right that makes the US unique: the First amendment. If you have any doubt, look across the pond at the UK where “unapproved” speech can actually land you in jail. That being said, I am not naïve enough to think that Mayor Mandani revoked the NYC definition of antisemitism to uphold the ideals of the First amendment.
This issue is so important, and the article is great. I’m frustrated that even observant “conservative” Jewish friends remain liberal supporters of the Democrats, and hate Trump. A friend joined the local Chicago ADL board, so I donated because I support what they used to be. But I soon learned that the ADL was doing things like promoting outreach to fight antisemitism in … Catholic schools. It’s basically non-existent in Catholic schools. And they ignore the massive, basically official antisemitism in the favored “ethnic’ group of Muslims. Jews face an historic challenge to their safety due to Muslim and really all third-world immigration, and the ADL is worried about DEI and Catholic grade schools.
Europe is losing its culture to Islam way faster than we are; but we are sliding, too.
Thanks for this article.
The only point of which I disagree is that “Jews face an historic challenge to their safety due to Muslims …” In the US, their historic challenge to their safety is largely self induced: due to their overwhelming support of the Democratic Party and its suicidal political litany as you have demonstrated – ironically – by the ADL. US citizens – unique amongst all the world’s citizens – have a right to “keep and bear arms.” I was shocked and surprised to find out that even Israelis do not have this right. Maybe if they did, Oct 6th never would have happened. It’s time for American Jews to jettison the Democratic Party, offer full throated support for the 2nd – and not their historical suicidal support of “gun control” – learn how to fight and shoot. Jews can’t do any of this in the UK and Europe (and apparently not even in Israel) but they sure as hell can in the good ole USA.
Nothing is as sickening as antisemitism anywhere. The Soros, Pritzker, Goldman, Schumer and Nadler objects of disgust previously listed fail on character rather than their origins.
This Roman Catholic stands with Steve and my Jewish friends.