It comes around. Shmuley Boteach notes that more Americans are experiencing
what it usually feels like to be Jewish in Europe.When I lived in England for 11 years serving as rabbi at Oxford University, I became familiar with the practice of more than a few British Jews removing their kippot while at university, and later while at work in London, for fear of being discriminated against by superiors or attacked by anti-Semites. But who would have thought that one could be a citizen of the most powerful nation in the history of the world and still have to hide the tee-shirt with the Statue of Liberty while standing under the Arc de Triomphe?
Boteach then draws a parallel between Jews and Americans:
In asking King Ahasuerus for the authority to slaughter all the Jews in the ancient Persian empire, [Haman] says: "There exists a people, dispersed and scattered among the nations, in all the provinces of your kingdom. And yet their values are entirely different from everyone else's ."
Jewish singularity, Jewish peculiarity, a refusal to blend in and be like everybody else is what foments hatred in Haman's breast. Why do you Jews hold yourselves aloof? Why don't you just become like everybody else? Do you think you're better than us? Add to this the Jewish penchant for promoting social justice and a steadfast commitment to espousing morality and you have the perfect formula for hating the foreigner who not only rejects your way of life while living in your country but makes you feel inferior, to boot. . . .
You see the same antipathy from Europeans directed at George W. Bush. Before Bush, Europeans could look at Americans and speak of a common Western heritage. But along came Bush and upset the whole applecart. He divided the world into good guys and bad guys, those who are with us and those who are against us. He threw God into his language at every opportunity. And by doing so he made the Europeans feel less worthy. Who is this guy? Does he think he's better than us? What, we're not moral? Heck, we're better than him. He's a warmonger, and we are men of peace.
(via
Jeff Jarvis, who has a whole lot more to say on the subject)
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