John Podhoretz, author of a long essay for Commentary Magazine on the end of the Jewish 'golden age' in America, discusses the rise of anti-Semitism, assaults on Orthodox Jews, the discrepancy in public opinion, tactics used to target Jews on college campuses, and the significance of his piece 'They're Coming After Us'.
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Long Era Of Relative Safety
American Jews enjoyed a long period (decades) without widespread physical risk for being Jewish.
John Podhoretz frames that era as a 'golden age' that has ended in recent years.
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Campus Ideas Built A Broader Movement
Multiple intellectual currents on campuses seeded anti-Israel and anti-Jewish arguments over decades.
Podhoretz links intersectionality, BDS, and critiques of the Israel lobby as connected forces.
insights INSIGHT
Narratives Recast Jews And Israel
New narratives recast Jews as colonial oppressors and Israel as apartheid or genocidal.
Podhoretz argues these narratives ignore Jewish indigeneity and demographic realities in Israel.
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Will we look back at the past few decades in America as the Jewish ‘golden age’? And is this ‘golden age’ now over? Did October 7th mark the end? Or should the signs have been obvious years ago?
John Podhoretz recently wrote a long essay for Commentary Magazine describing how we got here. He writes: “Several seemingly unconnected arguments and controversies in the United States that had been carefully cultivated over the past couple of decades sprang into full flower on October 8 and thereafter. The weapons were ideas that had flowed for a quarter century from university graduate programs to activist groups to K–12 education and then began to reach millions through online mailing lists, listservs, and social-media entertainment services.”
I wanted to have a conversation with John about how we got here, whether we are truly alone, and are they – actually – coming after us?
John Podhoretz is a return guest to this podcast. He is a writer and public intellectual. He is editor-in-chief of Commentary Magazine and host of Commentary’s critically acclaimed daily podcast, he’s a columnist for the New York Post, and author of several books (including one of my favorites, “Hell of a Ride”, about his time in the first Bush Administration).
Here is the essay we discuss in the episode:
“There’s Coming After Us” — https://www.commentary.org/articles/john-podhoretz/antisemites-coming-after-jews/
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