(Jewish Group) Rahm Emanuel concerned by America's returning to 'ugly' past of attacks on Jews

[Behind the Aegis]

Rahm Emanuel says he’s concerned America is returning to ‘ugly’ past of attacks on Jews

Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, said the rise of violent antisemitism across the U.S. reminds him of his grandfather fleeing religious persecution more than a century ago.

“I’m concerned as a Jew,” Emanuel said in an interview with Freakonomics Radio, a popular podcast and radio program, posted on Wednesday. “I’m concerned as somebody that’s raised three children to be proud of their Judaism.”

He described the “troubling trend” of attacks targeting Jews and synagogues that have spread worldwide as “the worst of times” when antisemitism “becomes a justification for violence.”

Earlier this week, the Anti-Defamation League reported at least 26 recent incidents of false bomb threats in synagogues across 12 states in the past month. The ADL’s annual survey of 2022 found a total of 3,697 antisemitic incidents which represent the highest number since it started tracking antisemitism in 1979. Recently, a jury voted to sentence to death Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, which was the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history.

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