By Brandon Maly | Newsweek
My great-grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. Many of us believed that the kinds of atrocities he lived through in Eastern Europe couldn’t happen again, a history that we vowed never to forget. That was just 79 years ago.
On Oct. 7, 2023, the world changed for the Jewish community. Israel experienced the most deadly attack in its history, and it marked the most Jews killed on any one day since the Holocaust. At that moment in time (and since), every Jewish person in the United States who feels any connection to Israel became a single-issue voter. This doesn’t mean that Jewish voters will vote exclusively on the most pro-Israel candidate (if both are pro-Israel), but it does mean that Jewish voters will look at insufficiently pro-Israel politicians and singularly disqualify them from their votes over the issue. When presented with two pro-Israel politicians, many will revert to voting on the other issues affecting them, like the economy.
Over the last year, there has also been a scourge of antisemitism across America’s institutions of higher education. This level of hatred and ignorance should disturb everyone. When I visited Israel late last year (post Oct. 7), one of the issues that worried Israelis the most was the unrest over Israel’s war with Hamas on American college campuses. Specifically, they were worried about the safety of Jewish students, and losing U.S. support for defeating the terrorists that launched the deadly attack. What Israelis marveled at was that the most ignorance and hatred was coming from what should be our most enlightened citizens, our college students, and professors. This struck a chord with me.
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