How much of a tradition of antisemitism is there in the USA?

If you want some fun, read up on what Henry Ford was up to and during WWII.

Does Mel Gibson fit into this?

x post yes, henry ford, walt disney etc. but culturally speaking, how do their beliefs fit in to the US mainstream?

But I agree with you that anti-semitism is not currently a serious problem in the UK, I'm just interested in the pattern it has followed since the ancien regime and whether similar patterns occur in the (unlinked to the ancien regime) new world.

Despised by who exactly?

My grandmother was for some reason anti-Semitic; I could never get out of her why this was, as she had no pattern of religious values at all which would have led her to this, she worked in fashion and was a lifelong Democrat who voted for FDR in her first election. She'd say things about admiring the talent of Barbra Streisand but wishing she didn't have to look at her, ever. And she once told me she knew her low opinion of Jews was insupportable and hoped we wouldn't share her prejudice - the crappy too-old-and-set-in-my-ways speech a lot of grandparents will give to rationalise their bigotry.

The controversial bit being that data about the Islamist inspired anti-Semitism in Europe was allegedly surpressed

Not Catholic by any chance?

This has set the squirm precedent for any future christmases I might have:

I was once stuck over Christmas on Long Island in a huge house with a family who all turned out to be rabid anti-semites. They didn't reveal this until the whiskey started flowing, and they started bashing Asian engineers and Mexicans(not literally). It took me two hours to pluck up the courage to tell them that I was, in fact, a bagel boy (tm). They then became incredibly apologetic, and showered me with incredibly expensive gifts, telling me that Santa was "non-denominational". Mortifying.

-- Nordicskillz (allmanbrothersrul...), December 12th, 2002.

Hasn't he read The Bible: Mel Gibson Authorized Version?

i don't really know enough about it obviously. i haven't encountered anti-semitism among the french i know, although i was at a party where a few people countenanced some jewish jokes (made by a bosnian girl) that would have been chased away with sharp tongues in america....

That's part of it, definitely. How many leading politicians in the USA have been Jewish? I mean compared to the UK, where we've already had one Jewish Prime Minister (albeit a convert) and another possible one on the way (tho unlikely, it must be admitted).

My mom grew up in the same town as me in the '50s and has a love-hate relationship with Jews. On the hate side, she finds them clannish and exclusive to non-Jews (this may be her experience of being best friends with Jewish guys and suddenly becoming invisible when all reached dating age) and also a bit pushy. She also mentioned that her female Jewish classmates relished playing 'snotty rich girl'. On the love side, she respects chutzpah, the loyalty of the friends she did make, Jewish cultural contributions and food (which she can make, inc. matzoh ball soup), the benefit of going to school with people whose parents care about education and intellectual competition, and Paul Simon. She also says 'kvetch' in daily conversation.

When I was at Northwestern, there were fraternities and sororities that were known to not accept Jews (and Italians, it appears). There was one sorority that would accept everyone who didn't get invited to join any other sorority, and it was full of Jewish and Italian girls. Maybe they've changed since then, I don't know.

When I lived in Nebraska, the anti-Semitism was much more blatant. When a friend of mine was hired at the U, they hooked her and another prof up with a real estate agent. As the agent drove past one neighborhood, she said, "you don't want to live here, there are too many Jews." One of the women was Jewish. My friend & this woman went to the U to report the agent, and they refused to do anything about it because the agent was the wife of some administrator.

When "60 Minutes" asked him why he dropped Leibowitz, Stewart explained: "Sounded too Hollywood." [June 2001]

Anti-semitism took a solid body blow when the Nazi concentration camps were liberated and the holocaust was first publicized. What passes for anti-semitism in most parts of the USA nowadays is more like the usual awkward, bland ignorance than ill-will or malice. How American!

Surely you mean more gentile than rabid...

With catholics, the KKK could tap into the very old, very deep animosities left over from the bitter religious wars between catholic and protestant Europe. Catholics were clearly a threat to wholesome 100% Americanism, because they were all a bunch of dirty Italians, Irish and Poles, who cravenly worshipped the pope and did whatever that old antichrist told them to do. And so on. Believe me, this was WAY more potent stuff in America before 1940 than jew-bashing ever was. The catholics had numbers, like the Yellow Peril. The jews were few and ghettoized in big Eastern cities.

Sure, jew-bashing was acceptable form everywhere, but it was mostly theoretical most parts of America. In fact, if you want to whip up some good anti-jewish hatred in America, you still have to piggyback it onto the more visceral hatred many Americans have toward banks and Wall Street. The only problem is that banks and Wall Street are easily seen to be mostly WASP preserves, so it is hard to get around that glaring fact and get the hate-juices flowing in a properly anti-semitic direction.

I've picked up the idea that Jew-hating was big in Britain in the 1930s and before that, especially among the upper classes. I don't know how you quantify these things.

I don't think Ireland has much of an anti-Jewish tradition, despite being predominantly Catholic. OK, so there was the Limerick pogrom in the early 20th century, but Limerick is weird (during the 1920s they had a short-lived Soviet there).

Yes, then the masses picked up on it. It went overground and crap.

has no one mentioned leo frank yet???

This is remarkably misguided. Hate crimes against Jews do still happen all the time in the U.S., and are often reported. Just recently, I saw on the news that some homes in Borough Park, a predominantly Jewish section of Brooklyn, were graffitied with swastikas. And of course, Crown Heights was only ten years ago.

The idea that anti-Semitism only occurs out in the "hinterlands," and is only practiced by hicks, rednecks and the Klan, is one of the most dangerously incorrect things I've seen on ILX in a while.

and, according to this web site, "the [rock] dassie is the African elephant’s closest living relative" (!)

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), July 20th, 2004. (hstencil) (later)

Now that I think of it, I think that's what my father's parents were.

yes, actually. there are "eastern rite" catholics (also "greek catholics") -- who are mostly ukrainians -- and who follow orthodox liturgical rites but catholics b/c they accept the authority of the pope.

sometimes being a half-slav comes in handy!

The train, en route from Washington to Boston, was detained shortly after 8 a.m. for more than an hour as officers, accompanied by police dogs, boarded it at Newark Penn Station. By about 9:30 a.m. the train was allowed to continue its run.

Amtrak officials would not disclose the contents of the note but a spokesman said that a passenger told Amtrak employees about it and they then contacted law enforcement authorities.

The note did not contain any specific threats to the train, an Amtrak spokesman said.

But a law enforcement official said the note was found in an envelope and contained statements calling in effect for the death of of all Jews.

"It was a little hectic," said Al Leckerman, a passenger who boarded the train in Philadelphia.

Mr. Leckerman, who works in marketing, and other passengers said the incident began just as the train neared the Newark station when Amtrak officers announced that although passengers shouldn't be alarmed, no one would be allowed to leave the train. While passengers remained on the train, officers checked each rider's identification, checking the information with hand-held devices. They also checked overhead luggage compartments with metal wands.

"Everyone was calm in my car," said a passenger, Lynn Martin Haskin, "but I don't know if anyone was sleeping at that time."

An investigation is continuing.

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/the-hate-report-the-alt-rights-newest-target-is-kosher-products/

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2023/01/27/holocaust-remembrance-dayis-a-time-to-remember-more-than-one-atrocity/69832129007/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

This is a pretty strong example

Uhh, “Eastern European Jews” weren’t the only victims of the Holocaust.

Featuring hits like "Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities," "For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others, including Black people, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Native Americans," and the smash #1 single "Hitler was just one of many dictators."