The Mamdani Exodus

 Tablet Magazine  Faced with rising antisemitism and a radical would-be mayor, New York’s Jewish artists confront a once unthinkable question: Is it time to flee?

"Supporting Israel in any way became the one stance that could destroy your reputation in New York’s creative world."

. . . "But history is rarely fair. And the story isn’t new. In 1933, German Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger wrote The Oppermanns, a novel about an assimilated Jewish family in Berlin as antisemitism grows around them. They find themselves slowly losing everything as a new ideology grips their friends, clients, colleagues, and teachers. Each time, they assume it’s a passing storm. As we, the readers, know, it wasn’t. The Holocaust that followed could never have been predicted at the time of the book’s writing, but in hindsight, all the signs were there.

"Are American Jews the Oppermanns of today? Have we placed too much faith in a system untested by this level of hatred? Will future generations look back and ask how we could’ve possibly missed the red flags? A mayoral candidate who wouldn’t condemn “Globalize the Intifada.” The violent takeover of Columbia University’s campus. “Zionists get out!” chanted on the subway. People tucking their Stars of David under their shirts. Like Tevye’s family at the end of Fiddler on the Roof, perhaps it’s time to pack up and leave our current Anatevka. Is Israel, even under constant threat, the last refuge for Jews on earth?

"This story’s conclusion is still unwritten. The question isn’t only whether New York has fallen. It’s whether Jews, and those who stand with them, can turn the tide. Leaving is one option, and perhaps a very reasonable one. But so is fighting for a city that has always been an example of resilience and hope. Perhaps the harder path is refusing to surrender New York to those who would see it emptied of Jewish life."

Docile American liberals can easily be taught to shake their fists and chant "Death to America!"