Why Is Antisemitism Rising at Rates Unseen in Living Memory in the United States?

Antisemitism in the United States is nothing new. I remember how it had been flaring up 15 to 20 years ago when I was on a university lecture tour over there.

What most people fail to realize about the rise of antisemitism is that it is part of the world’s natural development and it will persist until the Jewish people undergo a fateful transformation. There are several passages in Kabbalists’ writings that speak about the need for Jewish change. For instance, here is one by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), from his article, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]):

“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over. And these sparks multiply daily, like one who gives to the treasurer, until they are filled sufficiently, that is, until they develop to such an extent that they can understand the pleasantness and tranquility that are found in the kernel of love of others.”

In addition to Kabbalists’ writings, several notable anti-Semites have also expressed the uniqueness of the Jewish people and the need for enlightening the world. Henry Ford, for instance, in his book The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, wrote: “The whole prophetic purpose with reference to Israel seems to have been the moral enlightenment of the world through its agency.”
In the same text, Ford also noted the early unification of the Jews as a system that the world would be wise to learn from: “Modern reformers who are constructing model social systems on paper would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

First and foremost, we Jews should not hate anyone expressing antisemitic sentiment and behavior. We should not hate even those who wish to eliminate Jews from the face of the planet. They themselves do not understand from where their hatred emerges. They point to various reasonings that they have developed, and most often, we see example after example about how such reasons hold no strong logical basis.

The will for the Jewish people to disappear from the face of the planet comes from a more internal demand within humanity to eradicate the egoistic intention from the world, where each person wishes to benefit themselves at the expense of others, and through the disappearance of this self-aimed intention, that humanity would rise to a new level of mutual giving, support and encouragement of one another.
The latter shift from an egoistic to an altruistic intention is the key to a perfect, harmonious and peaceful existence.

The Jews were the people who were initially granted that ability to invert themselves to develop relations of giving and positive connection above division and hatred. Antisemitism today is a pressure upon those who hold the key to open the door to a new harmonious world, and who do not yet realize it.

I hope that we will be able to realize this revolution, to come to our senses and make the inversion of the egoistic-to-altruistic, or divisive-to-united attitude come about.
That is the mission of the Jewish people, and it is what demarcated us as “the Jews” to begin with (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).