"The past is never dead. It's not even past." Racism, anti-Semitism, and the anti-Israel protests

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner’s famous quote reminds us that our daily lives are shaped by events and experiences of long ago.

John L. Rosove, an Israeli rabbi and humanitarian, wrote an essay in 2022 reflecting on Faulkner’s trenchant observation. In it, Rosove recalled the tragic events that had befallen Israel in its short history, including the 1973 war—the nation’s fourth war since its founding in 1948. He also called to mind the Russian Jewish refugees who fled to Israel to escape the Cossack pogroms of the nineteenth century.

“Memory defines us,” Rosove wrote,” and even if we do not personally experience an event, we can make it our own.” Thus, “when we learn history and listen to the stories of our parents and grandparents, we take in their memories and make them ours as essential elements of our family story.”

America is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel, and many of our Jewish citizens are the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Whether we are Jewish or not, the Holocaust forms part of the American story.

I am ashamed of the Americans who participated in the recent anti-Israel protests on college campuses. At their base, these demonstrations are anti-Semitic; they are racist. At their root, they feed from the same putrid pool of racial hatred that fueled the Nazi movement in the 1930s.

Years from now, and maybe sooner, the college leaders who tolerate these vile protests and coddle the racist mobs will also be ashamed. Fortunately for them, most campus administrators will retire with generous pensions and can spend their golden years playing golf while they contemplate their sins.