The stunning rejection of his party by a Jewish Democrat judge

Democrats are fast to attach the label fascist  to people whose politics they don’t like, as you know.

Also (remembering Hilary Clinton’s infamous list of deplorables) . . . “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”

So what do you make of the announcement by Jewish Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht that he is leaving the Democratic party because of its anti-Semitism? 

What a gut punch for me.

Welcome to Kristallnacht in the New World?

As recently as March 26, 2023, I was saying that while any anti-Semism was unwelcome, the numbers showed that Jew hatred was very small in the U.S. 

I stand by that opinion, but things have changed a lot in three years.

As I noted, according to the Anti Defamation League, there was a 65% increase in “anti-Semitic acts” in Pennsylvania in 2022, contrasted with 2021. That sounds pretty frightening.

It sounds a lot less frightening when you learn the number of “vandalism, harassment and assaults” was 114 in Pennsylvania in 2022, which had almost 13 million residents.

You’ve got to be careful with numbers and statistics.

As a matter of fact, for 2025, Pennsylvania ADL reported a 40% decrease in anti-Semitic incidents from the previous year, which sounds great.

But . . .  The 279 is double the number of anti-Semitic acts reported in 2022. Double, making Pennsylvania fifth nationally in anti-Semitic incidents. Not where we want to be.

The huge drop, incidentally, followed a college crackdown on widespread pro-Palestinian unrest on college campuses, usually aimed at Israel but often crossing the line into attacks — verbal and physical — on Jewish students.

Wecht asserted that while threats to Jews previously stemmed from the political Right, he now sees anti-Semitism growing on the Left. That hatred “has grown on the Left,” and that it has “moved from the fringe to the mainstream,” he said.

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he wrote. “Acquiescence to Jew hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.”

That is a harsh indictment from a lifelong Democrat.

Wecht did not point to specific examples from within the Democratic Party, but he noted that he and his wife were married at Pittsburgh's  Tree of Life Synagogue, where 11 worshipers were slaughtered in a massacre.

"In the years that have followed, that same hatred has grown on the Left," Wecht said, referring to the 2018 mass shooting. "Increasingly, it has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. It is the duty of all good people to fight this virus, and to do so before it is too late."

The Nazi tattoo was an unmistakable reference to Democrat Graham Platner, running for the U.S. Senate in Maine — a man with a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest. Once it became an issue, he had it covered with another tattoo and tried out the improbable explanation that he didn ‘t know it was a Nazi symbol. 

He also has posted opinions minimizing rape, Bernieand has blamed his behavior on PTSD after overseas military assignments. 

Thanks for your service, but . . . 

Rather than running away from him, Democrats, starting with Bernie Sanders, have endorsed him. (Yeah, Bernie is technically an Independent who ran in the Democratic primary for President.)

Wecht didn’t address the roots of the current spurt of anti-Semitism, but I will.

I start with the historical roots of anti-Semitism, which I have done before.

As I wrote last December, “Jew hatred is rooted in religion.

“First, the followers of the first monotheistic religion, Judaism, were subject to charges of disloyalty from nations that worshiped multiple gods. 

“Jews were the people ‘chosen’ to bring to the world the light of a single God. They were punished for it.

“Later, significantly and tragically, the Catholic church charged Jews with deicide — killing God.

“More than anything else, that justified anything that Christians did to Jews, including the Holocaust, the mass murder of some 6 million Jews (along with millions of others).”

Back to the present. How bad has it gotten?

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on Maureen Galindo, a Democrat running for a House seat in Texas, who rants about “billionaire Zionists” who wants to turn a local ICE detention center “into a prison for American Zionists.”

Rather than having no chance, Galindo, who calls herself a sex therapist and housing activist, reportedly is competitive in a San Antonio congressional district.

As an American Zionist — but not a billionaire, alas — Galindo would be measuring me for a striped suit. (A Zionist is simply a person who believes Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people. You do not have to be Jewish to be a Zionist.)

My crime exactly? 

Who knows?

More than a year ago, the FBI reported that almost 70% of all U.S. religious hate crimes were directed against Jews, who are 2.4% of the population.

Why now? I believe the spike is directly connected to how Israel has conducted the Gaza war against Hamas, resulting in a reported 70,000 deaths. Many Israel supporters note that those numbers come from Hamas itself, but even if the figures were half that, it has outraged the conscience of many people here and abroad. 

That is understandable, but it is still not genocide, by its legal definition, and it becomes blatant anti-Semitism when only the Jewish state is singled out for criticism, as Bill Maher lexplained on a recent show. 

When hatred of Israel is transformed to hatred — and attacks on American Jews — that is anti-Semitism, as are questions about American Jews’ loyalty to the U.S. In reality, most American Jews are liberal and disapprove of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing policies. 

More than 60% of American Jews believe Israel actually has committed war crimes. That is how liberal they are.

Despite that, American synagogues, and individual Jews, are targeted for attack. American politicians and police are generally good about saying the attacks will not be tolerated, even as a growing number of Jews remove symbols of their faith, such as Stars of David, in public. Maher says, sardonically, “Jew hatred is cool. “

What more can be done? 

Democrats have to stand up, says Maher, and be as outraged by attacks against Jews as they are about attacks on any other minority group.

Maher speaks as a Democrat, disappointed in his own kind. I’m sure he did not intend to excuse Republicans and Libertarians and everyone else.

America will never be Nazi Germany. Not even close.

As a Jew, I believe that. As Wecht said, it is the responsibility of all good people to actively and loudly reject hate.