David takes a mouse sip of his beer. His eyes are worried. He was born in Queens in the 1960s, in a leftist union nest. Like many of my New York friends, he is Jewish. We talk about Kanye and Kyrie Irving, two Americans who were recently discredited for anti-Semitic statements. “Social media offers a megaphone to hatred of Jews,” I note. But David keeps coming back to the Upper West Side, the neighborhood where he has lived for several decades. Something has changed. Increasingly, when he passes confused homeless people or sits next to them on the subway, he catches disturbing mutterings. „Fuck jews.” I’ve heard it often from New Yorkers: what the confused homeless person talks about is a weathervane of society. “For decades you heard the n-word, angry monologues about women. More and more often it is the Jews,” he says.
In his recent opening monologue for the television program Saturday NightLive comedian Dave Chappelle reflects on the Kanye-Irving controversy, and on anti-Semitism in America. “I’ve learned that there are two words you should never put together: ‘the’ and ‘Jews’.” Skimming along the abyss of political incorrectness, he joked about the laws of perception: “If they’re black, it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re jews… it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.”
Anti-Defamation League boss Jonathan Greenblatt was critical of Chappelle. He said his jokes normalized anti-Semitism. Former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart stood up for Chappelle. Normalization? Look at any comment section, and you’ll see it’s long since normalized. David and other friends say they are shocked by their own increased discomfort over Jew jokes. “I could always have it,” said a friend, “but I think that was because I felt safe.” Statistics have been confirming increased (verbal and physical) violence against Jews for years, and conspiracy theories such as QAnon, now adhered to by millions, more often than not contain stories about an evil Jewish elite.
Chappelle says at one point: “I’ve been to Hollywood and let me tell you what I saw. There are many Jews. As in… a lot.” He adds with a grin that something like that doesn’t have to mean anything. But I can see why my friends laughed at the bit of comedy like a jack with a toothache. I found it uncomfortable myself. Now, the core of good jokes is often discomfort and transgression, and jokes about anti-Semitism have not suddenly become disguised anti-Semitic expressions just because the climate has changed. But they have become more dangerous, because they can fall into fertile soil – considered impossible for decades.
In November the Dutch newspapers were full of articles about the British David Icke. The conspiracy-thinking anti-Semite would come and speak at Dam Square in Amsterdam. Opinion pieces about whether or not to silence the mouth tumbled over each other. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) decided to deny him access to the Netherlands and twenty-five other Schengen countries for two years. I told my American friends about it. What we shared was bewilderment. “I’d rather be scolded than patronized,” David joked.
Madeleijn van den Nieuwenhuizen writes a column here every other week.
A version of this article also appeared in the January 2, 2023 issue