American Jews: Are We Closer to New York 1975 or Budapest 1935? A rising tide of antisemitism meets a renewed cultural fight, leaving Jews caught between echoes of 1935 and the fragile hope of 1975. By Salvador Litvak

The hostages are home, and the Gaza war has stopped. For American Jews, this is cause for joy because Israelis are our family. All Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-whether genetically or by choice-and our fates intertwine like those of any family. Many of us are finding it difficult to dwell in that joy, however, because our news feeds report a daily barrage of verbal and physical attacks on Jews around the world. And we wonder whether those social media echo chambers are making us paranoid or if we are truly living in the most dangerous time for Jews since the Holocaust. In Hungary, 1935, my grandmother, Magda, said to my grandfather, Imre, “It’s getting too dangerous here. They need veterinarians like you in Iran. And it’s much safer there for a Jew.” It sounds crazy now, but at the time, she was correct. Imre answered, “I’m a Hungarian. I fought for my country in the Great War. Why would I go to a country where I know nothing and no one?” And so, they stayed. She survived the eventual concentration camp; he did not. In 1935, the signals were everywhere-blatant antisemitism in the media, government, workplaces, and movie theaters. Millions ignored the signals. Most of them believed the troubles would pass. They learned the truth too late. After the war, Magda and her only child-my mother, Kathy-endured Soviet Hungary before they finally escaped in 1956. They followed a relative to Chile, where my father’s family had lived since escaping the Russian pogroms in 1905. When Chile elected a communist president in 1970, the Hungarian side of the family knew exactly what Marxist rule would do to the country. We immigrated to New York to begin a new chapter in America-a land of economic opportunity, where Jews were accepted as one of many ethnic groups in a vibrant cultural landscape. In 1973, Israel was attacked on Yom Kippur and suffered devastating casualties. The nation survived, but the pride and strength felt by Jews everywhere after the 1967 war were replaced by a feeling of vulnerability. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and terrorist attacks spread around the world. Academics and activists told obvious lies about Jews and Israel, only to be echoed by the mainstream media and students on college campuses. American Jews responded with a massive mobilization of support for the Holy Land, earning support from non-Jewish Americans and strengthening the US-Israel alliance-a strategic and economic benefit to both countries. By 1975, there was genuine cause for optimism, and the Camp David Accords followed a few years later, establishing an enduring peace between Israel and Egypt, the largest nation in the Middle East. So where are we today? Are the signs pointing to conflagration and disaster, like 1935, or a turning point toward better days, like 1975? Social media will provide any answer a person wishes to hear, as is the nature of its echo chambers. The news media is not much different. With so many outlets available, people can always find a version of the news that confirms their views. They’ll claim they want unbiased facts, but they end up consuming articles that say, “Hurrah for our side!” I’m a filmmaker, content creator, and author focused on Jewish subjects. I tell new versions of classic jokes on social media, and many have gone viral thanks to a large audience of Jews and non-Jews alike. And our latest film, Guns & Moses, which Nina and I wrote and I directed, is a big-screen thriller starring Mark Feuerstein, Neal McDonough, Christopher Lloyd, and Dermot Mulroney, about a Hasidic rabbi who becomes an unlikely detective and gunfighter after his community is violently attacked. In all these projects, we’re experiencing 1975 and 1935 simultaneously: allies, acceptance, and joy on the one hand; and hate, opposition, and danger on the other. And in this, we are not alone. Look at the data in the accompanying image, showing user ratings for six high-quality projects on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The standard distribution of ratings for any project is a bell curve, centered around a number that becomes the project’s basic score. In this, user ratings are like measurements of height or IQ; most people are average, and their count decreases toward the low and high extremes. But when we look at Jewish and non-Jewish movies with comparable entertainment value, cast, and genre, we see a complete aberration of the statistical norm. Instead of a bell curve, we find an inverted bell curve. Because the projects are all high quality, the actual centers approach 8 or 9 out of 10. But a second peak appears at 1 out of 10. It’s obvious these projects are not incompetent garbage deserving a 1. Rather, they’ve been swarmed by trolls and bots who seek to depress the overall score by piling on ideologically driven ratings that have no connection to the films’ writing, performances, cinematography, etc. These projects can succeed despite such attacks due to strong word-of-mouth, but the artificially depressed scores make it less likely that casual viewers will find them. Some streaming platforms feature a movie’s IMDb score prominently, so unless viewers have heard a movie is good, they generally won’t choose to watch one with an unimpressive number. Our enemies, fighting 5th-generation warfare with every digital tool at their disposal, are colonizing user-rating sites like IMDb for their battlefield. They know that entertainment shapes public opinion, so they manipulate the algorithm to ensure that viewers do not consume content that might challenge their worldview. Jeff Schoep led the largest neo-Nazi group in America for 25 years. A rock musician, Schoep, disseminated hateful ideology through a white-supremacist music label called NSM88 records (88 is code for Heil Hitler) before rejecting the movement in 2019. What finally changed Schoep’s mind, leading to full de-radicalization and a partnership with the Simon Wiesenthal Center? He met Daryl Davis, a black blues musician known as the “Klan Whisperer.” A boogie-woogie piano player, Davis convinced dozens of Klansmen to renounce the movement. In Davis, Schoep saw a fellow music man, but one who used his talents to unite rather than divide people. That meeting, and the close friendship that ensued, led Schoep to finally see the humanity of Jews and other minorities he’d previously despised. Arts and entertainment affect people on a deep and emotional level and have the power to heal or hurt. Hitler understood this, and in 1937, he directed his henchmen to destroy what he called “degenerate artwork,” much of it created by Jews, to ensure that the public would not be exposed to unapproved ideas. Today, antisemites are once again harnessing culture to silence Jewish artists, especially those who depict strong, heroic Jews. It’s easy to feel helpless and hopeless, but there’s something simple you can do to make a difference. When you see a movie or TV show that entertains you and conveys a message you support, vote for it on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. If you need to start an account, start an account. Our enemies are working overtime to control the cultural conversation, and it only takes a couple of minutes to fight back by helping artists you appreciate reach a wider audience. Don’t allow the current culture fascists to dictate the art we consume. Do your part to ensure that voices you enjoy and respect are heard by others as well. Comments are closed.
http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2025/11/23/american-jews-are-we-closer-to-new-york-1975-or-budapest-1935-a-rising-tide-of-antisemitism-meets-a-renewed-cultural-fight-leaving-jews-caught-between-echoes-of-1935-and-the-fragile-hope-of-1975/

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