One recent study found that five of the major social media platforms failed to remove antisemitic posts 84% of the time. In recent years some Jewish reporters have found themselves on the receiving end of hate-filled anti-Jewish rants and threats. On the show Atlantic journalist Julia Ioffe explained how she “started getting all these calls and all of this ugly stuff on social media and my email and then the photoshops of my face in gas chamber, or my face in an Auschwitz mugshot…” Social media has made posting antisemitic content easier than ever - while efforts to police it often lags behind. That’s a danger that she highlighted in Rising Hate. Left to right: Dana Bash, her mother Francie Schwartz, Frances Weinman, Dana’s brother David Schwartz and her grandfather Frank Weinman. It’s become normalized: people have gotten used to really negative, ugly discourse in a way that did not exist before.”ĭana worries that outraged political language can be “a slippery slope from discourse to violence.” She recalls that in the past some critics have attacked her for being Jewish and criticized her, not on the merits of her work, but instead by bringing up ugly anti-Jewish stereotypes. “Unfortunately, it’s a change in atmosphere: not just hatred against Jews, but hate in general. The program explored phenomena of rising antisemitism in politics, both on the right and the left in today’s America. Political discourse has become more hateful, something that Dana has witnessed firsthand in her work. In 2020, Jews were the target of 57% of religiously motivated hate crimes – despite being only 2% of the American population. His agency found that in 2020, the latest year for which records are available, Jews were the target of 57% of religiously motivated hate crimes – despite being only 2% of the American population. When Dana asked him on the program whether Jews suffer from hate crimes more than people of other religions, Abbate’s answer was unequivocal: “There’s no doubt about that.” “The threat level against the Jewish community is historic and over the last few years it’s been on the rise,” he explained. Paul Abbate, Deputy Director of the FBI, appeared on the CNN special because he thinks the rise in antisemitism is such a pressing issue. Teri Vidor Weinman and Frank Weinman, Dana Bash's grandparents, seen in 1939 on their wedding day while on the run in PragueĬNN’s Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America highlighted the horrific rise in anti-Jewish assaults in the United States in recent years. Yet they maintained a deep abiding belief in the decency of the United States and believed Americans could be trusted to repudiate Jew hate. “We owe it to them to call out antisemitism,” Dana explains. They lived in Skokie, IL, site of the famous battle over a planned Nazi march in 1977. That was a key motivation in making Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America. Our grandparents certainly realized that antisemitism exists even in America. “I think about how incredibly patriotic they were and how much they loved America.” Standing Up to Hatred “I always remember Grandpa Frank and Grandma Frances – and the many thousands of people who found refuge here during the Holocaust,” Dana says. Years later, when he married my Grandma Frances, Frank learned of the difficult journey she’d made, too, fleeing from Nazi-occupied Austria to the US. Many of her relatives, like Frank’s, weren’t able to escape and perished in Europe. He and his wife Teri made a harrowing journey, escaping across Nazi Europe, and finally found refuge in the United States in the midst of World War II. Rudolph and Matilda Vidor, Dana Bash's great-grandparents, who were killed in Auschwitzĭana’s Grandpa Frank was larger than life and one of Dana’s greatest influences. Shadows of the Holocaust were always a part of Dana’s life. “What happened to our family is the ultimate antisemitism.” “I always knew my great grandparents were killed in Auschwitz, that my great aunt was killed in Auschwitz,” Dana recalls. In this exclusive interview, Dana opens up about what she learned researching her CNN special and key lessons she wants us all to take away. When I first heard that Dana Bash, CNN’s Chief Political Correspondent, was creating the CNN Special Report Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America, I knew it was bound to be a watershed in how we discuss the rising levels of Jew-hatred in the US and around the globe. Dana is widely known as a hard-hitting journalist I also know her as my fun cousin – our Holocaust survivor widowed grandparents married each other when Dana and I were young, blending our family together and giving us new beloved relatives and lifelong friends.
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