The Red Scare and Today’s Declared ‘Enemies’ of America: The Jewish Stake
January 4, 2026
What is unprecedented is that today’s pursuers of alleged “enemies” of democracy claim dubiously to be acting to protect Jews.
Dr. Hasia R. Diner is professor emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History. She is the former series editor for the Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History. Among her many books are Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration; The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000; We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust, 1945–1962; and Immigration: An American History, with Carl Bon Tempo.
What is unprecedented is that today’s pursuers of alleged “enemies” of democracy claim dubiously to be acting to protect Jews.
Israelism captures a concerted effort that admonishes American Jews to see Israel as a — or maybe the — pillar of Jewish identity, synonymous with their Jewishness.
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