ANOTHER “TRUMP-INSPIRED HATE CRIME” BITES THE DUST: Suspect admits to toppling more than 100 headstones in St. Louis Jewish cemetery.

In 2017, large swathes of the American Jewish community were in the throes of what I termed The Great Anti-Semitism Panic of 2017. The last few years have seen an increase in visible anti-Semitism among alt-right trolls, but the panic that ensued with the election of Donald Trump was bizarrely and extremely disproportionate to any actual threat to the safety or standing of American Jews. (For noting this, one Jewish newspaper editor, Rob Eshman, called me an “apologist for anti-Semitism.”)

One incident that received disproportionate attention was the vandalism of a St. Louis Jewish cemetery. Even though some of us cooler heads noted that similar incidents of vandalism occurred with some frequency during the Obama and Bush years, many so-called Jewish leaders were quick to cast blame on the atmosphere allegedly created by Trump. St. Louis police arrested the perp, a thirty-four year old African-American man, yesterday, and announced “[t]here is no evidence to indicate the incident was racially, ethnically or religiously motivated.”

Those who participated in creating and spreading the panic should be ashamed of themselves, and heads should roll at certain organizations. But they aren’t, and they won’t. Heck, I still haven’t gotten an apology from Eshman.