What is the reason so many Jews are blue these days? Jews, particularly in America and Europe, see hate from all sides. It was convenient when the bigots seemed to be on the right wing of the American spectrum. Most Jews simply aligned themselves with the left and thought they were safe.

Many people forget that when the Jews were being gassed in Auschwitz during World War II, the Republican Party platform in 1944 called for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland. Jews in Palestine fought alongside the British to eliminate fascism in the Middle East.

Enter leftwing antisemitism. That is not as new a phenomenon as many Jewish Americans think. There has been a strong antisemitic virus on the left even before the time of Joseph Stalin in Russa.

Moden times in America have put the Jews in a vice. That vice is tightening in the modern era with the leftwing and the rightwing of our political extremism coalescing to make life in the United States and Europe frightening and outright dangerous for the Jewish community.

However, there is another side to the racism-antisemitic coin that many people forget about. The other side of that coin are the many millions of Evangelical Christians, melting-pot Muslims, and middle-of-the-road to observant Jews who are very understanding and supportive of the Jewish community in Israel. They realize that Israel is a Biblical part of the Jewish legacy, is intrinsic to the Jewish soul, and is completely consistent with the Western values that we hold so dear.

While propagandists on the left and right have performed an enormous amount of work portraying tiny Israel as the aggressor in the Middle East, most Americans know better. They realize that Israel, a nation of 10 million people, including Jews, Muslims, Christians, and many others, cannot possibly be accused of overwhelming 500 million Arabs in the Middle East or 4-5 billion people in the world. Israel and the Jewish community are a speck floating in a turbulent ocean.

Where does the modern hate for the Jewish community and Israel originate? Much of it is from well-financed Islamic fanaticism. While that group may be relatively small compared to the world population, they are well financed, and they have succeeded in welding together the extreme left and the extreme right. No American liberal would last for 5 minutes in any of the major fanatic Islamic nations that occupy a significant portion of our planet. What matters is the growing alliance between extreme left and right to demonize Jews wherever they live.

The reaction of many Jews in Israel, Europe, and America is to hide. They try to hide their Jewishness, flee from their Biblical ancestry, and take refuge under a rock. The Jews who do that not only do a disservice to themselves, but to the many millions of people who support the Jewish community in their effort to be free, independent, and respectful of others.

Another portion of the Jewish community merely attempts to go about their daily lives, ignoring the threat which confronts them like a red flag in front of a raging bull. History has shown that for Jewish people to run and hide or to ignore the danger inevitably leads to social and political isolation, disenfranchisement, and ultimately death.

The only viable option for the Jewish community to survive is by being Jewishly educated, observing the Jewish Biblical tradition as well as post-Biblical religious development, and to align themselves with those who truly support the Jewish community. An alliance of decent, reasonable, and honest people is the best inoculation against the terror of rising antisemitism. There are those who are nevertheless dim about the future.

Philip Roth, an author that I was never able to warm up to, wrote an intriguing tale entitled, The Plot Against America. The basis of the fictional account was that a rightwing fascist, Charles Lindbergh, defeated Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency prior to World War II. Roth captured the fear and desperation felt by the American Jewish community as they came to realize that their days in American could be numbered. Many considered migrating to Canada, and others simply attempted to hide from the terrifying reality that Jews were no longer safe in America.

The scenario sketched by Roth developed an emotional plot about the Jewish reaction to American fascism in a way that is familiar in the current geopolitical environment. Roth only missed one point. The threat faced by the American Jewish community today is not only from the fascist right but also from their cooperative allies on the hard left.

The Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Yechiel (Michael) Leiter, recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he foresaw a tamping down of antisemitism in America. He believes in the strengthening of diplomatic ties between two great democracies, Israel and the United States. Optimism is marvelous, but it will not solve the underlying problem.

The Jewish community must continue to educate itself and its neighbors with respect to the Jewish religious and spiritual principles and to fight antisemitism aggressively and with pride. The future is up to us, all those who love America, to help guide with positivity.

Clifford A. Rieders is a board-certified trial advocate in Williamsport.