In December 2025, Jennifer Bayer Michaels, a self-described lifelong Democrat activist, expressed her horror at the reaction of many of her Democrat colleagues to the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023 in “I Want a Democratic Party That Believes Jewish Lives Matter.”  The “breaking point” for her was the use of the term “genocide” “against Israel,” “a nation defending itself after an actual genocidal terrorist organization slaughtered families in their beds ... and hunted down and killed teenagers at a music festival.” 

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Although Ms. Michaels’s outrage was justified, there should have been no surprise.  For at least forty years, the political left had shown a consistent anti-Jewish antipathy both in and out of the Democrat party.

In 1984, the Democratic Party Platform strangely failed to include a condemnation of antisemitism.  The official explanation, “an inadvertent procedural delay,”  was not obviously credible.  The rising movement of Reverend Jessie Jackson had become problematic to much of the traditionally Democrat Jewish electorate due to his recently quoted use of the derogatory terms “Hymie” and “Hymietown.”  Jackson himself gave credence to these concerns in his concession speech.  To his credit, he did so in an attempt to heal any wounds that may have been inflicted:

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If in my low moments, in word, deed, or attitude, through some error of temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self.

There was some misunderstanding in the aftermath of the convention.  The candidate, Vice President Walter Mondale, misspoke in saying that the platform had condemned antisemitism.  When corrected, he called on the Democratic Central Committee to issue a clear condemnation of the prejudice, which they did.  .

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Somehow, for all the confusion, clarification, and contrition of 1984, the 1988 Democrat platform again failed to include a simple condemnation of antisemitism.

In 1992, the Democrat party’s internal dynamics changed with the rise of Bill Clinton and his willingness to confront Jackson and his movement.  In June, Clinton appeared before Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and took the opportunity to condemn the extremism and racism represented by Sister Souljah, who had previously appeared before the Coalition.  Just one quote: “I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?”  Clinton’s use, or exploitation, of the issue became the “Sister Souljah Moment.”   His effort to move the Democrat party back toward the political center succeeded.  The platform contained the following: “We condemn antisemitism, racism, homophobia, bigotry and negative stereotyping of all kinds” — a simple symbolic statement that had eluded the party over the previous two election cycles.

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Party platforms can be seen like new year’s resolutions that do not necessarily affect policy.  However, they can also reflect deeply held attitudes and prejudices. 

The previous year had seen one of the nation’s most serious outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence in its history.

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On Monday evening, August 19, 1991, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, a vehicle in the motorcade of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson lost control and killed a young boy, Gavin Cato, and severely injured his cousin, Angela.  Immediately, a crowd gathered and began attacking the driver.  Two Hatzalah (Jewish volunteer) ambulances, the police, and a municipal ambulance arrived almost simultaneously.  The police directed the first Hatzalah ambulance to take the driver away for his own safety, while the municipal and other Hatzalah ambulance personnel tended to the injured.

Thus began three days of mayhem directed against the local Jewish community.  Cries of “Jews!  Jews!  Jews!” and “Let’s go to Kingston Avenue and get a Jew!” were heard.  Jews were attacked and Jewish-owned businesses ransacked.  Three hours after the rioting began, a Jewish graduate student from Australia, Yankel Rosenbaum, was murdered.  On day three, a march led by Reverend Al Sharpton and Sonny Carson added to the incendiary environment.  At least one sign said, “Hitler didn’t finish his job.”  At Gavin Cato’s funeral, Sharpton said, “The world will tell us that he [Cato] was killed by accident. ... It’s an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights.”  He also spoke of “diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights.”

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For three days, the mayhem continued, without an adequate response by the New York Police Department.  Finally on Thursday morning, August 21, 1,800 officers established a forceful presence and restored order.

The official investigation by Richard Girgenti, the New York State director of criminal justice, found no evidence that Mayor David Dinkins or police commissioner Lee Brown had acted to restrain the police response.  Both, however, were severely criticized for not having taken control and restored order sooner.

Subsequent commentary has disagreed over the use of the word “pogrom” to describe these events.  When the propriety of that term becomes the issue in question, something vital has broken down in America.  It would happen again.

May 30, 2020 was both the Jewish Sabbath and second day of Shavuot.  In Los Angeles, a Black Lives Matter protest was going on peacefully until some left the group and took to violence.  Much of their destructive wrath was directed against the predominantly Jewish Fairfax neighborhood.  The attackers put graffiti on a statue of Raoul Wallenberg, ransacked a number of Jewish-owned businesses, and defaced three Jewish congregations and a Jewish girls’ school.

Ultimately, chief of police Michael Moore mobilized the entire department, and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti declared a curfew.  Their actions restored order.

More recently, at the 2024 Democrat convention in Chicago, a genuine appeal was made for the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.  Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin addressed the audience for nine minutes about their son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was still being held (and ultimately was murdered) by Hamas.  The audience was respectful and supportive.

Unfortunately, however, a darker drama was playing out beyond the convention hall.  In a circumstance simply unprecedented in American history, Jewish delegates had to conduct meetings in secret locations with special security access codes.  Abe Foxman of the ADL said, “After 50 years fighting antisemitism in America, I could not have imagined a time Jews would have to meet in secret locations in Chicago at DNC.”

Nothing presented here is to cast aspersions against either the vast majority of Democrat voters or those who may agree with the policies of the American left.  Neither is there any wish to deny the existence of right-wing antisemitism, which is clearly present  and threatening.

Nevertheless, over the last 42 years, two Democrat conventions have failed to include a simple condemnation of antisemitism in the party platform.  At a third, the most recent, Jewish delegates had to meet in secret locations.  This same period has seen two anti-Jewish riots.  These evets must be taken as a reflection a deep anti-Jewish hostility on at least a portion of the American left.

It is long past time for both the Jewish community and the general public to recognize and address this dangerous political movement hiding in plain sight in one of our two great political parties.  The alternative may prove sinister for us all.

Image: hendricjabs via Pixabay, Pixabay License.