Jewish Historians on Trump-Era Hate: 'We've Seen This Before'

Jewish historians published a letter speaking out against rising bigotry against ethnic and religious minorities, declaring that, “Hatred of one minority leads to hatred of all.”

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“As scholars of Jewish history, we are acutely attuned to the fragility of democracies and the consequences for minorities when democracies fail to live up to their highest principles,” reads the letter, published this week by the Jewish Journal and signed by over 200 academics from universities across the U.S. “Our reading of the past impels us to resist any attempts to place a vulnerable group in the crosshairs of nativist racism.”

They add that Jews were the biggest beneficiaries of progress toward inclusion, though they are still targets of anti-Semitism both by President-elect Donald Trump and by those coaxed by him. Rhetoric against immigrants and refugees hits especially close to home, they write, since the history of Jews is often the history of migrants.

“More broadly, we call on all fair-minded Americans to condemn unequivocally the hateful and discriminatory language and threats that have been directed by him and his supporters against Muslims, women, Latinos, African-Americans, disabled people, LGBT people and others,” continues the letter, setting out their commitment going forward.

“Passivity and demoralization are luxuries we cannot afford. We stand ready to wage a struggle to defend the constitutional rights and liberties of all Americans.”

Last week, a Holocaust scholar and history teacher at a Bay Area high school were put on academic leave for drawing parallels between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler and fascism.

The number of hate crimes since Election Day jumped to more than 400 incidents as of Tuesday, according to reports collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Many of them invoke direct references to Trump’s campaign rhetoric and proposals.