I’m not Jewish. Not even close. In fact, I'm in the middle of converting to Catholicism, starting out from Southern Baptist, and that's about as far from Judaism as mainstream Christianity usually gets. But I know and love a lot of Jews. They’re good people. They believe in America. They raise good kids — and a few disasters, the same way every family does. They worship the same God we worship. You can’t pick them out of a crowd; you certainly can’t point at someone and yell “Jew!” like it’s some exotic species. They’re just Americans.
Which is why the sudden spike in Jew-hatred makes no sense to me. It’s everywhere, rising fast, and it’s coming from both left and right extremes at once. When hatred erupts this quickly in defiance of basic reality, something deeper is at work. And history tells us exactly what that something is.
The Long Shadow
Jewish history is a long, grim lesson in how fragile civilizations can be when they let envy replace responsibility. From Rome’s expulsions to medieval Europe’s blood libels to the pogrom cycles across Russia, Jews have been the canary in every coal mine. Whenever a society grew frightened, unstable, or incompetent, the accusations poured out: Jews caused the plague. Jews corrupted the economy. Jews were too wealthy. Or too poor. Or too powerful. Or too weak. The contradictions never mattered, because antisemitism isn’t a logic. It’s a reflex.
The modern era didn’t improve much. Russia terrorized its Jewish population through the 19th century. France disgraced itself with the Dreyfus Affair. And Germany industrialized the ancient impulse into the Holocaust. After the war, Jews were expelled from Middle Eastern countries that had hosted them for centuries. Over and over, the same script played out: instability → resentment → projection → violence.
It’s a pattern so consistent that it’s practically diagnostic.
And Here We Go Again
Fast-forward to 2024–2025, and suddenly the world’s oldest conspiracy theory is back on the menu.
On the left, campus radicals have turned “Zionist” into an all-purpose slur. DEI ideology reframes Jews as “white oppressors,” placing a diverse, tiny community into the role of colonial supervillains. Activists chant for intifada in the streets while insisting they’re just “critiquing” Israel — never mind the Jewish students they’re screaming past.
On the right, we’re watching recycled 1930s talking points dressed up as populist “anti-globalism.” A few online subcultures have become obsessed with Jewish bankers, Jewish media, Jewish elites, you know, the usual hallucinations. Some self-described nationalists now openly argue that Jews aren’t real Americans.
Both sides think the other is the problem. Both are drinking from the same ancient poisoned well.
And the strange part is that none of this has anything to do with actual Jews who are raising families, coaching Little League, paying taxes, working normal jobs, going to synagogue twice a year, and wondering why everyone has suddenly lost their minds.
If reality doesn’t justify the hatred, then something else is driving it. Thomas Sowell laid out the mechanism decades ago.
Sowell’s Answer: The Middleman Minority
Sowell described a recurring dynamic he found all around the world: “middleman minorities.” These are small groups who thrive economically through portable skills, high-trust networks, frugality, discipline, literacy, and long-term family strategies. Jews are one example. So are the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the Lebanese in West Africa, and the Gujaratis in East Africa.
These groups fill roles that make civilized societies function: merchants, traders, financiers, teachers, artisans, administrators, mediators. Necessary jobs, but not beloved ones. They are the first jobs that people point at and say, but they're not producing anything! Never mind whether they are correct or not. To unsophisticated people who don't really understand how economics works, the accusation rings true.
When times are good, middleman minorities are tolerated. Admired, even. When times are shaky, they’re resented.
When times collapse, they’re blamed.
Why? Because their success is built on habits that don’t fall apart during crises. You can burn down a store, but you can’t burn down literacy, discipline, or a culture that teaches children how to build stable lives. To outsiders, that resilience looks unfair — or worse, conspiratorial.
Strong families? Must be collusion.
High trust? Must be secret coordination.
Economic success? Must be manipulation.
Never mind that these communities work themselves half to death to build that stability. Envy is easier than effort.
Why Antisemitism Is the Canary in the Coal Mine
Here’s the truth people don’t want to face: antisemitism isn’t primarily a Jewish problem. It’s a majority problem. It is a civilization problem. When a society turns on Jews, it’s revealing its own internal decay: its inability to self-correct, to take responsibility, to look inward instead of outward.
Scapegoating is the cry of a collapsing culture.
And here’s the even harsher truth: scapegoating doesn’t stop with Jews. If you eliminate them, the machine doesn’t shut down. It looks for a new target. France moved from Jews to aristocrats to Catholics to Protestants to immigrants. Russia moved from Jews to kulaks to dissidents. Germany moved from Jews to Slavs to the disabled to Christians who resisted the regime.
Once a society embraces magical thinking, the belief that some tiny group is pulling the strings, it becomes addicted to the story. And addiction ends in destruction.
Jews stand out in this cycle only because they have learned, over millennia, how to survive it. Strong families. Portable skills. Literacy. Cohesion. Memory. A culture that outlasts persecution. Most middleman minorities never survive their scapegoating. Jews do. And their survival irritates the people who’d rather blame others than fix themselves.
The Real Problem — and the Real Solution
The hatred rising right now has nothing to do with Jewish behavior. It’s about our own cultural laziness. When families weaken, discipline erodes, institutions decay, and responsibility gets replaced with entitlement, people start looking for villains.
The solution is not to scrutinize Jews harder. It’s to scrutinize ourselves.
A healthy society doesn’t need scapegoats. A healthy society doesn’t blame minorities for its failures. A healthy society does the boring, difficult work of maintaining its own foundations.
If we want to break the ancient pattern, the answer is simple and infuriating:
Quit looking for someone to blame.
Pay attention to your own responsibilities.
Fix your own damn house.
When a society turns on its Jews, the warning isn’t for the Jews. It’s for everyone else.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join PJ Media VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member