![]() Tracking the Virus of Antisemitic Violence. Plus. . . Ben Shapiro on why criticism isn’t ‘cancel culture.’ Dennis Prager talks to Abigail Shrier. How to open the Strait of Hormuz. And more.
People embrace as law enforcement escorts families away from the Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
It’s Friday, February 13. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Ben Shapiro fires back at Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson. Abigail Shrier talks to Dennis Prager about why he wakes up grateful every day. Aaron MacLean explains how American forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And much more. Plus, ICYMI, catch this morning’s TGIF here. But first: Jew-hate, at home and abroad. There were more synagogue attacks this week than days in the week. Last weekend: There were three shootings at synagogues within a 10-mile radius in Toronto. On Monday: In Liège, Belgium, a synagogue was bombed. On Thursday: A man with a rifle and explosives drove into the largest synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. On Thursday afternoon: In Trondheim, Norway, police arrested a man for suspicious behavior outside a synagogue. On the earliest hours of Friday: There was an arson attack at a Rotterdam synagogue. And that’s just the last seven days. To say this is simply “rising antisemitism,” which is typically how the headlines put it, fails to miss the speed and severity of this virus. We are living through an alarming, historic period in which the guardrails that previously kept this hate at bay have fallen away. It’s happening in places with large Jewish communities, and those with just a handful of Jews. In America, a country once thought of as the best place in the world to be Jewish, 70 percent of all religion-based hate crimes are directed at Jews, a group that makes up less than 3 percent of the population. It’s our job to keep up with all of it—and even we are struggling. If we can’t, and it’s our job to live and breathe this, how can you? Today, we’re launching a new, weekly roundup. This Week in Jew-Hate is meant to summarize the speed and severity of the virus. Not exactly the most fun read of the week (but then, you have TGIF for that). But we think it’s work worth doing. By collecting these incidents in one place each week, we hope to restore a sense of perspective that was lost after October 7. To make sure these attacks are shown for what they are. To see the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. You can read the first installment here: Free Press contributor Polina Fradkin grew up in the Detroit suburb where Temple Israel was attacked on Thursday. When she heard the news, she was in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. In her dispatch for us today, Polina explains why she felt safer in that shelter than she would have been in her hometown. When Polina moved to Israel, she was running toward, not away from, something. She asks in her piece: Will future generations from West Bloomfield be able to say the same thing? —The Editors |