A social media account posted a map of Manhattan with markers locating a few dozen Jewish institutions and firms with the heading “Globalize the Intifada: Zone of Direct Actions.” Is all this sound and fury directed against Israel or against Jews? These are a few examples among hundreds of cases that underline that, as stated above, Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism are synonyms. 

Barely two months have passed since the attack on October 7, a date that will be a milestone in our history. In this brief period, Jewish communities have begun to breathe the stench of the past, the terror of what they have already experienced, a kind of “déjà vu” of the Holocaust. 

I wrote this piece on the night of November 9, 2023. The date evokes another November 9, but in 1938: Kristallnacht. Some feel they are living what they read and were told about the 1930s and after. The most terrible thing about 2023 is that the trains and furnaces, institutionalized in precise procedural rules, were more predictable than Hamas. It is not trivial to remember it, nor is it superfluous for all of us to remain alert.

Hector Schamis teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Latin American Studies. He has published books and articles on topics such as privatization and state reform, populism, authoritarianism, and democracy, as well as U.S.-Latin American relations.

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