Antisemitism in Amsterdam: Letters to the Editor — Nov. 12, 2024

The Issue: A mob attack on fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club in Amsterdam on Thursday night.

The recent ambush of Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam is appalling and has no place in any civilized society (“A Pogrom in Amsterdam,” Editorial, Nov. 9).

What is particularly troubling is the glaring disparity in how these events are reported and condemned.

Had the situation been reversed — had Jews attacked Muslims — the global response would undoubtedly have been swift and loud.

The hypocrisy is disheartening.

Antisemitic acts far too often receive muted responses, reinforcing the idea that Jewish lives are somehow less deserving of protection and justice.

This double standard is unacceptable.

Governments, global institutions and media organizations must do better.

Richard Wolff

New Rochelle

Politicians who wailed about the modern-day Hitler being elected president suddenly became very quiet about the antisemitic barbarism in Amsterdam.

Might this kind of staggering hypocrisy have contributed to a recent electoral outcome?

It seems you can’t fool all of the deplorables all of the time.

Julia Lutch

Davis, Calif.

Can anyone be truly shocked by Thursday’s debacle in Amsterdam — the antisemitic riot that a leading Dutch national politician described as a modern-day “Jew hunt”?

Does this pogrom not underscore the disaster Holland has brought upon itself with its policy of laying out a welcome mat to many thousands of radical, Jew-hating, Middle Eastern immigrants?

And all of this from a nation that holds the most dubious of records with regards to its pre-World War II Jewish population.

During the war, the Netherlands willingly cooperated with the Nazis in rounding up over 107,000 Jews, with only some 5,000 surviving the Nazi death camps.

It is evident that should the Netherlands not take bold and heretofore unprecedented action, it will have learned nothing from history.

Mitchell Schwefel

Barnegat, NJ

The violence against Jews in Amsterdam is not only shocking and disconcerting, but reminded me of a visit my wife and I made to the Netherlands in 2022.

I visited the American cemetery in Margraten, where over 8,000 American servicemen are buried. Each grave is attended to by locals.

Among those graves is that of Maj.-Gen. Maurice Rose, commander of the 3rd Armored Division, part of Gen. George Patton’s forces.

Gen. Rose was not only a Jew, his father and grandfather were rabbis.

I’m sure that most Dutchmen and women are dismayed by the violence against Jews, and my wife and I will always be inspired by those residents who have displayed such gratitude for the American soldiers who drove out evil.

Sidney Baumgarten

North Brunswick, NJ

Kudos for so well capturing the significance and enormity of that awful orgy of antisemitic violence.

That is what endless, mindless Israel-bashing inevitably leads to.

Those clearly long-planned pro-Palestinian mob ambushes of Israeli soccer fans, eerily on the eve of Nov. 9 Kristallnacht commemorations, ought to set off the highest-level alarm bells across the West.

But, as happened with the Oct. 7 atrocities, will current initial shock soon fade from memory?

We dare not let it.

What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

The very fate of Western civilization, ultimately, is at stake.

Richard D. Wilkins

Syracuse

In Amsterdam, the city of Anne Frank, an antisemitic mob attacked Jews, many of whom were injured, and some, I hear, are still missing.

So almost 75 years after the death of Anne Frank, Jews can still not live in the Netherlands without fear for their lives.

Antisemitism is prevalent and widespread, and the world has forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust.

The world needs scapegoats, and it’s always the Jews.

Thank God the Jews have a country now that will defend them anywhere in the world, and protect them as needed.

Mindy Rader

New City

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