Jewish Response, an organization founded to help defuse anti-Semitism, is alarmed about the high frequency of references to Jews in the current election campaign. Candidates seem to feel that they are helping the Jewish people by promising to further what they believe to be the Jews’ interests at every opportunity. However, the exact opposite is the truth.

“When only the Jews, out of all the nationalities and ethnic groups among American voters, are mentioned numerous times, it lends credence to the old anti-Semitic canard that Jews have their own agenda at heart and are disloyal to their country,” said Leo Greenbaum of Jewish Response. “The candidates would do us the biggest service by simply not mentioning Jews at all. Then people would get the message that Jews are just like all Americans and want whatever is best for America.

“In times past,” he continued, “anti-Semitic politicians used the scapegoating of the Jews as a tool to boost their popularity. Today’s candidates are pro-Jewish, and they use their special attention to the Jews as a tool to boost their popularity. But, ironically, their over-emphasis on Jews is bad for the Jews. Jews are very loyal American citizens and don’t deserve to be singled out like this.”

Jewish Response contends that although the dark ages of hatred and persecution are gone, the idea of using the Jews has unfortunately remained a standard feature of politics. It’s time for the world to move on and realize that singling out Jews for any reason, good or bad, brings back to life the old accusations from which Jews have always suffered.

(Jewish response is a global Jewish organization with the goal of undermining the foundations of anti-Semitism that have led to so many tragedies in the past.)