Jamie Walker: Antisemitism is a reality here in Bucks
Growing up in Huntingdon Valley, I can happily say I never personally experienced any acts of antisemitism. I thought raising my children in Bucks County would give them the same experience. I was wrong.
I never saw anything remotely close to what I witness today; the amount of antisemitism that occurs in America now is unconscionable. And Bucks County progressives seem to embrace it.
After the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, antisemitism started to quickly creep into mainstream society with pro-Hamas protests taking place on college campuses in liberal areas. I realized that my children needed to leave Pennsylvania and attend college in conservative states that do not tolerate pro-Hamas disturbances. My one child who now attends school down south hasn’t faced any pro-Hamas rallies or intimidation for being Jewish. She is fortunate because leftist students at Columbia University haven’t stopped cheering the intifada against Jews.
What shocks me even more is the Doylestown Democrats openly calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, claiming he was simply a “lead negotiator at Gaza protests.” As a Jewish woman, I find it deeply disturbing that Democrats are standing with a terrorist supporter.
A few months ago, a teacher in Central Bucks School District started a club which posted antisemitic memes asking Allah to deal with usurping Jews. They also hosted an event asking children to write letters to Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity (R) to convince her department to stop buying Israeli bonds. I am sure the children didn’t realize they were participating in a BDS campaign against Israel. Using a public agency to advocate to “boycott, divest, and sanction” Israel is illegal in Pennsylvania, which I would expect an educator to know. Obviously, I was wrong.
It’s not shocking considering Karen Smith, Democratic former school board president, was running the CBSD board at the time. It took several extremely upset parents to work with the district to take the posts down and set boundaries for school clubs. The posts may be down, but the damage is done. Somehow, the teacher still is gainfully employed in CBSD and was just featured in a picture posted by the Bucks County Times protesting our president on school grounds with other National Education Association members.
Other unbelievable acts of antisemitism in Bucks County have included progressives drawing or carving swastikas on people’s cars. Bucks County has had at least three shocking examples of vandalism in the past month. One man’s stupidity went viral and made the news. Is painting swastikas on cars not an act of hate, the kind progressives claim they won’t abide?
The hooligans committing these acts don’t realize that there are cameras everywhere. Recently at a Tesla protest, a supporter of the president had a swastika carved into his car and a lady wearing a mask was calling everyone Nazis. The progressives here are acting frighteningly unhinged.
Even our governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish and who himself survived a horrific act of antisemitic arson a month ago, acted against his own people and against Israel by giving five million of our tax dollars to an antisemitic mosque. The Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philly called Jews the “vilest of all people” and said “Arabs were superior to all the races.” It’s hard as a Jewish person and former Democrat to wrap my mind around why the governor would use our tax money to fund an organization that spoke so hideously about Jewish people, considering he is one of us.
I guess politics are more important to him. As he mulls a potential White House run, hopefully people notice his priorities.
Jamie Walker is a former teacher and a Central Bucks School District mom of three.
