It’s sad to say it, but hardcore antisemitism is erupting across America. From college campuses to one or another city, one of the most blatant, and oldest, forms of bigotry is flooding the news.

But, as it’s also sad to say, America has been here before. Can you say Fritz Kuhn?

Who was Fritz Kuhn?

Fritz Julius Kuhn was a German–American activist who immigrated to the United States from Germany. After a short stay in Mexico, he moved to the U.S. in 1928 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1934.

The problem? Ole Fritz brought his love of German politics with him. And in the 1930s, that meant Fritz Kuhn was a huge supporter of Germany’s leading politician of the day: Adolf Hitler.

So enamored of Hitler and his Nazis was Kuhn that in 1936 he joined what was called the German–American Bund. Founded in, of all places, Buffalo, New York, the Bund — with Kuhn as its eventual leader — was described by Kuhn as “sympathetic to the Hitler government.”

As time went on, Kuhn and his Bund got PR. Lots of it. So much so that on Feb. 20, 1939, Kuhn held a Bund rally in Madison Square Garden. History records that some 20,000 Americans attended. Over there at YouTube, you can find both a trailer for the film Night at the Garden and the film itself.

The rally was a sea of American flags, with a towering portrait of George Washington dominating the filled-to-capacity Garden. And oh yes. There were Nazi symbols, with those 20,000 Americans — say again, Americans — giving the arm-outstretched Nazi salute.

Kuhn mocked President Franklin D. Roosevelt as “Frank D. Rosenfeld,” called FDR’s New Deal the “Jew Deal,” and denounced what he called the Bolshevik—Jewish American leadership. And he said this about Jews: 

The Bund is fighting shoulder to shoulder with patriotic Americans to protect America from a race that is not the American race, that is not even a white race … The Jews are enemies of the United States.

Sound familiar?

Right this minute in America, one college campus after another is, whether they know it or not, channeling the antisemitic ghost of Fritz Kuhn and his Nazi-supporting German–American Bund.

Here is just one news account, this one from the New York Post on Oct. 30. The headline: 

Jewish Columbia students slam university’s ‘inaction’ against antisemitism: ‘I don’t feel safe’

The New York Post story reports: 

Around 20 Jewish students from Columbia University and Barnard College spoke Monday to denounce the university’s “inaction against antisemitism” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

Students clad in yarmulkes, necklaces with the Star of David, and blue and white wristbands with the phrase “you are not alone,” said they found it “incredibly disheartening” that the university has not had a “meaningful” response to incidents including the attack of a Jewish student, online death threats and hate graffiti scrawled on the campus of the elite university.

The protest at the Morningside Heights, Manhattan, campus came hours after more than 100 professors signed a letter defending students who support the terror group’s “military action,” which killed 1,400 Israelis. 

Second-year law student Eli Shmidman, 26, from Queens, was the victim of antisemitism on campus on Oct. 19 when a student yelled “f–k the Jews” at him. The university has apparently identified the student in question but not yet taken any action.

“‘F–k the Jews’. Those words were not said here on Amsterdam, not on Broadway, those words were said in Jerome Greene Hall — Columbia’s law school building,” Shmidman said.

Got that? Rampant antisemitism floods Columbia University and its law school. And take a listen to this viral video clip of Columbia Business School assistant professor and Israeli–American Shai Davidai. Davidai responds to the silence from Columbia’s president that greeted the flood of antisemitism surging through the university. 

Well God bless Professor Davidai for having the courage to stand up for Israel, oppose the genocidal maniacs that are Hamas, and scold the president of Columbia for silence. And to do so knowing that he could well lose his job at Columbia.

And the distance between Columbia University and Madison Square Garden where the so-called “American Fuhrer” Fritz Kuhn had his 1939 rally with 20,000 American antisemites supporting Adolf Hitler? A matter of a couple miles in physical distance — but a matter of no miles in history.

By no means is Columbia alone in being the scene of a serious tidal wave of antisemitism. Here is another headline, this one from the Washington Post: 

Colleges braced for antisemitism and violence. It’s happening.

‘I had Jewish blood on my hands,’ a Tulane student said after aiding a classmate who was assaulted at a pro-Palestinian rally

The Post reports: 

A group called Stop AntiSemitism, which publicizes acts of bigotry against Jewish people, said that it received a few reports of incidents daily before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack — occasionally a couple of dozen. Now, some 500 reports are arriving daily, said Liora Rez, who founded the group in 2018 and serves as executive director.

Got that? To be a Jewish college student in America right now is a nightmare.

And to their eternal credit, Breitbart reports this of America’s leading law firms: 

Top U.S. Law Firms Warn University Deans to Stop Turning Students into Brainwashed Antisemites

Breitbart reports: 

Some of the largest law firms in the United Stats have written a letter to law school deans, warning them to stop producing brainwashed antisemites if they want their graduates to get jobs at major firms.

“Everyone at our law firms is entitled to be treated with respect and be free of any conduct that targets their identity and is offensive, hostile, intimidating or inconsistent with their personal dignity and rights” 24 law firms began in their letter to law school deans.

“We prohibit any form of harassment, whether verbal, visual, or physical,” the letter continued.

“Over the last several weeks, we have been alarmed at reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assaults on college campuses, including rallies calling for death of Jews and the elimination of the State of Israel,” the firms added.

“Such anti-Semitic activities would not be tolerated at any of our firms,” the letter declared. “We also would not tolerate outside groups engaging in acts of harassment and threats of violence, as has also been occurring on many of your campuses.”

Back in the days of American astronauts flying in and out of space, when there was a glitch in a flight, what became a legendary line between the astronauts and NASA space control was this: “Houston, we have a problem.”

So right this minute, as the ghost of the Nazi-supporting, antisemitic Fritz Kuhn haunts America’s colleges and universities, it is all too necessary to say “America, we have a problem.”

And I would add: A big problem.

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