Georgia's new member of the House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is gaining a reputation for making a variety of vicious, conspiracy-inspired comments toward various groups of Americans, including Jews. She has blamed 2018 California forest fires on "Jewish space lasers" and she is resolute in her statements: "I will never back down," she claims. She is reveling in the spotlight, enjoys espousing Q-Anon ideas, and insists on wearing a mask to the House that reads "Trump Won."

Greene is being criticized by many people, including Republicans such as Senator Mitch McConnell, for her disgusting behavior. But she seems to be unfazed. And she is, sadly, hardly the only anti-Semite we've encountered in recent months, and throughout history.

At the January 6th Washington D.C. riot, a 56 year old participant named Robert Packer wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt. This is not ironically funny at all, yet there are Americans who dare to wear something like this, which trivializes the most notorious of Nazi Germany death camps. (In fact, January 27th was the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.) Obviously there are Americans who mock the Holocaust, who doubt it occurred, who support the demeaning of Jews. 

As a Jew, I'm horrified by but also used to this awful attitude. Anti-Semitic theories and actions are as old as recorded history; but that doesn't make them right. It's heartening to know that more and more people are calling out anti-Semitism. 

I wonder what Representative Greene would make of the social media work of a person like Yasmine Dreamz.  This Jewish woman from Brooklyn posts frequently on Instagram about the dangers of anti-Semitism, as well as the demeaning attitudes many people hold toward Jews who aren't of Central or Eastern European backgrounds.

She makes people aware of the biases against (and the rich heritage of) Jews who are of Levantine (Spanish-Portuguese), Sephardic and Mizrahi backgrounds-- Jews from Arab lands, Balkans and North Africa, as well as Jews of Color (JOC). There are many such Jews in the US and around the world, yet many people don't realize (or acknowledge) this. Would Rep. Greene care to have a civil conversation with Yasmin? Or would she blame Yasmin for forest fires, too?

And I wonder what Rep. Greene makes of the outpouring of love for the memory of Jamie Tarses, the TV leader who just died at the age of 56? Tarses was the first woman to head a network TV entertainment division, at the age of 32. Tarses was Jewish, and worked in the entertainment/media industry.

Anti-Semites are fond of pointing out how many people of Jewish backgrounds are involved in various facets of media, communications, popular culture. A well-worn canard is that "Jews control the media." Jews do not, but that hasn't stopped David Duke and so many other big-mouthed louts from repeating this trope. 

Anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and many other awful prejudices should sit in history's dustbin.