• Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Commenter above you doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The reason why the United States has such a large Jewish population is they were escaping ethnic cleansing and anti semitisim in Europe. Not saying the United States is perfect by any means and no anti semitisim exists there, but yes increased tolerance is a principal reason why they were emigrating to the US.

      • blunderworld@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        It’s not as though I implied the US wants to send their Jewish population to concentration camps or something.

        All I meant was that America is not the bastion of tolerance that their comment would suggest it is. I think that’s pretty obvious to anyone who reads the news.

        • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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          10 months ago

          It’s just a bit of a weird time to criticize the United States tolerance of Jewish people in a thread about “why didn’t they all move to America?” when in actuality millions of them did for exactly that reason. The improved tolerance in the United States in comparison to Europe throughout the 19th and 20th centuries is why they now have the largest Jewish population in the world second only to Israel. Not that the United States is perfect or shouldn’t keep working on improving tolerance of others by any means.

          • blunderworld@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            I don’t know enough about the subject to speculate about what an average American thought of Jewish immigrants - or any other immigrant population - during those centuries. I’m also neither American nor Jewish, so I can’t speak personally about the day-to-day reality of that relationship currently.

            What modern news and history have to say about America’s tolerance level though… that is up for debate, and they tell a more complex story. While we’re considering dates, a relevant example may be that the United States only abolished slavery in the 1860s. I’ll grant you that speaks to the persecution of a different population, but I doubt the bigots who fought to preserve that ‘right’ during the American Civil War were choosy.

            Please don’t misunderstand me; I don’t doubt that many Jewish people that emigrated to the United States have had better lives than they otherwise would have. I’m also not implying that the average American today is hateful or bigoted. I just don’t agree with the notion that the world would inherently be a better place if every Jewish person impacted by diaspora ended up in the United States specifically.

              • blunderworld@lemmy.ca
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                10 months ago

                Fair enough, maybe just a miscommunication between us then. I appreciate the respectful discussion either way.