Institutionalized discrimination against Jews in the West came under fierce attack as shame over what had been done in Europe spread. It was not an immediate process, of course; the practice of barring Jews from entry into various neighborhoods or clubs persisted in the United States in the 1970s. And today, with few exceptions, most Jews live freely without any significant social obstacles to work or finding homes. This needs to be cause for Jewish celebration. We must not forget the Holocaust, nor ignore the fact that some of our greatest historical tragedies have come on the heels of some of our greatest periods of prosperity. But the road to sustaining our security lies not in fear of a repeat of our greatest trauma, but in vigilance, consciousness and cooperation with our many allies in creating a world where all forms of hatred based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or any other innate characteristics has no power to threaten people.

Does this mean that anti-Semitism no longer exists? Indeed, not. In the United States, many white supremacist groups (the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, Christian Identity groups and others) continue their campaigns against Jews, along with women, GLBT folks and, of course, people of color. More and more, the relative success of Jews in the United States and some parts of Europe has spawned some reactionary rekindling of late 19th/early 20th century Jewish conspiracy theories, harkening back to the infamous Russian forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a Czarist era tract purporting to dictate a Jewish/Masonic program of global domination).