Book Review: It Could Happen Here by Jonathan Greenblatt
Greenblatt's book warns of rising hate in America and provides strategies to dismantle it.
I read a lot of books especially during the long Shabbos evenings in the summer. Less so during winter unless I come home early from dinner—it’s hard getting much reading done during winter Shabbos when afternoons don’t really exist. This is the first of what I expect will be a number of book reviews published on my Buttondown newsletter. If a book review doesn’t quite fit on the regular Solzy at the Movies, I’ll run it over here. I’ve got another scheduled for later this week.
One of the recent books that I read was It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable―And How We Can Stop It by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. The hardcover was first published by Mariner Books in January 2022 while the paperback was released in March 2023.
Obviously, I’m very late in reading Greenblatt’s book but it feels timely and relevant with everything going on right now. Anti-Jewish hate is rising in every which direction. It’s not immune to either side of the political aisle and Greenblatt would know from his work at ADL. He goes over the history of how the ADL was formed in response to Leo Frank’s wrongful conviction and later lynching.
If there’s anything that Jewish history has taught us, we are never ever safe. We might think we are but we truly aren’t. Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, you name it. I obviously don’t have to rehash the conditions for Jews in Europe during the 1930s-40s. But about ten years ago, conditions started getting bad in Europe, especially France, to where Jews were starting to make Aliyah to Israel in large numbers. The events of October 7 and the subsequent global rise in anti-Jewish hate have made conditions worse. All across the US, you might look around and think if this is where Europe was ten years ago. I honestly think it’s worse.
There are two parts to the book. The first part is about the Pyramid of Hate and the second part about dismantling the hate. He draws on work previously published in the ADL library. It’s as if owning the book gives us our own ADL handbook without having to go on their website to find something.
When it comes to the Pyramid of Hate, it starts from the bottom to top in this order: Biased Attitudes, Acts of Bias, Systemic Discrimination, Bias-Motivated violence, and Genocide. Genocide is described as “the act or intent to deliberately and systemically annihilate an entire people.”
Greenblatt writes about his work, his background in business and government, and some very fascinating stories along the way. For instance, Chapter 4 focuses on Greenblatt’s unlikely friendship with a business entrepreneur, Damien Patton, who was forced to step down from the Banjo board when his past came to light. Patton’s background feels very unique and not something you read about every day: born Jewish and somehow found himself joining up with white nationalists. He was in the car when another person shot up a Nashville shul. You can read all about it here.
Greenblatt shares a framework for fighting back against hate:
Speak up
Share facts
Show strength
I’d like to share a few quotes from his book. Some of them are no less relevant now than they were when the book was published two years ago. Case in point, here’s an excerpt from page 88:
Certainly the demonization of Zionism and the efforts to equate Zionists with Nazis bodes ill for the physical safety of American Jews. I say this because virtually nobody in any segment of society believes that Nazis have a place in public life. Society does not condemn those who oppose Nazis. If the notion that Zionists are Nazis goes mainstream, given that the overwhelming majority of American Jews believe in Zionism, the danger will be profound. Far from a reasonable and measured response to injustice, cancel culture in this instance serves as a means not of creating a more just society but of perpetuating injustice and marginalizing a vulnerable minority. The inability of some self-proclaimed anti-racist activists to recognize the root evil of anti-Jewish racism is confounding. It is essential that people of good faith disavow such hate in the strongest terms whenever they find it, regardless of their views about the Middle East conflict.
It’s sad that such rhetoric is coming from the those on the left—well, far-left if we wish to be precise. I hear it coming from people in the LGBTQ community and it’s rhetoric like that makes a trans Jew like me feel not safe or welcome. It’s upsetting and infuriating.
I was talking earlier about Jewish history and knowing when to pack our bags. It ties into something that Greenblatt writes on page 116 about taking nothing for granted and draws its roots in a conversation that took place in spring 2021.
Jews have lived as minorities in numerous societies throughout the ages, and with relatively few exceptions, they’ve eventually confronted a dire fate. In nearly every context, their honeymoon in their newfound homelands came to a precipitous end—they were exiled, compelled to convert, or slaughtered. For this reason, many Jews today find it fairly easy to envision nightmare scenarios. The historical trauma of fleeing every four or five generations is encoded into our communal DNA, leading to a penchant for catastrophic thinking.
Talk to many Jews about what we saw in our own communities in the days and weeks that followed October 7. The anti-Jewish hate was on the rise everywhere. When I know Jews having conversations about which of our friends might hide us, you know how bad things are. But yes, that’s a conversation plenty were having in the weeks that followed October 7. I’m already at a point where I’m asking myself if it’s too late to start packing my bags.
When anti-Israel protests are taking place outside of shuls, kosher establishments, or museums, it comes more than anti-Israel protests but outright anti-Jewish hate. As Greenblatt writes: “Jews might feel deeply patriotic and enjoy the peace and security of living in a free society like America, but by no means can we take it for granted.”
While talking about mobilizing government against hate, Greenblatt discusses how leaders will fall silent when it comes to hate on their own side. We see this too often than not. I'll call it out on both sides of the aisle whenever I see it. As the ADL CEO writes on page 166-167:
Elected leaders in the United States and elsewhere have often fallen silent when their parties’ candidates make antisemitic statements and then claim that their opposition is to the Jewish state, not necessarily the Jewish people. This posture sounds reasonable on the face of it, but in all too many cases it falls apart under the mildest scrutiny. People who say they oppose Israel, not Jews, often play a double game, failing to stand up to defend Jewish people when they are attacked. Ultimately, all of us bear responsibility for speaking out. If we see hate in our midst, we have to say something. Standing up for decency and civility should start with our elected officials—but it can’t end there.
Ultimately, this book serves as a warning for Americans. Greenblatt’s work has made him privy to details that the common person might not know. The larger picture shows a world where people are vulnerable to conspiracy theories. His book was published a year after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol so he takes all of that into account. How did all of those people gather in one place and commit one of the worst attacks on American democracy. Furthermore, how did they end up becoming radicalized in such a manner.
If we follow the ADL guidelines that Greenblatt lays forward, while It Could Happen Here, the worst that could possibly happen might not be inevitable.