The America I moved to has changed.
When I first arrived from South Africa more than two decades ago, I was struck by something I had never experienced before. I came from a society where crime was pervasive, where antisemitism was rising, and where visibly living as a Jew could carry a sense of unease. America felt different. It felt open. It felt safe. It felt like a place where people were not judged for who they were, where houses of worship stood accessible, and where freedom was not just an idea but a lived reality.
That was not long ago.
Today, even the simple act of walking into a synagogue tells a different story. Doors are locked. Security is visible. Glass is reinforced. Barriers stand outside. Jewish life, which once moved with quiet confidence, now operates with caution. On university campuses, in cities, even in familiar neighborhoods, Jews think twice about how visibly they present themselves.
This is not only a Jewish story. It is a signal.
What begins with the Jews has rarely remained confined to the Jews. Historically, hostility toward Jews has often been an early warning sign of deeper instability within a society. The question is not only what is happening to the Jews, but what is happening to America.
How does a society change so quickly?
Part of the answer may lie in something George Washington warned about at the very founding of the country. In his Farewell Address, he cautioned against excessive entanglement and against the corrosive effects of factionalism. America, in its early years, benefited from a kind of separation. Geography created distance from the conflicts and ideological battles of other parts of the world.
For much of its history, that distance served as a form of protection.
That reality no longer exists.
Technology has erased the concept of isolation. Information moves instantly. Influence crosses borders without friction. America is no longer buffered from external forces. It is fully exposed to them. Competing ideologies, coordinated narratives, and foreign interests now operate within the same informational space as domestic discourse. There are players from without who wish for America to fall because of internal strife. They have spent much capital on social media, on campuses and working with self-serving influencers.
The result is a society increasingly shaped not only from within, but from without.
When ideas take hold without careful examination, when positions are adopted without recognizing how they may have been shaped or amplified, the foundation of a free society begins to weaken. This is not about one group or one issue. It is about the conditions that allow manipulation to take root.
At the moment, Jews are among those most visibly affected. Hate crimes disproportionately target them. But the deeper concern is not limited to Jewish vulnerability.
If a society loses its ability to think clearly, to question responsibly, and to guard itself against manipulation, then its institutions, its freedoms, and its protections become fragile. The erosion does not stop with one minority. It spreads.
The United States has long stood as a central pillar of democratic values and personal liberty. If that pillar weakens, the consequences extend far beyond its borders. Power vacuums do not remain empty. They are filled, often by actors who do not share those values.
This is why the moment matters.
The Jewish people have endured difficult chapters before. We know Judaism will adapt again. But the question that should concern us is about the freedom in Western democracies. The disappearance of the American “island” is not just a geopolitical shift. It is a test.
And it is not yet clear how it will be answered.
picture credit: Skyler Ewing