Yes, I know today is only the 29th day of April.  Which means there’s two more days until the 1^rst of May.

But, I am talking about the other use of the term Mayday.  When one is at wit’s end, when imminent disaster is nigh and the may day call is required.

And, while TheDonald is not the cause of this problem, he and his policies are the gasoline being added to the mix.   When his arrogance feels compelled to point out- not once, not twice, but as recently as last week, that “there are very fine people on both sides” was not an aberrant thought.

There are NO GOOD PEOPLE among the Nazis.  There are NO GOOD PEOPLE among those claiming White Power or White Supremacy as their banner.  There are NO GOOD PEOPLE among White Nationalists.  PERIOD!

American Jews have always been the subject of attack in America.  Yes.  I mean always.  Always doesn’t mean every single day (although, that’s true- the events don’t always make the news, so it’s not known.)

And, it’s not just American Jews.  The same is true for Jews (all 1,000 of them) who live in Poland.  For those Jews that remain in Germany and Hungary.    And, those attacks are not coming from TheDonald’s favorite scapegoats (Islamic believers), but from the White majority (at least until the next few years) who form the base upon which TheDonald, the ‘Law and Justice’ (sic) party that controls Poland, the AfD (Alternative for Germany- yup, that’s just what Hitler provided) in Germany,  the Fidesz party in Hungary all rely.

This past Shabat (Saturday for the rest of you), which also is considered to the last day of Pesach (Passover),  we saw yet another WrongWing Christian, empowered by the hate spewn daily (almost by the second) by TheDonald and his ilk, enter a syngogue and attempt to mow down everyone. This time- because our religious leaders have undergone training, our synagogue members have been taught techniques to repel, and most synagogues employ armed guards to protect us from these Nazi wannabes, only one died (and one is too much),  Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein lost at least one finger, among the more than 100 folks reciting a special prayer for the dead that is part of the holiday rituals.  It was Lori Gilbert-Kaye (A”H) who sacrificed herself to save others.  And, the border patrol guard  who propelled himself at the shooter (whose gun, thankfully, had jammed).

That prayer is called “Yizkor”- Remember.  How appropriate that we remember that it was the so-called silent majority (to appropriate another term from a criminal president, another anti-Semite, Tricky Dick) that were the perpetrators of this abhorrent (and, unfortunately, not aberrant) behavior.   The ‘regular’ Germans, the ‘regular’ Poles who gladly helped the Nazi criminals strip all rights and property from the Jews in their midst.

I am still saying kaddish (the Jewish prayer cited over the course of a year for the dead, normally a family member) for one who perished in the Tree of Life massacre by yet another White Nationalist.

And, as I said, this wasn’t started by TheDonald,   He just provides them cover with his dog whistles.

I have written about the Cotiaux and Barber families of Forest City (a suburb of New York City) who routinely beat and berated me and my family 6 decades ago.  These folks were egged on by their Catholic private schools, which back then (and, hopefully, no longer) taught their young that Jews killed Jesus.  [I could add my own vitriol to this- reminding these haters that Jesus was a Jewish spiritual leader who had NO desire to start a new religion; that was Saul who renamed himself Paul, who found he could not command any respect among the Jews, so he started his conversion of non-Jews to his new religion.]

Or, when I moved to Charlottesville to learn a new expression.  How folks ‘jewed them down”.  (In case you have not been an enlightened member of Southern [or Midwestern] society, that means you bargained with the vendor to pay a lower price.]

Or, when I hear- to this very day- how someone wants to hire a ‘Jewish accountant’ or ‘Jewish attorney’.   Even when many of them dislike those of the Jewish faith.

And, most of you may recall (from the recesses of your memory) when another White Nationalist shot 70 bullets in a Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles two decades ago.  Or, 5 years ago when another White Nationalist terrorized 3 Jewish Community Centers in the Kansas City suburbs (ironically harming Christians that were present at the centers).

So, no, it’s not new.

You might have noticed by now that I omitted the other place where rampant attacks are perpetrated against Jews.  In the one country of Europe where the Jewish folks still remain in fairly large numbers.   (Although because of these attacks, that population has been purchasing homes in Israel in droves.)  Because in France, most of these attacks have been perpetrated by those of Islamic beliefs.   Different from the verbal and ammunition laden attacks in the US, Germany, Poland, and Hungary.

Nor do I want to omit the son of a Louisiana sheriff who felt obliged and privileged to burn down three churches over ten days (less than 30 days ago).  Or the White Nationalist who entered an historic church in Charleston (SC) and gunned down parishioners studying the bible.

And, while I am at this, let me remind you that TheDonald’s personal attorney (the one too many of us expect to be America’s personal attorney) has not lifted a finger to bring charges against White Nationalist, Coast Guardsman, Christopher Hasson, for terrorism offenses.  So, while the SOB was plotting to kill purported enemies of “TheDonald” (which, admittedly, is a pretty large list) like Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Elena Kagan (both Jewish, by the way), Congressperson Nancy Pelosi, Senator Chuck Schumer, and multiple members of the media (among many others), he is being released from jail on bond.  Even  though he had prepared an arsenal to do so, with a manifesto justifying his mission for TheDonald.  (Again, TheDonald didn’t contact him, he just gave folks like him the dog whistles to fuel his hatred.)

As I said, wink, wink, nod, nod from TheDonald and his ilk, promoting the belief that White Nationalists can operate with impunity.