Cornell student who wont work for Jews is a symptom of a far darker hatred that must be stopped

As if you needed more reasons to worry about America’s future, now we have Austin Franco.The 19-year-old Cornell student logged on to the school’s job board recently and applied for a summer internship with a New York-based start-up.But when invited for an interview, he declined to show up.The reason he gave?“Not interested in working for a Jew.”The Ivy League school, no surprises there, released an embarrassingly idiotic statement, accusing Franco of being “in violation of the [university’s] online job board’s terms of service” and announcing it will further investigate Franco.The administrators in Ithaca needn’t bother: No further investigation is necessary.Because Franco isn’t the problem.He’s merely a symptom of something far darker, a hatred that, left unchecked, may have disastrous consequences.What is it? Since the story broke, enraged pundits referred to Franco’s attitude as “antisemitism.”But that, alas, is a misnomer, a distraction that, if we’re not careful, could keep us from identifying, and thereby solving, the real problem.Because the real problem isn’t that a dim and arrogant college kid somewhere dislikes Jews.It’s that we now live in an America where being openly, even proudly, antisemitic is a form of social clout.When given a chance to clarify his statement, Franco doubled down.So did his supporters: A crowdfunding effort was quickly launched to reward Franco for his bigotry, raising more than $13,000 in just a few days.And that’s a problem, because antisemitism, as any semi-serious student of history knows, is a virus that has a nasty way of devouring any host society that lets it spread unchecked.It’s a tricky yet crucial insight to understand: Antisemitism has absolutely nothing to do with actual Jews, which is why it can surge uninterruptedly even in societies, like those in the Arab world, which have long ago expelled or executed all of their Jewish citizens.Instead, it’s a unique strand of moral and i...