The Politics Of Anti-Semitism: In Defense of our People

In Defense of our People.

On April 25th, the New York Times International Edition ran an Anti-Semitic cartoon suitable for the pages of Der Stürmer, indistinguishable from Nazi propaganda.

Bret Stephens, in a scathing condemnation of his own paper writes, “The problem is that its publication was an astonishing act of ignorance of anti-Semitism — and that, at a publication that is otherwise hyper-alert to nearly every conceivable expression of prejudice, from mansplaining to racial microaggressions to transphobia.”

“The reason is the almost torrential criticism of Israel and the mainstreaming of anti-Zionism, including by this paper, which has become so common that people have been desensitized to its inherent bigotry. So long as anti-Semitic arguments or images are framed, however speciously, as commentary about Israel, there will be a tendency to view them as a form of political opinion, not ethnic prejudice. Anti-Zionism is all but indistinguishable from anti-Semitism in practice and often in intent.”

He hits his mark. There is no ignorance of anti-Semitism. It has become normalized once again, and the country grows apathetic.

We make up less than 2% of the population, yet experience 58% of all religiously-motivated hate crimes — and it is on the rise. But we are lucky to be here. It is far worse in Europe.

For hundreds of years my people have paid with their lives hoping that this time, it will be different. When Judah Samet was 6-years old the Nazis came for him. They came again at 80 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Noya Dahan left Sderot to escape the rocket attacks on her home. At 8-years old she was shot at the Chabad of Poway in San Diego. The windows of our synagogues are smashed, invoking the memory of Kristallnacht. Swastikas are drawn across campuses. Jews have been beaten in the streets of New York.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We will never forget — but we have learned a dangerous lesson. We must take anti-Semites at their word.

From Rep Steve King’s, ‘White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?’, to the drum beat of ‘The Jews Will Not Replace Us’ in Charlottesville — these are the enemies we can clearly see.

But anti-Semitism does not only march in the streets behind the likes of Duke and Farrakhan, and those who refuse to condemn them. It insidiously lurks in the halls of academia, hiding behind the mask of pseudo-intellectualism and anti-Zionism. It bides its time, infecting malleable minds waiting until it can creep into the mainstream — just as it always has.

From the Blood Libels and story of William of Norwich, to Martin Luther’s On the Jews and Their Lies, to Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique, to Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of the Human Race, to Bonald’s Sur les juifs, to Mousseaux’s Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens, to Bresciani’s L’Ebreo di Verona, to Karl Marx’s On the Jewish Question, to the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, to Henry Ford’s writings in The Dearborn Independent, to The State and Local Bases of Zionist Power in America (2010) — anti-Semitism festers in the guise of intellectual thought.

Death always follows.

Today it masquerades as anti-Zionism, far from any reasonable criticism of Israeli policy. The same language that has driven Jews from their homes for hundreds of years echoes across universities and in the halls of Congress. Jewish money, influence, and allegiance are called into question. It lurks in the rhetoric of Rep Ilhan Omar: ‘Israel has hypnotized the world’ and ‘It’s all about the Benjamins, baby’, in reference to the financial savvy and influence of the ‘Jewish Lobby’. These tropes are dangerously reminiscent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and all too familiar to the 80,000 Persian Jews forced to flee Iran in 1979. Once again in the mainstream is the image of Jews as global puppet masters.

It is an idea that is far too often interwoven in the fabric of progressive thought.

‘Take, for example, the debacle at Brown University last spring around Janet Mock, a transgender activist and writer of color. Her talk, sponsored by many social justice organizations on campus, including Moral Voices, a Hillel-affiliated program, became a flash point for student activism against Israel, even though the program had nothing to do with Israel. Nonetheless, a student petition issued an ultimatum: either the Jewish organization’s sponsorship of the event had to go, or the event had to be canceled.’[i]

During the ‘Chicago Dyke March’, two Jews were ejected from the parade because of their Star of David/Pride flags. Eleanor Shoshany Anderson was verbally accosted for her Jewishness and removed from the event because her presence made others feel unsafe. The irony was lost on the organizers. “I had hoped to prove to myself that it would be okay to be openly Jewish in a progressive circle, and unfortunately that’s not what happened.”

When the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement came to my school, they hid their anti-Semitism on page 12 of a 14-page resolution intended to affirm our support for global human rights.

When the House of Representatives was tasked with condemning anti-Semitism, they drowned their Jewish support in the same broad rhetoric.

As Jews we find ourselves with little political shelter as ideologies are marketed wholesale — take it or leave it. You are either completely with us or totally against us.

We are used as pawns in Joe Biden’s campaign announcement. In a video invoking images of Neo-Nazis marching through the streets of Charlottesville, Biden frames his candidacy as the ‘battle for the soul of this nation’ against a threat the likes of which has never been seen. He uses the Jewish people to draw a political line in the sand — if you do not find yourself on our side, you march with them. Nazism is the defining metaphor of absolute evil. [ii] There is an obligation not to remain neutral. The insinuation is grotesque and dangerous.

Where can we go?

We find ourselves with little recourse. Either we are condemned for basic ideological differences, or forced to accept the whispers of anti-Semitism infecting the ranks of the progressive left; whispers that can quickly turn to shouts — a lesson we have learned far too many times.

We must be able to separate ourselves from these ideological boxes and learn that we can stand strongly in opposition to parts of our organizations without compromising our identity — on both sides.

We must be able to support the values of the Women’s March, while speaking out against its founders Tamika Mallory, who refers to Farrakhan as the ‘G.O.A.T’, and Linda Sarsour, who has passionately shared the stage with Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist convicted of killing two Israeli college students. We cannot pander to the likes of David Duke.

Responsibility lies across the board to combat the growing wave of anti-Semitism. But silence is not an answer. We must call out anti-Semitism wherever it rears its head, in whatever form it takes. We will always stand for you. We need you to stand for us. Our lives depend on it.

[i] Meyers, 2017 https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/08/24/forms-anti-semitism-are-steadily-increasing-higher-education-essay

[ii] Robert S. Wistrich, Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred