Pat, this is an incredibly comprehensive analysis of all the forms of antisemitism! I thought I had a good grasp of the various forms antisemitism takes until I read your article. I will keep this article handy the next time a person claims not to be an antisemite, but makes statements or exhibits behavior that falls into one of the categories you have set out. Thank you very much for your very fine piece.
I agree with you. Pat does a great job & we are in agreement around 90%. I think he ought to make a collection of his essays and have them printed into different volumes. I'd pay for a copy.
That said, I too, am downloading several copies. This is for ready handouts to certain people who think they are taking the moral high road.
Next time I'm around Seattle I'll let you know. A Trip to Vancouver to hang out would be cool. In the meantime I'm closer to the beautiful mountains in eastern BC & their back country lodges.
Antizionism is often missed as a lethal anti-Jewish ideology because many people assume that Jew-hatred must first appear as hatred of Jews. The dominant framework of ‘antisemitism’ trains us to recognize hostility only when Jewish individuals or communities are directly targeted.
Antizionism inverts this sequence. It begins not with Jews, but with a state. Hatred is first directed at Israel, which is constructed as uniquely criminal, illegitimate, and immoral. Only afterward are Jews collectively punished for the alleged crimes of that state.
Because the hatred initially appears as hostility toward a country, it is misread as political critique rather than as a form of Jew-hatred. What is missed is that Israel functions as the symbolic Jewish collective. To demonize the Jewish state is to mark Jews everywhere as morally guilty by association.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks warned that Jew-hatred is like a virus that keeps mutating and, in doing so, defeats the immune systems societies develop to protect themselves against bigotry toward Jews, once again recoding this bigotry as a virtue. Antizionism is not a departure from Jew-hatred. It is its latest mutation. Credit to https://nayalekht.substack.com/
Thank you for providing this list to help those who haven't examined their unconscious bias against Jews.
I've started telling the "antizionism isn't antisemitism" crowd that they can call it whatever they want, it makes no difference to the Jews who died because of either.
Case in point to your article: all the people on the interwebs who preface every statement with "I'm not antisemitic" and then follow with a whole diatribe about the Jews controlling the banks, Hollywood and the weather. I've been hearing that apparently, we're also "out to kill all the goyim." A self-victimizing term mostly used by Jew-haters and not Jews, and we're also pathetically unsuccessful at this mission because there are 7.99 billion of you and you keep multiplying.
Or, "These claims of antisemitism get in the way of fighting actual antisemitism." Because, as we're told, driving a truck of explosives into a synagogue, or firebombing Jews rallying for hostages were not antisemitic acts.
Or my other favorite: "I have no problem with Jews, it's just Zionists I hate," and then follow their description of Zionists with the same exact list of antisemitic tropes about banks, weather, Hollywood, blah, blah, blah. And then there's "the Jews of today are white European Khazar converts, not descended from the original Jews." Like, what? All of that mindf*ckery somehow makes sense? If they were actually Khazar Turks, why were my ancestors murdered by Nazis for being not European and not white?! Why did European racists post signs saying "Jews go back to Palestine?"
And, if targeting Jews with terrorism ISN'T antisemitism in the minds of the masses, what is? Is it that anything short of being shoved in a cattle car to Auschwitz isn't actually anti-Jewish bigotry?
I wish someone could explain the logic to me. It seems there's literally no way out of the web of psychosis. Please help.
Amid all the terrible news, let’s take a moment to rejoice that under the hate fuelled leadership of Avi Lewis the NDP is now reduced to just five seats.
five seats too many. I live in BC where they run the place. I cannot believe I used to think they were the good guys who cared. no sign of that for many years, just words now.
Hi Pat, thanks for this. Note that in the sixth paragraph you use the term “antisemitism” where I think you meant “antizionism.” It’s so important that we acknowledge that antizionism itself is a hate movement: it doesn’t have to “cross a line” into classical antisemitism, it is a hate movement with its own libels, language, and history.
Great and useful list, Pat. Your first couple of items remind me of what historian Tom Holland says, that our society is profoundly Christian whether or not we are personally religious. This reinforces the unconscious bias that you bring up, since two millennia of teaching that Jews are misguided at best and evil at worst have to have primed our unconscious minds to believe all the worst libels about Israel and Jews.
As a non - Jew i often find the contributions made to the world by such a small number of people ( just look at Jewish Nobel prize-winners ) to be praise- worthy. I also find the Holocaust to be uniquely evil. I think neither of those match examples cited in this very informative article, but im open to be corrected.
There's an awful lot of paranoia in these examples, as well as a lack of understanding about the horror people feel about what Israel has been doing in Palestine.
The ‘horror’ occurred on Oct 7, 2023 and was carried out by Hamas and Gazan civilians — that’s what you can’t acknowledge. You need to scapegoat Israel for the evil committed by an openly genocidal, jihadist ideology — one supported by the IRGC, the same regime that’s murdered upwards of 40,000 Iranian citizens. I mean, you are proving Pat’s points.
How many Jews have the Western and Muslim worlds combined murdered and continue to target for violence? Maybe if ya'll finally dealt with your 2500 year old anti-Jewish racism, you could quit with the projection and need for Jews to be cast as the ultimate evil of humanity so you can feel good and morally pure. Deal with that, and then we could actually have an honest conversation about I/P. Until then, this is just more of your standard-issue "blame the Jew" purity ritual so you never have to own up to your own cultural and societal misdeeds.
The moral narcissism doesn't allow a way out of his feedback loop, because there's no way he's anything but morally superior (definitely to Jews) or wrong about anything. And he's only got at his disposal the proscribed list of memes distributed by the IRGC to recycle verbatim as a form of "righteousness." These online zombies are all carbon copies of each other, not a single original thought and they're so boring.
Pat, I hear you. Another excellent article. The question now is how we fight back, because simply pointing this out isn’t enough anymore. We need to be more creative, more unified, and frankly we need stronger leadership.
And I’ve said this before: we have four built-in problems. We’re small in number, highly visible, often successful, and historically far too passive. The visibility and success aren’t changing, so that leaves two things we can actually work on — increasing our numbers and stopping the passivity. Those two things, in my opinion, are critical.
This is quite an exhaustive guide to antisemitism. It basically covers all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—conscious or subconscious—that human beings have toward other human beings, whether individuals or groups, Jewish or not. It is, in fact, so exhaustive that I wonder what those who don’t want to be considered antisemitic can do toward that end.
In my opinion, in this day and age there is a shortcut—through 25 points—to not being antisemitic (I’m not sure what the proper antonym of “antisemite” is). It is being principally supportive of Israel—in other words, being a Zionist. I used to think in the past that the hypothetical criterion for not being antisemitic was a willingness to shelter or help Jews should any Third Reich–like regime become active again.
With October 7th, that time has come, and any person who, for whatever reason, is anti-Israel is, in my view, an antisemite. And yes, that includes some Jews too.
What is to be done about the tentacles of antisemitic indoctrination, that has spread through the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere forever, (and continues to do so)? This alone precludes the possibility of a livible, safe Jewish state, in the minds of the peoples of these places and an even greater population of the world. And never mind the creation of a Palestinian state. The surrounding areas of Israel have shown no interest in appropriating any of their own land for this to happen in any realistic way. Where on earth can a Palestinian state ever-even be established? Did the British remotely consider what appropriating a modern homeland for Jews in the middle of this aforementioned environment mean? It seems to me that Jews were put into a snake pit from which they’ve had to survive, originally alone, from day one. And now we have more than one fire eating, monstrous dragon fighting to expand Israel’s borders. Where’s David when you need him.?
Pat, this is an incredibly comprehensive analysis of all the forms of antisemitism! I thought I had a good grasp of the various forms antisemitism takes until I read your article. I will keep this article handy the next time a person claims not to be an antisemite, but makes statements or exhibits behavior that falls into one of the categories you have set out. Thank you very much for your very fine piece.
Thanks Sebastian. I appreciate your words.
Sebastian,
I agree with you. Pat does a great job & we are in agreement around 90%. I think he ought to make a collection of his essays and have them printed into different volumes. I'd pay for a copy.
That said, I too, am downloading several copies. This is for ready handouts to certain people who think they are taking the moral high road.
Be careful what you wish for! I'm editing a book of.my essays right now!
Next time I'm around Seattle I'll let you know. A Trip to Vancouver to hang out would be cool. In the meantime I'm closer to the beautiful mountains in eastern BC & their back country lodges.
Groovey
Antizionism is often missed as a lethal anti-Jewish ideology because many people assume that Jew-hatred must first appear as hatred of Jews. The dominant framework of ‘antisemitism’ trains us to recognize hostility only when Jewish individuals or communities are directly targeted.
Antizionism inverts this sequence. It begins not with Jews, but with a state. Hatred is first directed at Israel, which is constructed as uniquely criminal, illegitimate, and immoral. Only afterward are Jews collectively punished for the alleged crimes of that state.
Because the hatred initially appears as hostility toward a country, it is misread as political critique rather than as a form of Jew-hatred. What is missed is that Israel functions as the symbolic Jewish collective. To demonize the Jewish state is to mark Jews everywhere as morally guilty by association.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks warned that Jew-hatred is like a virus that keeps mutating and, in doing so, defeats the immune systems societies develop to protect themselves against bigotry toward Jews, once again recoding this bigotry as a virtue. Antizionism is not a departure from Jew-hatred. It is its latest mutation. Credit to https://nayalekht.substack.com/
This should be made mandatory reading for anyone, but ESPECIALLY the TikTok generation.
So comprehensive!!! do you ever sleep? Thank you for this!
Thank you for providing this list to help those who haven't examined their unconscious bias against Jews.
I've started telling the "antizionism isn't antisemitism" crowd that they can call it whatever they want, it makes no difference to the Jews who died because of either.
Case in point to your article: all the people on the interwebs who preface every statement with "I'm not antisemitic" and then follow with a whole diatribe about the Jews controlling the banks, Hollywood and the weather. I've been hearing that apparently, we're also "out to kill all the goyim." A self-victimizing term mostly used by Jew-haters and not Jews, and we're also pathetically unsuccessful at this mission because there are 7.99 billion of you and you keep multiplying.
Or, "These claims of antisemitism get in the way of fighting actual antisemitism." Because, as we're told, driving a truck of explosives into a synagogue, or firebombing Jews rallying for hostages were not antisemitic acts.
Or my other favorite: "I have no problem with Jews, it's just Zionists I hate," and then follow their description of Zionists with the same exact list of antisemitic tropes about banks, weather, Hollywood, blah, blah, blah. And then there's "the Jews of today are white European Khazar converts, not descended from the original Jews." Like, what? All of that mindf*ckery somehow makes sense? If they were actually Khazar Turks, why were my ancestors murdered by Nazis for being not European and not white?! Why did European racists post signs saying "Jews go back to Palestine?"
And, if targeting Jews with terrorism ISN'T antisemitism in the minds of the masses, what is? Is it that anything short of being shoved in a cattle car to Auschwitz isn't actually anti-Jewish bigotry?
I wish someone could explain the logic to me. It seems there's literally no way out of the web of psychosis. Please help.
Signed, a confused Jew.
On each of your points, I'm a confused Goy!
I think that's a sign of your sanity, and I thank you for your solidarity in confusion.
Amid all the terrible news, let’s take a moment to rejoice that under the hate fuelled leadership of Avi Lewis the NDP is now reduced to just five seats.
five seats too many. I live in BC where they run the place. I cannot believe I used to think they were the good guys who cared. no sign of that for many years, just words now.
Hi Pat, thanks for this. Note that in the sixth paragraph you use the term “antisemitism” where I think you meant “antizionism.” It’s so important that we acknowledge that antizionism itself is a hate movement: it doesn’t have to “cross a line” into classical antisemitism, it is a hate movement with its own libels, language, and history.
Please add this to the fan faves. People need to be periodically remembered of the lexicon of antisemitism.
Great and useful list, Pat. Your first couple of items remind me of what historian Tom Holland says, that our society is profoundly Christian whether or not we are personally religious. This reinforces the unconscious bias that you bring up, since two millennia of teaching that Jews are misguided at best and evil at worst have to have primed our unconscious minds to believe all the worst libels about Israel and Jews.
As a non - Jew i often find the contributions made to the world by such a small number of people ( just look at Jewish Nobel prize-winners ) to be praise- worthy. I also find the Holocaust to be uniquely evil. I think neither of those match examples cited in this very informative article, but im open to be corrected.
There's an awful lot of paranoia in these examples, as well as a lack of understanding about the horror people feel about what Israel has been doing in Palestine.
The ‘horror’ occurred on Oct 7, 2023 and was carried out by Hamas and Gazan civilians — that’s what you can’t acknowledge. You need to scapegoat Israel for the evil committed by an openly genocidal, jihadist ideology — one supported by the IRGC, the same regime that’s murdered upwards of 40,000 Iranian citizens. I mean, you are proving Pat’s points.
How many Palestinians has Israel murdered ?
How many Jews have the Western and Muslim worlds combined murdered and continue to target for violence? Maybe if ya'll finally dealt with your 2500 year old anti-Jewish racism, you could quit with the projection and need for Jews to be cast as the ultimate evil of humanity so you can feel good and morally pure. Deal with that, and then we could actually have an honest conversation about I/P. Until then, this is just more of your standard-issue "blame the Jew" purity ritual so you never have to own up to your own cultural and societal misdeeds.
Maybe if the Israelis stopped the genocides, we could have an honest conversation.
Maybe if Gazans renounced the genocide of Jews as a goal, we could have an honest conversation. That’s the real issue.
The moral narcissism doesn't allow a way out of his feedback loop, because there's no way he's anything but morally superior (definitely to Jews) or wrong about anything. And he's only got at his disposal the proscribed list of memes distributed by the IRGC to recycle verbatim as a form of "righteousness." These online zombies are all carbon copies of each other, not a single original thought and they're so boring.
That's not likely while Israel is committing genocide in Palestine
Libel card denied.
Is this another one of those Hasbara-funded cliches that Jews like to circulate and museum ?
Pat, I hear you. Another excellent article. The question now is how we fight back, because simply pointing this out isn’t enough anymore. We need to be more creative, more unified, and frankly we need stronger leadership.
And I’ve said this before: we have four built-in problems. We’re small in number, highly visible, often successful, and historically far too passive. The visibility and success aren’t changing, so that leaves two things we can actually work on — increasing our numbers and stopping the passivity. Those two things, in my opinion, are critical.
I like to refer to #13 as “conscientious antisemitism”.
This is quite an exhaustive guide to antisemitism. It basically covers all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—conscious or subconscious—that human beings have toward other human beings, whether individuals or groups, Jewish or not. It is, in fact, so exhaustive that I wonder what those who don’t want to be considered antisemitic can do toward that end.
In my opinion, in this day and age there is a shortcut—through 25 points—to not being antisemitic (I’m not sure what the proper antonym of “antisemite” is). It is being principally supportive of Israel—in other words, being a Zionist. I used to think in the past that the hypothetical criterion for not being antisemitic was a willingness to shelter or help Jews should any Third Reich–like regime become active again.
With October 7th, that time has come, and any person who, for whatever reason, is anti-Israel is, in my view, an antisemite. And yes, that includes some Jews too.
This is a really good encapsulation of many forms of antisemitism, some subtle, others extremely blatant. Thank you for compiling this list.
What is to be done about the tentacles of antisemitic indoctrination, that has spread through the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere forever, (and continues to do so)? This alone precludes the possibility of a livible, safe Jewish state, in the minds of the peoples of these places and an even greater population of the world. And never mind the creation of a Palestinian state. The surrounding areas of Israel have shown no interest in appropriating any of their own land for this to happen in any realistic way. Where on earth can a Palestinian state ever-even be established? Did the British remotely consider what appropriating a modern homeland for Jews in the middle of this aforementioned environment mean? It seems to me that Jews were put into a snake pit from which they’ve had to survive, originally alone, from day one. And now we have more than one fire eating, monstrous dragon fighting to expand Israel’s borders. Where’s David when you need him.?