ANTISEMITISM? BLAME THE JEWS!
There are always “good reasons” to hate Jews. Today’s reason is Israel.
Statistics, anecdotal evidence and every measure imaginable say that antisemitism is at unprecedented levels in Canada, the United States and elsewhere.
Well-intentioned people will respond with the hopeful idea that, when things settle down in the Middle East, antisemitism will recede worldwide.
Less well-intentioned people will celebrate, ignore or dismiss the phenomenon.
All these people — well-intentioned and ill-intentioned — will probably conclude (with a variation of conscious and unconscious bias) that there are reasons for this surge in antisemitism.
The war.
A regrettable but inevitable acting out by bad people against Jews here because of a conflict involving Jews there.
The permission (again, regrettable but perhaps inevitable) granted antisemites to condemn Jewish people under cover of a larger movement that is condemning the Jewish state.
Whether a product of ingrained antisemitism or a more benign resignation to the inevitability of antisemitism every time conflict flares up in the Middle East, these reactions are premised on a common theme: Jews bring it on themselves. Or, at the very least, that there are reasons for anti-Jewish racism and when those “reasons” recede, so will antisemitism.
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Blaming the victim is common in many forms of bias and racism. Nowhere, I suspect, is it more inherent than in antisemitism. Put simply, antisemitism rests on a few main tropes, among them: “If Jews weren’t so ______, people wouldn’t hate them” and “If a hatred has lasted millennia, there must be something to it.”
Of course, when we name this phenomenon, people will insist they do not consciously think these things. But that’s the point. It’s not conscious.
The idea that Israel is the cause of antisemitism dovetails with the reality that people have always found seemingly justifiable reasons to hate Jews.
Early (and some later) Christians accused Jews of killing Jesus.
Medieval Europeans blamed Jews for the Black Plague.
Communists identified Jews among the capitalist class and condemned all Jews as capitalists. Capitalists saw Jews among leftist agitators and accused all Jews of being communists.
Jews have been condemned for “refusing” to assimilate into the majority, whether the majority is constituted by religion, race, nationality or ideology.
It is a strange trait of antisemitism that others will project onto Jews whatever characteristics they hate, fear or otherwise obsess over. One of the problems is there might be a grain of truth. It has often been possible (in history and today) to identify Jewish capitalists and Jewish communists.
The double irony here should be obvious: If Jews are represented among both capitalists and communists (and every other variation of ideology and identity), how do reasonable people conclude that “All Jews are XYZ”?
More to the point: the very formulation “All [any group] is [XYZ]” is the very definition of prejudice.
The point is this: Antisemites throughout history have always had “good reasons” to hate and attack Jews. Antisemitism has rarely been as instinctual as dogs charging cats. There’s always a “logical” explanation.
So to suggest that today’s antisemitism is a (perhaps unfortunate) consequence of the conflict in the Middle East is just a 21st-century version of a very old trend. If we don’t know that history, we don’t recognize how we fit into that pattern.
There are always “good reasons” to hate Jews. Today’s reason is Israel.
Yet plenty of people in Europe and North America are absolutely certain: Though the court of popular opinion has been wrong about Jews in the past, this time it’s right. Jews, in the form of Israel now, are unequivocally guilty.
Consider: After 2,000 years of condemnation, hatred and demonization, the Jewish people finally fulfill their ancient dream of renewed self-determination. Then, within a couple of decades, that nation becomes the most condemned, hated and demonized entity on earth.
What are the chances that’s based on rational premises?
The “rational” suggestion that antisemitism will end when Israel accedes to Palestinian demands bears startling resemblance to the contention that, if Jews would stop killing deities, spreading plague and eating gentile babies, we’ll stop hating them.
Even if it were true that Israel is an oppressor that bears primary (or all) responsibility for the violence and death in this conflict, we are not off the hook. We are part of a movement that has created a toxic hatred of Israel that, even if it were valid, redirects itself (whether we intend it to or not) and harms Jews around the world.
Even if we don’t care about maimed or dead Israelis — or let’s say we’re not sociopaths but still believe that Israelis are maimed or killed primarily because of Israeli policies or actions — we contribute to a pitch and tenor that has now led to the harming and murder of Jews around the world.
Worse still: When warned of the toxic effects of this violent rhetoric, our response is the most reactionary possible. Told that our Jewish neighbors are justifiably fearing for their safety in part because of the ferocity of our assaults against Israel, the response is usually a refutation: No, our Jewish neighbors are not actually feeling attacked and threatened, they’re lying about it to stop us from criticizing Israel.
Jewish people and organizations have been explaining this for at least 25 years. And it’s not so much that activists haven’t heard the Jewish community, but that we refuse to listen. As violence has spiked year on year for two decades now, liberal churches, unions with social justice agendas, social service agencies, progressive elected officials, activist groups and justice-seeking individuals should have been busting down the doors of Jewish organizations to offer support and commiseration. But I can assure you from working in Jewish organizations, covering this beat for newspapers and being involved in these progressive movements, there have been surprisingly few friends in need.
What has become painfully evident in the past two decades — never more so than with the Women’s March but less blatantly across other progressive movements — is that Jewish activists show up for everyone, but hardly anyone shows up for the Jewish people.
Among the Jews who are active on the left, many are expected to leave their complex identities at the door. In this time of explicitly celebrating intersectionality, this is a demand made of no other group. Just Jews.
We may think that our approach is based on reasoning and not sullied by prejudice, but unless we look deeply into our motives and suppressed biases, we may be fooling ourselves. But introspection is something most activists have obstinately refused to consider when it comes to Israel and Jews.
And why is that?
Is it antisemitism?
At this point, what difference does it make what we call it?
The ugly roots of bias and racism run deep, but perhaps nowhere is it more sinister than in the insidious grip of antisemitism. An insidious force that can be seen in its treatment of rape victims, where they are blamed for their own assault.
Even before the war, Anti-Semitism was disturbingly prevalent and was becoming more mainstream. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of hostility towards Jewish students and Israel on college campuses, with a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
On many campuses, inherently anti-Israel propaganda or anti-Zionist has been spread like a poisonous fog, laced with age-old stereotypes and defamation of Jews. This includes the despicable blood libel, falsely accusing Jews of ritual child sacrifice, as well as propaganda playing on toxic tropes of greed, aggression, and conspiracies against non-Jews. It is crucial to recognize this twisted propaganda for what it truly is - morally reprehensible hate speech.
Although most incidents of anti-Semitism on campus may not directly stem from anti-Israel activity, it is crucial to have systems in place for investigating cases where such activity escalates into targeted discrimination and harassment against Jewish students. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice must have the power to address these issues swiftly and firmly. Any form of anti-Semitism must be vehemently condemned and combated at every turn to create a safer and more inclusive environment for all students on college campuses.
I landed at college as a freshman over half a century ago and learned that my dorm supervisor was a closeted antisemite, something he revealed only to fellow black students. Ten years later I married into a community of Russian Orthodox Christians, many of whom blamed Jews for their role in the Russian Revolution that dispossessed them. Jew-hating, I have come to see, is an equal-opportunity pastime.