ANTISEMITISM CULTURE™

IDEAS ABOUT JEWS — GOOD AND BAD (BUT MOSTLY BAD) — ARE AT THE HEART OF OUR CIVILIZATION. WHY ARE WE STILL PRETENDING THIS ISN’T TRUE?

Who ya gonna blame? If you are part of Western civilization or Islamic culture, chances are the default will be these guys.

You’ve heard of “rape culture.” In one succinct definition, rape culture is “a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.”

There are other examples, using the term “culture” or not, that describe cultural phenomena in which harmful behaviors are normalized and victimization trivialized. “Consumer culture” was one of the earliest forms of this idea, beginning in the postwar period where North Americans came to wrap our very identity in the idea of buying stuff. More recently, there is “cancel culture,” which I’m going to deal with more specifically in future. There’s “hustle culture,” “diet culture” and you can add “culture” onto almost any experience to extrapolate its impact on society. The term “toxic masculinity” is a similar culture without the word itself.

Why has no one coined the term “antisemitism culture”? (No one has, according to Google, so maybe I should say: Antisemitism Culture™.)

It’s weird because — I’m not even going out on a limb here — few things have defined Western civilization or Islamic culture more than attitudes toward Jews.

In fact, were it not for Jews, there would be no Western (Christian) civilization. There would be no Islam. Both of these theological structures usurped Judaism and its texts and retrofitted them like fan fiction for their own purposes.

I repeatedly reference David Nirenberg’s extraordinary work Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition. (So often that it is extra-shameful that I wrote the wrong surname this week in a post. Thanks to a reader for alerting me.) Nirenberg contends that anti-Judaism (which he differentiates from antisemtism in ways we can also discuss in future) is at the absolute core of Western civilization. In order to create a unified, Christian society in Europe, post-Constantine thinkers and leaders had to invent a force that unified the disparate peoples on the continent. And what better way to bring people together than hating on the Jews?

Nirenberg argues that anti-Judaism is more than a prejudice. It is an entire worldview, an intellectual framework through which we (especially those who have formulated the societal foundations we live by) see the world. Early Christian theological writings, medieval Islamic philosophy, the Protestant Reformation, Enlightenment thought, and modern secular ideologies are all permeated with deeply problematic ideas about Jews. Nirenberg contends that “Jews” and “Judaism” are shorthanded as the symbolic “other” for a vast range of concepts. A society’s problems and shortcomings — materialism, selfishness, obstinacy, moral corruption — are projected onto Jews and then (in a routine familiar to anyone who has sat in a church pew on a Sunday morning) the sins are transferred onto a scapegoat, which is then devoured and the sinner gets on with the rest of their weekend.

Nirenberg’s thesis is (I oversimplify his complex work flagrantly) that Jew-hatred is not a bug of Western civilization but a feature.

Islamic culture has a different but, obviously, a no less problematic approach to Jews.

Western and Islamic civilizations are the very embodiment of Antisemitism Culture™.

That’s a pretty harsh verdict for more than half the world’s population.

To be clear: this doesn’t mean that every person who is a product of these cultures is an out-and-out antisemite. But let’s put it in the context of a discussion we’ve been having as a society for the past few years.

Contemporary race theory contends that white supremacy is at the heart of our culture. According to Critical Race Theory (CRT), white supremacy is not limited to explicit hatred or overt racist acts. In this construct, white supremacy is an underlying, pervasive system of power relations, cultural norms, institutions, and policies that collectively advantage white people while systematically disadvantaging people of color. It operates through both visible and invisible mechanisms. It is embedded in legal and institutional frameworks, it is cumulative and has intergenerational effects, and it embodies resistance to acknowledgment and change.

We may object to aspects of CRT (and parts of our society have witch-hunted CRT like it’s the new communism or the bogeyman under the bed) and the end-goals of some CRT advocates are both extreme and antisemitic (again: we’ll discuss in future).

But the underlying premises of white supremacy culture are undeniable: Our society was founded on racist premises that have impacts on the way we live today.

Taking nothing away (gawd knows!) from the role white supremacy and its enduring impacts have on our society, Antisemitism Culture™ is exponentially older and has a profound impact on our society. I would contend that Antisemitism Culture™ is all the more insidious and effective for its invisibility. (To underscore: I cannot believe it fell to me to invent this term! How did no one come up with this before?)

I’ll repeat: Not everyone who is a product of Antisemitism Culture™ is an antisemite, just as not everyone who lives in our society, which is embedded with white supremacy, is a white supremacist. Keep your shorts on. Getting defensive in discussions about race is an antidote to personal and societal growth.

But we have an extra obligation, knowing that our civilization is permeated with these ideas, to engage deeply and tread gently around these topics.

Which is exactly what we have refused to do around antisemitism in recent years.

Especially since October 7, 2023, but since September 28, 2000, at the latest, an entire cottage industry of denial has been invented to avoid, dismiss, downplay, ignore, and even ridicule the very idea that antisemitism is a significant force or a problem in our society.

The most obvious example of this is the slogan “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” which, for whatever legitimate argument the phrase seeks to make, negates all reason and human decency by repudiating the invitation to engage in self-reflection on an issue of race. This mantra would be understandable if it were uttered by avowed racists. But it is almost always employed by people who self-describe as “antiracist.” The irony is gobsmacking.

The problem is far more widespread, though. Overt antisemitism is at crisis proportions. But what really has my Jewish friends concerned, I think it is safe to say, is the indifference demonstrated by the vast majority of people who are not overtly antisemitic.

This is how Antisemitism Culture™ works.

Antisemitism contends that Jews have a “persecution complex,” that they “cry wolf.” Other aspects of antisemitism include victim-blaming, positing that there are specific attributes about Jews that cause others to lash out at them. If Jews would just stop doing xyz or being abc, we wouldn’t have to antisemitism or genocide them. Then there is the reality that most people do not even know how to define what a Jew is, allowing them to conclude that, whatever their approach to Jews, it does not fit into whatever category of bad behavior it so clearly does. (If Jews are not a “race,” the hating on Jews isn’t “racism.” So you’re off the hook!)

Antisemitism Culture™ inspires people to stereotype, hate and act out against Jews. But — and this is key — Antisemitism Culture™ allows otherwise decent people to look at a world where antisemitism is raging and conclude there is nothing to get overly worked up about because those people are so touchy.

Antisemitism can be overt, like tiki torch-carrying hatebros in Charlottesville.

But Antisemitism Culture™ is something bigger and more insidious. It is a societal default that allows millions of us, many of whom should have been expected to stand up for Jews when things got bad, to remain silent because, somewhere deep down, underneath all the antiracist rhetoric, inclusive language, and equity-seeking platitudes, we believe the Jews had it coming all along.

A personal note …

I started this Substack because I thought my perspective as a progressive, gay, non-Jewish, Zionist Canadian offered something different to the dialogue about antisemitism, anti-Zionism, Palestinians and peace. It actually never crossed my mind that people might give me money for it. When people started generously subscribing and donating, I threw myself into this project more, partly because I am a writer by trade and I am still building my RSPs for some distant retirement. Based on online advice (!) I started making my Saturday posts for “Paid Subscribers Only.” But, I modestly acknowledge, each one is too delicious to paywall. So I am going to assume that, if you like my stuff and want more of it, you’ll give if you can. If not, please share. (Please share regardless!) No more paywalls. But there may be other incentives I could offer. Not sure what. Got any ideas? Do folks want to get together for online discussions or see me compile some of these posts as a book? Let me know. Meanwhile, enjoy! (If that is the right word for these sometimes dark musings.)