NO JOKE

OUR FAILURE TO TAKE ANTISEMITISM SERIOUSLY IS PART OF A VERY LONG TREND.

Get serious.

If we don’t take Jews seriously as an ethnocultural group, why would we take racism against them seriously?

In my last post, I suggested that the Jewish association with humor may get extrapolated by some people into thinking Jews are “a joke.”

Maybe I’m wrong. This is an unprovable hypothesis, I give you that. But I’m pretty sure it’s true. These are opinion pieces I’m writing here, not scientific papers.

Certainly, not everyone succumbs to this disparaging idea. But we can’t tell how many might. As I keep prattling on about, there are a million interrelated explanations for antisemitism. This may be one factor.

Clearly, Jewish identity, Judaism and Jewishness are devalued in many minds, whether because, as I am positing here, some view Jews as “a joke” or because of other prejudicial ideas of hierarchies of “legitimate” identities.

Whatever the reason, it is unequivocally true that a great many people treat Jews differently (and worse) than they treat any other group and their experiences with discrimination.

While not a justification, there may be reasons why people treat Jews differently. For one thing, Jewish identity is different from other identities. Jewishness is, in some ways, more pliable than many of the other identities around race that are familiar to us.

Among other realities, a person can convert to Judaism (the religion and therefore the peoplehood) and a Jew can convert to another religion (while remaining connected to Jewish ethnicity). Judaism is a religion, yes. But Jewishness is something broader. To be a Jew is to belong to a peoplehood, a nation, an ethnocultural identity with Judaism (the religion) at its heart. But one need not adhere to Judaism as a faith or a religion to be a member (in good standing, so to speak) of the Jewish people. As I have discussed before, the profound ignorance around what constitutes a Jew is a defining problem in addressing antisemitism.

This should not be used as an excuse for bigotry. The fact that we do not understand the complexities of Jewish identity is our problem, not theirs. Except, of course, it is a Jewish problem because Jews are the victims of this ignorance.

This is thin ice for me, a non-Jew. It is a sin among progressives to define for members of other groups what their identity is and is not. As a result, for me to call out the hypocrisy of my progressive friends for telling Jews that they do not, for example, deserve national self-determination because they are “only a religion” requires me to engage in the very sin I am condemning. But anyways.

People who engage in antisemitism can absolve themselves of any allegations of racism because, in their mind, Jews are not a race. To say this is a problem is a massive understatement. Progressive people would not dare do this with any other group — either to define for that group their own identities or to dismiss their expressed lived experience with racism. There is a word for treating Jews differently.

The broader issue, though, is that if we do not value Jewish identity, we may assume there is a simple solution to antisemitism. In fact, this has been one of the underpinnings of antisemitism for centuries. It is the idea that, if Jews would simply stop being who they are, the rest of us wouldn’t have to hate them.

If we do not recognize any value in Jewish identity — if we dismiss it as a joke — then we can’t see why Jews would insist on clinging to this identity. Instead of whining about antisemitism, why don’t Jews just quit being Jews? Problem solved!

I know this sounds ridiculous. But if my hypothesis, outlined in my last post, is even remotely true, this could account for the fact that the vast majority of non-Jews seem utterly untroubled by the prevalence of antisemitism right now — and that it is self-described antiracist activists who are often the perpetrators.

We don’t see antisemitism as a “systemic” problem because it has an easy solution. If Jews would simply quit being Jews, antisemitism would evaporate.

One society after another has told Jews that, if they would simply stop being who they are, the world would treat them better. Many Jews tried. It rarely worked.

We do not tell other groups that, if they would simply stop being who they are, they would stop experiencing discrimination. That’s victim-blaming. And victim-blaming, while common in many forms of racism, is inherent to antisemitism. Bigots have always told Jews that they bring it on themselves by being who they are.

The bottom line is respect. Like so many societies before us, ours is demonstrating clearly that we do not respect Jews or their identities. Even if we do not think Jewishness is a joke, we are behaving as if it is.

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.)