Let me start by saying something that really should go without saying: No one should be harassed or attacked because they are Jewish. Attacking random Jews or Jewish institutions for any reason, whether because of the actions of Israel or because Jews are perceived as supporting immigration or racial justice, or any other reason, is Jew-hatred, bigotry – antisemitism. It must be strongly opposed, as must any such identity-based bigotry.
Antisemitism is an odd hatred, in that it’s sometimes hard
to tell that it’s happening at all. Most American Jews (75%) code as
white. Jews have no institutional or governmental impediments to their success;
in fact, Jews are at the very heights in every segment of American society. No
cop ever pulls someone over, no bank ever denies someone a loan, for being Jewish.
When we talk about systemic racism, we are talking about oppression written
into the law or the economic order; antisemitism is not “systemic” in that way.
There are exceptions, but most antisemitism most Jews are likely to face are
the bigoted expressions of individual people. On the one hand this can make
people – especially people who face more onerous oppression on a daily basis –
think that antisemitism doesn’t exist or that it isn’t that big a deal, which
can make solidarity challenging and Jews feel isolated. On the other hand, Jews
should be a little circumspect about categorizing themselves as “marginalized”
or comparable to other ethnicities which face more systemic oppression.
Yet fear of antisemitism is only tangentially related to its
actual experience. Jews are a traumatized people, due to the not-distant memory
of genocide and other, more recent events, such as the massacre at the
synagogue in Pittsburgh. It’s quite common for synagogues to have armed guards,
which is not the case for most churches. So Jews feel that threatened status
every time they go into a Jewish communal building. Jews live with antisemitism
in their kishkes (guts).
The inability to differentiate between incidents of violence
or “systemic” (to use that term) antisemitism and the ignorant actions of
individuals is a problem. They feed into the same place of Jewish trauma, but
they’re not the same.
I recently attended a workshop on antisemitism, at a
friend’s invitation. It was arranged by a co-counseling community in the
Washington DC area, so it was on the more psychological/personal-trauma side of
things, as opposed to the solidarity/political-action side where I usually find
myself. The facilitator maintained that antisemitism is a “systemic” prejudice which,
for reasons I’ve explained, I think is a misuse of the word.
During the course of the evening there was a panel
discussion in which four people were asked to relate a time when an antisemitic
experience “broke their heart.” One mentioned the 2002 antiracism convening in
Durban, South Africa, which became infamous for its vocal
expressions of antisemitism; another, the Tree of Life shooting in
Pittsburgh, where they were from. The experiences related by the other two were
more random, one-off microaggressions: one person had a coworker in Texas ask to
see her horns; the other told of a neighbor saying, while drunk, “the Jews own
everything.” As I say, it’s difficult– but important - to differentiate between
these two types of incidents; in this event, they were treated as the same.
And as far as I could tell, neither of the latter two people
tried to process the incidents with the offenders, or to use them as a teaching
opportunity. Yet they carry these incidents with them, in their kishkes, as I
say, for the rest of their lives. The whole exercise came across as
de-politicized, de-contextualized, and to be honest, as privileged white
DC-area Jews feeling sorry for themselves because one person one time said
something stupid to them. If that’s “systemic antisemitism,” then it’s not much
of a problem, however troubling the incident may be for the person involved.
The wariness that Jews feel over either expressed or
always-incipient antisemitism is easily manipulated by legacy communal
organizations that either a) want to justify their continued existence by
positioning themselves as stalwart defenders of the Jews or b) protect Israel and
rationalize its actions. Keeping Jewish trauma on a low boil seems to be the
main business of legacy organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the
American Jewish Committee, local community relations organizations, and the
Federation system, which I will henceforth refer to collectively as the Institutional
Jewish Community, or IJC.
All of which is to say, I’m hesitant to jump on the
“antisemitism is rampant” bandwagon that has developed over the past several weeks.
I have no idea if and how extensive any uptick in antisemitic incidents is
since the most recent violence in Israel/Palestine, and I don’t trust claims on
the subject from IJC groups. When I look at the list compiled by the “antisemitism
is rampant, and rising!” ADL, I see anti-Zionist actions treated as evidence of
antisemitism. An example I know about directly is that during a Palestinian
solidarity rally in Kansas City, an Israeli flag was torn down. That’s
vandalism, but it isn’t antisemitism. It was done as a protest against Israel,
not as an attack on Jews. Yet it’s on the ADL’s list.
People like me will say, “Anti-Zionism does not equal
antisemitism,” but the legacy institutions of the OJC not only don’t recognize
a distinction, they purposefully confuse the two, for the same two reasons: and
to keep Jews in a state of trepidation, and to delegitimate pro-Palestinian
activity by tarring it as antisemitism.
The focus of the co-counseling event was antisemitism on the
left; the right’s antisemitism was stipulated. This week there is a forum sponsored
by IJC groups in Kansas City about “antisemitism on the left and right.” But
this framing is not only wrong; it’s dangerous. It needs to be said, again and
again: Most manifestations of antisemitism, and almost all antisemitic violence,
come from the right. Jews are far more endangered by white supremacism than by
Palestinian solidarity. We want to hold our comrades to a higher standard, and
that’s appropriate, but we also need to know who our real enemies are.
One manifestation of antisemitism on the left that came up during
the con-counseling evening was the story a campus environmental group that
forced prospective Jewish participants to sign a statement attesting to their
non-support to Israel in order to participate. As an organizer, I don’t think there should be
a political litmus test for Jews to join actions on issues unrelated to
Israel/Palestine. I have people in my coalition who don’t agree on every issue,
and it’s not good politics to exclude someone from, say, Medicaid Expansion
work because they’re not as progressive as I am on LGBT issues.
Yet there are two problems with focusing on incidents like
this, or another one that received a lot of attention - the food truck owned by
an expat Israeli that was disinvited
by a food truck festival -- as evidence of
rampant antisemitism. The more important is that it centers Jewish suffering (or
“suffering”) and puts Palestinian voices once again onto the backest of burners.
OK, maybe making college students sign a statement is problematic. But a laser focus
on these single incidents keeps us from talking about the far, far worse
endemic violence of Israel’s actions toward its Palestinian population.
And the second problem is that Jews and Jewish institutions
like to pretend an innocence on this that is entirely unsupported. Virtually
Jewish institution in the country supports, either stridently or ”with regret”,
every one of Israel’s actions – blowing up civilian infrastructure,
arresting 7 year olds and all. Almost every synagogue in America has an Israeli
flag on its pulpit.
You can’t have it both ways. If Jewish organizations (speaking
as “the Jewish community”) take it upon themselves to defend Israel’s every
action, if every statement in support of Palestinian rights is taken as an
expression of antisemitism, then it can’t be surprising when Jews.
collectively, get blamed for Israel’s actions – which is then seen as
antisemitism. But that might be part of the goal: for American organizations,
to promote their own anti-antisemitic vigilance; for Israel, to “prove” that
the diaspora continues, as ever, to be a cesspool of Jew-hatred.
Israel’s standing on the international stage is low, not
because of antisemitism, but because of its own actions. “You’re singling
Israel out, Israel is the Jews amongst the nations” doesn’t work so well the 50th
time Israel blows up civilian infrastructure, sprays skunk water into a mosque,
shoots a nonviolent protestor, ethnically cleanses a neighborhood, or arrests a
child in the middle of the night. Actions have consequences, and sometimes
those consequences are that those who support the blowing-up are disinvited
from parties. That’s not antisemitism, even if it happens mostly to Jews.
We have reached the point where the mainstream focus on support
of Israel is at cross purposes with the safety of Jews in the diaspora. IJC or
Israeli leaders try to write non- or anti-Zionist Jews out
of the people. Meanwhile, Evangelical Christians support Israel (for
complicated reasons that we don’t need to go into here) and think that this not
only excuses them from their residual (or not-so-residual) antisemitism, but
that it puts them in a position to judge Jews that they feel are insufficiently
supportive of Israel – to accuse us of antisemitism or even to claim that we’re
not Jews at all. Rightist Christians can do anything up to and including white
nationalism and it will be a-ok
with Israel and significant elements of the IJC because they “support
Israel.” It sets up a “good Jews” (who support Israel) versus “bad Jews” dynamic
that undermines the real fight against antisemitism. It endangers Jews,
especially those who buck the communal position on Israel.
Antisemitism is not an ahistorical, supernatural hatred;
although it has its own particularities, it’s of a piece with anti-Asian
bigotry, homo- and transphobia, anti-Black racism and all the other hatreds we
see in the world, and in America. Like those, it’s utilized by those in power
to divide people and protect power. Like those, antisemitism is an unacceptable
form of ethnic hatred that needs to be addressed with education and
organization and, failing that, with political opposition or even self-defense.
It’s complicated because historical trauma makes Jews think it’s always around
the corner when others have trouble seeing it at all. But overemphasizing it is
psychologically unhealthy, keeping Jews manipulable to those offering “safety.”
And equating it with anti-Zionism makes political activity by or on behalf of
Palestinians – which is mostly what is meant by “antisemitism on the left” - into
a form of bigotry, and undermines social solidarity and the safety of Jews. It
makes support of Israel into a litmus test for worthiness to be part of civic
discourse at all, and that’s extremely dangerous. Conversations about antisemitism,
particularly amongst progressives, need to be aware of this dynamic and careful
not to play into the ploys of our opponents -- Jewish or not.
