How not to fight antisemitism

MARCHERS HOLD AN ISRAELI FLAG AS THEY WALK ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE TO SUPPORT THE NO HATE NO FEAR SOLIDARITY MARCH ON JANUARY 01, 2020. (PHOTO: IRA L. BLACK / GETTY IMAGES)

Antisemitism is an evil form of racism, bigotry, and discrimination. It has had a long and vicious history of hostility and enmity toward Jewish people in many countries and for many centuries. Some have traced much of this to false theologies and Christian hostility to Jews, who have been accused of responsibility for killing Jesus, and who have been reviled for failing to recognize him as their Messiah. That hostility has led the Christian West to pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, to the ravages of the Inquisition in Spain, and ultimately to the Holocaust in Germany. It was easy to scapegoat Jews for all the problems of society and to spin out nefarious conspiracy theories about their responsibility for having power and money to control and manipulate societies on a grand scale. It has also paradoxically led to the acceptance of Zionism as a response to provide safe refuge to Jews from persecution at the hands of an unrepentant West which refused to recognize the humanity of Jews and to grant them genuine equality and acceptance as citizens within the different countries where they have lived.

I, like many other Christians, have always held that antisemitism is a sin that should be forthrightly condemned and resisted. The recent wave of antisemitism, emboldened by Trumpism, Christian Nationalism, and the loosening of standards by Twitter and other social media outlets, is a serious cause of concern. It has led to violence and loss of life ( as we saw in the vicious attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue). Sadly, despite public repudiation, antisemitism is alive and well and hiding just under the surface in this country, and it needs to be forthrightly denounced and resisted.

Two ways how not to fight this anti-Jewish antisemitism come to mind, however.

The first is to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Those that do so do a disservice to the task of fighting antisemitism. Palestinians have a genuine gripe against Zionism and the massive violations of human rights and international law committed by an increasingly openly fascist and intolerant Israeli state.

Resistance to Zionism and seeking justice for Palestinians has nothing to do with antisemitism. More pointedly, the horrors of the holocaust do not give carte blanche to its victims to oppress another people. It does not in any way justify or excuse injustices committed by Israel, or a system that provides for Jewish privilege and supremacy at the expense of Palestinians. It is counterproductive to lump progressives whose policies on Israel/Palestine you do not like with the thugs and racists who shout “the Jews will not replace us.” Decent progressives who have a lifetime history of fighting racism are suddenly vilified as antisemites if they dare take up the Palestinian cause. Moroccan fans were labeled antisemitic by German TV for raising the Palestinian flag during the World Cup. Marc Lemont was fired from CNN as an antisemite for using the phrase “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea”.

There may be some vestiges of antisemitism on the Left, and it should be addressed and eliminated, but it is not the same as the toxic and violent antisemitism of the right. In addition, we see how blatant antisemites, from Hungary to the United States, seek to be exonerated for their own racism and antisemitism by showing support for Zionism and for Israel and its policies. Turning a blind eye to those, and giving them a free pass is not the way to fight antisemitism.

The second mistake that is often made while fighting antisemitism is to concentrate exclusively on antisemitism as a unique phenomenon and to separate it from the context of the struggle against all forms of bigotry and discrimination that plague our society. In particular, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism, as well as the continuing racism against Black and brown people, are equally serious issues that need to be addressed.

It is true that anti-Jewish bigotry has had a long and shameful history, but the Jewish community in the United States today is in a different position. It enjoys better access to the tools of fighting that bigotry and to the legal and public protections that most other vulnerable minorities do not have. The fight against bigotry and discrimination must be firmly based on principled equality and human dignity. It must be based on genuine equality in a pluralistic democratic society and cannot itself be allowed to be perceived as yet another aspect of privilege.

Without in any way minimizing the real danger of antisemitism, which continues to plague American society — bubbling under the surface as it is given legitimacy in certain circles — it cannot be fought as a singular and unique evil. The fight against anti Jewish bigotry must be combined with a robust fight against all forms of racism and hate speech and crimes. Jewish support for Palestinian rights by progressive Jews has done more to combat antisemitism in Arab and Moslem communities than any form of moralizing or education could have achieved.

Anything short of that smacks of hypocrisy. It not only challenges the credibility of the struggle against antisemitism but also risks reinforcing the very evil we are fighting. To succeed spectacularly in silencing and punishing expressions of anti-Jewish bigotry (without placing them in the context of fighting bigotry against all persecuted groups) risks reinforcing the tropes about devious Jewish “control,” as well as conspiracy theories about their outsized power over the press, the media, or the government. Otherwise, how do we explain that other forms of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism do not carry any cost or sanctions?

The proper response for antisemitic incidents, like an attack on a Jewish establishment, or cemeteries, for example, is to increase solidarity with other oppressed groups, without demanding that they support Israel or Zionism as a condition for cooperation. If antisemites march in a city, the proper response is an even bigger march by diverse groups, preferably ending in a mosque or a BLM-supporting community center asserting a unified front in ridiculing and stigmatizing bigotry and racism and asserting indeed that we are united in fighting all forms of racism.

Again, without in any way diminishing the threat of anti-Jewish bigotry, we must seek a response that affirms the human dignity of all and that condemns in equal terms racism and discrimination in all its forms. This should be relatively easy because those who hate Jews usually also hate Arabs, Moslems, Brown, and Black people as well.