Friday Dispatch: Denouncing Jew Hatred

A not fun but necessary topic

Friday greetings,

Buckle up because today I am writing about Jew hatred. Honestly, I’d rather be writing about thrift-store shopping with my mom and the fact that my dad is learning how to knit and how the December light is so soft and purple-y. But while this topic isn’t fun, it is necessary.

Anti-Zionism is fueling and justifying violence against Jews all over the world.

It may be a waste of time to try to get through to those who have simplistically made up their minds (Israel = bad). I suppose I am writing more for people who may not be so involved one way or the other, always hopelessly hopeful that it's worthwhile to name things, to invite learning and awareness. Not to mention my fellow Jews – we know what we’re experiencing, and so many of us feel hoarse from trying to get the world’s attention. So that's what brings me here.

First some basic facts: Approximately half of the world's Jewish population lives in Israel. Many Israeli Jews have been protesting their current government for years. The overwhelming majority of the other half, Jews living in diaspora, feel a deep, if for many complicated, relationship with Israel, the state and the land itself. (If we weren't indigenous to this place, it wouldn't be called "diaspora.")

A 2021 Pew Research Study found that 82% of Jews consider Israel “essential” or “important” to what being Jewish means to them. When something is essential or important to us, I would like to believe that caring deeply means we want to protect it, and also that we hold it responsible for living up to, or at least moving in the direction of, its deepest ideals and highest aspirations.

(I am so struck, again and again, by the parallels between the U.S. and Israel as both countries experience wrenching moves rightward. As Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, said in a recent episode of the podcast, For Heaven’s Sake, “[This is] a troubling time for Israel. A troubling time for lovers of Israel.”)

One of the reasons it galls me when non-Jewish anti-Zionists espouse only the views of and highlight only events, writings, and statements featuring Jewish anti-Zionists is this:

All over the world, Jews are actively engaging in deep, painful, thoughtful, challenging, compassionate, spiritual, and lived conversations about Israel, about the war, about humanity, about self-defense, about morality and ethics, about accountability, about trauma, about pride, about power, about responsibility, about history, about family, about extremism, about hope, about grief, about the past, and about the future.

Within these conversations, there is stunning diversity of thought as well as respect for 3 Ds I will call debate, dialogue, and discussion.

Contrast these with the 3 Ds former Soviet dissident Natan Sharasky created to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism: Demonization, double standards, and delegitimization.

Less than a week after two masked people torched Adass Israel, a prominent synagogue in Melbourne, Rabbi Abraham Cooper issued this letter to Australia's ambassador to the U.S. stating, in part, "The Simon Wiesenthal Center is placing a travel advisory on Australia for Jews the world over considering travel to your country to exercise extreme caution. We are not convinced that Jews are safe as the authorities have failed to take necessary measures to protect Jewish communities from increasingly belligerent and violent targeting by Islamists and other extremists.”

A few days ago, I heard from a young Israeli man I befriended at a protest in front of the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem last summer. He is a graduate student studying architecture and living in Europe, currently Milan. When we first met, he shared that he’d been turned away from campus events due to being Israeli. I remember him saying, “I don’t even believe in nationalities.” Watching him that night reunite with friends, other 20-somethings, all holding up photos of Hersh and other hostages – 60 of whom are reportedly still alive – was beyond tender. It has been really meaningful to stay in touch.

In one of the photos he sent on WhatsApp this week, he is holding up a sticker with a red circle and line through the Israel flag. Above it, in all caps: "BE HUMAN". Below: "HATE ISRAEL".

“Wow, I didn’t realize being human came with a hate manual! Is there a chapter on compassion, or did they skip that part?”

Like my young friend, the majority of Jews I know support Palestinian self-determination. If only the Free Palestine movement would extend the same to Jews and our right to self-determination in our land of origin.

As many have written, no one is going anywhere.

The sad truth is that the anti-Zionist movement is not leading to Palestinian liberation as much as it’s stoking anti-Jewish and anti-Western sentiments. Anti-Jewish hatred – with anti-Israel sentiment as its rocket fuel – is becoming more and more normalized. We must not look away.

I’m chilled by watching the far right wield antisemitism to further its authoritarian aims, while the far left (and if you have ever marched at a protest or shared a post that suggests "globalizing the intifada," this includes you) suggests that Zionists are using antisemitism as a shield and justification for oppression. This is no doubt true some of the time.

The problem is the lack of discernment.

Blanket claims rarely hold up, but sadly, they have a lot of traction these days as it’s popular to bash Israel without nuance. One thing that sometimes silences me is that speaking out about this seems to have relegated itself largely to the right. Ugh. What’s a liberal Jew to do??!

Meanwhile, antisemitism itself is occurring in ways big and small, explicit and insidious. When Jewish professors are targeted and threatened, when Jewish writers are ostracized, when synagogues are firebombed, when Israeli-owned businesses and eateries are vandalized, when Jewish students are intimidated and attacked, I feel certain (and I do not claim anything in the neighborhood of certainty lightly) that the perpetrators aren't exactly being thoughtful about... well, anything.

“These has been the wildest ones I have seen! Btw they are all in my university campus which makes it more upsetting, that these are students my age doing them!”

To oppose Israel's government – as distinct from contributing to Jew hatred – is to use clear, targeted language, not lazy calls for boycotting or condemning an entire nation, and by extension, an entire people.

This one I had to fix!!
עומדים ביחד [Standing Together] is the leftist movement( standing together) which I share most of my politics with :)

To be human is to have the courage to confront antisemitism in its many guises. To be human is to acknowledge the brutality of war and all of its victims – those in Gaza, those in Israel, and those in the diaspora who are profoundly connected to the Middle East. To be human is to do the work of learning about Zionism in all of its complexity. To be human is wrestle with complexity, not avoid it. To be human is to insist that Jews, no matter where we live or what we believe, deserve safety and compassion.

Finally, I offer a few additional “Ds” for us to practice: Daring to speak up, dispelling misinformation, and denouncing Jew hatred – along with hatred of all kinds.

Shabbat Shalom and love,

Jena

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