Is Antisemitism harder or easier to be taught. Unless it's visibly identifiable by clothes and / or jewelry (not unlike a POC skin or identifying as female), it's not as easy to identify a Jew.
It requires visual aids like bombs and blood and babies for people to throw their weight behind the idea.
Yeah, I’ve run into one or two “but x’s.” The whole situation is very difficult to talk about in an honest & productive way in the US, because our experience w/ antisemitism is not as pervasive or longstanding as it has been in most of Europe, for instance.
So I think that much of the time people stateside just don’t know when they’re engaging in it. I’ve lived in Europe & monitored the far right for long enough that I’ve become better than most at spotting the dodgy rhetoric, but there is still plenty that goes over my
Plus, there are those saying that antisemitism is hate towards all Semites, not just Jews, ignoring the creation & definition of the word to argue about language groups/semantics, insisting on the hyphenated version of the word, to diminish or erase anything they say that could be hate towards Jews.
I saw a comment on mastodon a couple days ago from a Jewish journalist who said that a lot of people reach for tools to criticize Israel and/or support Palestine, and the tools that end up in their hands are antisemitic. I think that really does happen a lot.
It’s an extremely good metaphor! Another jewish journalist i heard this week pointed out that Jews “speak antisemitism” in ways us gentiles do not, so to put that together: we’re not as good at perceiving when the tool I’m our hands is actually antisemitic.
Always think abt a friend's Jewish husband. They visited Berlin ~20 yrs ago, and she was a lot more impressed by the radical lefty squatters, where he was spotting a lot of implicit/underlying anti-Semitism (tbc, he's an old school lefty Jew, but a clear-eyed one).
I think that's right. It does seem like Israel and it's supporters play into that sometimes by implying an intrinsic connection between Israel (the state) and all Jews.
I have Jewish friends who point this out, that equating all Jews with what Israel’s government is doing is quite similar to calling diaspora Jews rootless and perpetual foreigners, very common antisemitic accusations: not real Americans, not real Russians, not real Germans.
That being said, I get (to the extent I’m able) just how big a deal it is to have a whole country that they can never be expelled from, where there are no pogroms, where they don’t need a bag packed at all times just in case the gentiles don’t go all swivel-eyed.
If you state (or imply) that diaspora Jews are in any way responsible for the actions of the Israeli state government's actions (or have any more obligation to respond to those actions than a non-Israeli non-Jew), then you have crossed the line into antisemitism.
That is the key! Thinking that Jews are all homogenous and that we are Israel is nonsense. Israel doesn’t care about what Jews worldwide even think. It is a country and we are not part of it. We don’t vote, we aren’t considered in their actions.
No, it isn’t wrong. But for people to then go on and say things about “Jews” after saying this (and more) about what Israel is doing is the part that veers into antisemitism.
All true! The concern I'm seeing—and it is a concern, that’s the word—is leftist gentiles participating in pro-Palestine activism not knowing they’re using antisemitic tools bc they don’t know better. Intentionally or not, it makes Jews less safe.
Because us non-Jews haven’t been trained to recognize antisemitism with anywhere near the same acuity. That’s emphatically not meant as an excuse. Just an explanation.
They're not saying it's fine. They're wringing their hands and knitting their brow and saying that it's shameful -- but refusing to do anything about it.
They're not saying it's fine, they're saying it's overblown/this specific statement isn't antisemitic, this person actually is only against Zionism, etc
Anyway you can't trust anything those Zionists say, they lie as easy as breathing because all they care about is US money... (/sarcasm, of course)
I have actually had people who were very active in leftist political groups tell me it was fine for any number of extremely antisemitic reasons - often related to the concept that Jews control money and governments or based on their opinion of Zionism.
Rarely is any of this based on facts and the basis for the anti-Semitism is often very similar to the beliefs that are also found on the right. Sometimes it is expressed with subtlety but not always.
What can be done about it? I’m asking for real. I’ve been calling out suspect talking points where I find them, but I know that’s a drop in the bucket.
People cut ties with Jewish orgs bc "Zionism" even if those Jewish orgs don't work on Israel, & don't check/protest non-Jewish orgs in coalitions who DO have positions that are more "Zionist". There are ways people talk ruling class that ping antisemitic stereotypes hard--"landlords."
It's "landlords" as a concept vs. who they really are. Same way "Globalists" includes very few actual jews but the term is used as a stand in for jews.
Antisemitism is everywhere just as patriarchy is everywhere and antiblackness is everywhere and transphobia is everywhere and ableism is everywhere. And that's an interesting analogy... .
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It requires visual aids like bombs and blood and babies for people to throw their weight behind the idea.
Like if I say Israel abuses human rights, is that wrong in any way?
I would also say the people of Israel as a democracy bear some responsibility as they vote for their government.
Nothing to do with theism, or heritage or culture, just nation.
No, it isn’t wrong. But for people to then go on and say things about “Jews” after saying this (and more) about what Israel is doing is the part that veers into antisemitism.
But what kind of person does that?
Xenophobia is a deplorable state of mind.
Anyway you can't trust anything those Zionists say, they lie as easy as breathing because all they care about is US money... (/sarcasm, of course)
it def has to be combatted more but no one becomes antisemitic after joining a leftist org (unless they are grifters)
Wait, eight. The last guy I think is Hindu.
Of course, this is MN, so ymmv
Ageism is the only bias that remains perfectly acceptable among all segments of society.