Anti-semitism thread: onwards from 2023

My sister left high school (in the Philly burbs) early because, among other things, someone scratched a swastika into her locker. Pretty confident the person doing it knew what they were doing, even if they weren't explicitly a Nazi or whatever.

Imagine the effect of all these inputs on children.

There was a really long radio piece (or podcast?) about the woman that discovered implicit bias, at least from an academic vantage. It began with her assisting another researcher in a memory study about finding familiar or famous sounding names in the phone book or something, and iirc she learned that male names were more likely to be remembered or identified as "famous" than female names. Something like that. Anyway, once she pursued her new field of research she made all sorts of surprising discoveries, including the revelation that while she expected children to display implicit bias less than adults (innocent, blank slate, etc.) that was often very much not the case, revealing the impact environment (among other factors) has on even young kids when it comes to bias. Illuminating.

I thought the New Yorker interview (David Feldman, the director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, at Birkbeck College, University of London) I posted was full of interesting observations. Like:

I have written about antisemitism as a reservoir in the culture, something there to be drawn on. And this is a reservoir which has built up over centuries, even over millennia. There are three key elements in this: one is the idea that Judaism has been superseded by Christianity (the notion that Jews have a particularistic and narrow morality is one consequence of that idea); second, the idea that Jews are forever conspiratorial and up to something against the common good; and, third, the connection of Jews with money. These ideas have been repurposed over centuries in multiple political contexts. And we see them repurposed in some of the antisemitic attacks on Israel.

One thing shown by multiple opinion surveys in the United States, Germany, and in the U.K. and elsewhere, is that the percentage of committed ideological antisemites is relatively small, but the diffusion of negative stereotypes and narratives about Jews through the culture is much higher and much wider. At certain moments, people draw on these, especially at political flash points when these ideas appear to be useful, and when they appear to explain something. Yes, there are antisemites, sort of ideologically committed individuals and groups who have an antisemitic world view, but much more commonplace are individuals who draw on the well of antisemitism within the culture. And that’s what we see in antisemitism around Israel.

Tied in with the second is probably linking anyone Jewish to Israel and its policies, and the implicit suggestion that they support those policies. There is a Jewish deli in West Hollywood which was tagged with anti-israel graffiti, pro-palestinian slogans, etc. perhaps not anti-semitic in another context but in that context it feels quite obviously to be the case.

Getting more into the Jews vs "Zionists" thing, one popular strain of thought that comes up a lot in the context of Palestine is that European Jews are not "real Jews" - they are Khazars or some other similar theory. This is again a good example of the messiness of anti-semitism vs anti-zionism. Part of the reason this theory is so popular is that it is seen as undermining the idea that "Zionists" have any actual historical connection to Israel. But it also bleeds into the idea that European Jews are "not real Jews" but rather evil "zionists."

I thought the New Yorker interview (David Feldman, the director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, at Birkbeck College, University of London) I posted was full of interesting observations.

Agreed. Although Feldman didn't answer some of Chotiner's questions in less than 30 seconds or in the form of a haiku, he seems to have kept a sense of humor.

European Jews are not "real Jews" - they are Khazars or some other similar theory

Ah! But what about all those Lost Tribes of Israel? Chances are that the Khazars were just Jews who got lost for a while and then suddenly remembered about that covenant thing. Makes as much sense as the "not real Jews" theory.

There’s plenty of historical record and genetic evidence of ancient Israelite migration to Europe, as well as slaves taken by Romans. It’s not some great mystery why there are Jews in Europe.

I dug into that Khazars thing recently. Saw it mentioned in the context of the 10 Myths about Israel book and got curious. Read a bit more about the source of it, and there's this ironic thing that it's from somebody trying to use that fact to COUNTER semitism. Regardless, I think it's been debunked by DNA testing. Ashkenazi jews (of which I am one) share enough DNA with mizrahi and sephardi jews and not with "khazars". Personally I feel about as much connection to the holy land as I do to the eastern europe from which my great-great grandparents fled, which is very little, and mostly heritage-wise feel connected to the tri-state area, so that's my homeland.

The history of cranks who theorize what happened to the Lost Tribes of Israel is both voluminous and foolish, occupying the same precincts as cranks who seek a perpetual motion machine. Ashkenazi Jews are as Jewish as any other Jews. Anyone who says different is just huffing moonbeams.

the khazar thing is something I've only ever seen from neo-nazis and conspiracy theorists if it has been adopted more broadly that's really unfortunate

My family are a mix of Sephardis and Ashkenazis and Dutch Catholics and Muslim (peace is possible!) although everyone is non-practicing. My homeland is the entire Northwest branch of the Northern Line.

I was at a family wedding this weekend and dreaded the inevitable Israeli national anthem section. Pleasingly it was accompanied by a tentative speech with a lot of qualifiers.

I was at a family wedding this weekend and dreaded the inevitable Israeli national anthem section.

emi, is that a common thing?

Israel never qualifying for international football tournaments (altho they've a chance of making next summer's euros, as if that wasn't shaping up to be moody enough) means I've never heard the anthem. Any good, or a dreadful dirge like most?

Scotland have played Israel about 10 times in the last 4 years so I've almost certainly heard it.

The Israeli national anthem is iirc pretty sad (surprise). Fun fact: it apparently did not officially become the national anthem until November 2004.

it’s a really beautiful song

Hatikvah (the Israel anthem) is a thing of beauty but I can't remember ever hearing it at a wedding

It's interesting to me that the lyrics speak of being a free people in Zion in the future. To me that's the quintessential Jewish idea of Zion - something that will come one day.

So, I was just talking to my current high school kid, who has been complaining about the MENA group at school. Her first complaint is that it's an explicitly activist pro-Palestinian group despite being billed as a more neutral sounding "safe space for students to create community around sharing and educating the OPRF student body on Middle Eastern/North African culture," and yet the Jewish Student Connection (a social club that she participates in) is considered "non-school affiliated" while the MENA group *is* officially school affiliated.

(I don't really know the difference myself, tbh; maybe it means that one gets money and the other doesn't? It could also be because the Jewish Student Connection is openly affiliated with a religion, though it has always included plenty of non-Jews.)

The second is that in the running for a MENA fundraiser shirt is stuff like a stylized depiction of a bulldozer busting through a fence, which is pretty explicitly celebrating Hamas. The third is that this is the timeline they post on their Instagram account:

https://sites.google.com/student.oprfhs.org/advocacyforpalestinianrights/history?authuser=0

Which of course is their prerogative, but it conveniently minimizes the Holocaust and other sort of important factors of the Israel story (like, for example, any mention of the 1948 war, basically summed up as "Zionist forces invade Palestinian territory and capture much more land than was allocated to them by the Plan of Partition"). And needless to say, it falls pretty short when it comes to the current situation:

On October 7th, as the civilians in Gaza continue to be bombarded by Israeli attacks in the "open-air prison" enclosing them, Hamas launched an organized airstrike against Israel.

Hamas sets 25 interspersed explosions to break out of the Gaza blockade that has denied them movement, access to schools, social services, fertile farmland, and hospitals since 2002.

To call that a gross simplification is an understatement, imo, though it is pretty gross.

Yeah, there's a lot of inaccuracy on that page, and that one seems particularly bad.

It's quite common to hear the national anthem at weddings etc. in London, IME. It's a beautiful melody! I remember arguing with my parents, I didn't want it to be played at my barmitzvah (not for political reasons, but because I thought it would be embarassing.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHy29bn4zeE

Hatikvah slaps

It's all so fucked up. According to reporting, Turkish student at UMass Amherst punches and kicks a Jewish student carrying an Israeli flag. Attacking student faces expulsion and multiple criminal charges. Comment sections full of angry "Why is antisemitism allowed and even encouraged on campuses, that student should be expelled and face criminal charges!"

Love how objective history is antisemitic now

I think treating what Hamas did as a legit military response is a bit biased

I think destroying a border wall unjustly keeping people from land that is as much theirs as anyone else’s is an act of liberation, not an act of terror.

I'm not sure people are focusing on the property damage.

And then what happened on October 7 after they came through the wall

yeah idk if the anti-semitism thread is the place to litigate this

The second is that in the running for a MENA fundraiser shirt is stuff like a stylized depiction of a bulldozer busting through a fence, which is pretty explicitly celebrating Hamas.

That's extremely disturbing. Is there a faculty advisor for this group?

Love how objective history is antisemitic now

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, November 8, 2023 8:52 AM bookmarkflaglink

I think destroying a border wall unjustly keeping people from land that is as much theirs as anyone else’s is an act of liberation, not an act of terror.

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, November 8, 2023 9:41 AM bookmarkflaglink

We get it. You're not exactly subtle.

w/r/t Paul Kessler's death the other day, that was about ten minutes up the road from me. There's a sizable jewish/israeli community, and i suppose a palestinian protest there would be expected to draw a counter-protest if only because it's very possible that many residents there know/knew people who were directly affected by the Hamas attack, and this was the unfortunate result.

it should be noted that in one of the videos i briefly saw it did look like a palestinian protestor was trying to help him as he was on the ground (i don't believe it was the one who allegedly struck him or pushed him.) while i hate what happened for virtually every reason imaginable and for both sides, i also hope that's not something (if what i saw was accurate) that would go unnoticed, how even in the heat of this moment there was humanity.

Let's not pretend the people who broke through the fence did it to kiss the ground of their ancestors. Start your own thread if you want that poetic fantasy.

table, you are all but saying explicitly that Hamas' murderous rampage is acceptable. I don't know if you realize this is how it comes across.

Not quite sure what to make of the two Moldovans arrested in Paris for stars of David graffiti being investigated for ties to Russia. "Putin made me do it" seems a bit weird to offer up straightaway, but the French authorities appear to be taking it seriously

That's extremely disturbing. Is there a faculty advisor for this group?

Yeah, but I don't know how neutral either of them are. I brought it to the attention of the Superintendent and our Director of Equity and Student Success after running it by our Rabbi, who has a kid at the school, too, and is a super chill dude but who nonetheless responded, when I apologized for bothering him with something so relatively small scale, that "I am up to my neck in what is going on at the high school and am currently editing a letter. The situation is bad and I think being made worse."

Here's the t-shirt in question, fwiw:
https://i.imgur.com/tjsS3yI.png

It's literally this image of Hamas in action:
https://media13.s-nbcnews.com/i/mpx/2704722219/2023_10/f_mo_lon_gazaborder_231007-zhzpb1.jpg

yeaaaaahhhh....not good

Local version:
In the speech, Knight recounts a Sept. 2021 prison break by six people from a maximum security prison in the occupied West Bank. Israel, Reuters reports in a story matching Knight's description, said the men were convicted of or suspected of planning attacks on Israeli civilians but Knight called them political prisoners.

"This was a feat of determination and ingenuity only eclipsed — only eclipsed — by the amazing, brilliant offensive waged on Oct. 7," Knight said to cheers.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jewish-group-calls-for-langara-instructor-to-be-fired-over-speech-at-pro-palestinian-rally-1.7018736

don't really think she should be fired but this shit is just so dumb

I'think in any large crowd of demonstration there will be people who say or display dubious things, and it isn't fair to criticise a whole crowd for the actions of a few individuals, but at the same time I didn't expect people to be cheering. I know group dynamics play a role and people are primed to cheer regardless of what is said, and we don't necessarily now how many people were cheering but thats still somewhat surprising as I in US/Canada at least I was under impression pro Hamas rhetoric was much less in play than in Germany or Belgium

A lot of stuff in this NYT article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/us/antisemitic-speech-palestine-israel-protests.html

“There was an active campaign on campus of saying that if you go to Hillel, you’re racist,” said Sammy Tweedy, a Jewish student from Chicago, who described himself as sympathetic to both sides in the conflict.

Mr. Tweedy said he began to feel particularly ostracized after attending a Birthright trip to Israel in 2020. “I did not have friends anymore,” he said. “And I would hear that people had heard I was a fascist or a Nazi or a racist. And I was like, ‘Where is this coming from?’”

The problems accelerated when the war broke out; he was studying in Tel Aviv. He shared Instagram screenshots with The New York Times in which students went so far as to tell him, “The blood of Gaza is on your hands.”

In October, the local chapter of Hillel wrote a letter to the college’s leadership threatening a federal complaint if it did not take steps to rectify “persistent and pervasive antisemitism.”

Mr. Tweedy, who said his complaints to the university had not been addressed, has decided to finish his degree in a study-abroad program.

“I have a pact with myself that I will never, ever step a single foot on their campus again,” he said.

The demand for ideological conformity with the Palestinian cause — as a condition of participating in other aspects of campus life — is a form of antisemitism, said Bethany Slater, executive director of the Hillel chapter of the Claremont Colleges in California.

Sarah Lawrence College

That's Jeff Tweedy's son, btw.

I thought this was a good, useful quote:

“Antisemitism isn’t primarily about hurting or killing Jews, and it’s not based on some theory of racial inferiority (or superiority),” he wrote. “Instead, antisemitism is a fear, and hatred, of Jewish power — expressed primarily as a readiness to believe that Jews, when organized and acting together on large scales, are dangerous, the very essence of evil.”

Jeff Tweedy is Jewish?

He converted. It's actually a pretty sweet story:

“Sammy, our younger son, was struggling quite a bit with the (bar mitzvah) process, and kind of begging to not to be forced to go to Hebrew school,” Tweedy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But it was important to us, and important to his mother.”

So Tweedy presented a heartwarming idea to the head rabbi of the family’s synagogue, the Reform Congregation Emanuel on Chicago’s North Side, to “alleviate some of (Sammy’s) kvetching”: Tweedy would go to temple each week with Sammy, and study to convert to Judaism while Sammy was working on his Torah portion.

“(I)t seemed to work. He ended up getting bar mitzvahed and I ended up converting,” Tweedy said.

Rabbi Michael Zedek performed the conversion, but during the process, Tweedy got to know Rabbi Herman Schaalman, who was his synagogue’s rabbi emeritus and continued to assist with ceremonies into his 90s.

“He spoke at Spencer’s Bar Mitzvah, and we had had lots of contact with him at our temple, before he retired and even after he retired he spent a lot of time there,” Tweedy said. “So he played a role in the kids’ interest in Judaism and I’m a deep admirer of his theology.”

Schaalman, who passed away at the age of 100 in 2017, was a legendary figure in the Reform movement. A native of Munich, Germany, he was one of five rabbis Leo Baeck brought to the U.S. in 1935 to study at Hebrew Union College. A leader in the movement for much of the 20th century, Schaalman went public towards the end of his life about having changed the ways he felt about his faith, which included questioning his belief in God.

“I was really moved by that. A lot of people’s views … on religion and things like that tend to calcify as people get older,” Tweedy said of Schaalman. “And his thinking was so nimble right up until the end that it allowed him to basically come up with a theology where it wasn’t pessimistic, it was more like ‘we don’t need a lot of (God) to be good,’ and I thought that was kind of an inspiring message for a world that’s trying to integrate religious beliefs and secular beliefs.”

The conversion process also required Tweedy to partake in a certain painful traditional ritual. He didn’t go over his circumcision story again in detail, but as he told NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” show last year, it involved a storage closet at his temple, a black operating bag and a mohel who afterwards told him that his sons were big fans.

Tweedy described the synagogue as a place where he’s simply known as “the father of Spencer and Sammy,” not a celebrity.

“You eventually blend in as a parent, and a citizen,” Tweedy said of the synagogue. “My experience with the temple, I think, has been pretty typical of most people’s. It’s just another wonderful group of supportive people.”

Tweedy sang at both of his sons’ bar mitzvahs, and he even brought along Mavis Staples, with whom he had been collaborating at the time, to sing at his younger son’s ceremony. He said the “pretty liberal” Reform environment leaves plenty of room for music (especially folk music) to be integrated into prayer. The synagogue also boasts a “semi-professional” klezmer group called the Ham-It-Up Band.

I think Tweedy has also said, essentially, that if his family was forced onto the trains again, he'd want to be with them, so he might as well be Jewish.

Btw, starting to see more clips of explicitly anti-Semitic hate speech at rallies, especially the stuff in Montreal.

Can you elaborate on that? There's a lot of misinformation being spread about what happened at Concordia yesterday

Never mind, I think I know what you're referring to

I saw a clip of somebody calling somebody a kike, and I saw a clip of a professor telling somebody to go back to Poland, you whore.

I don't know anything about the latter clip, do you have a link or can you direct me in some way?

I've seen the former, and I think it's impossible to know whether they're saying that word or "cunt," which is what the student has claimed.

got to admit, my benefit of the doubt reserves are pretty low right now.

Can't paste the link right now, but I saw it on one of those anti-Semitism aggregate accounts.

personally I believe anti-semitism is primarily about killing or hurting Jews