I have always had a very visceral, deeply-rooted sense of injustice. I think we Jews do because we grew up learning about how much we have been hated throughout history, and while other religious school teachings consisted of bible studies, we Jews were taught about the Holocaust and how we must never forget. I learned Hebrew and I was Bat Mitzvahed, but that is not at the root of my Jewish identity. It is my culture and my intellectual leanings that make me Jewish. It is my mind and my sensibilities. It is my way of viewing the world. It is my compassion and empathy and my anger towards all injustice. It is my celebration of tradition and beauty. It is WHO I AM.
Most people, when asked who they are or where they come from will name their family’s origin based on their geographical location: German/English/African/French. Only the Jews will answer, “I’m Jewish.” Explaining that to people is hard, and exhausting. So, we stopped explaining and instead decided to fit in and assimilate. And assimilate we have. Apparently to our own detriment.
My generation of Jewish friends have been the pioneers for today’s social justice movement. We were proud feminists. We built shanty towns on our Ivy League campuses and protested apartheid in Africa, even if we didn’t know what it meant (ironic!). We supported our gay friends in the right to be themselves and marry. We surrounded our Muslim brothers and sisters with love after 9/11. We jumped to the aid of every other group of people who were being held back because of prejudice and race.
What we didn’t do was protect our own. We didn’t grow up with much anti-semitism despite our parents’ warnings, and we seemed to be okay in America. The White Supremacists who lynched Blacks and killed Jews were a small fraction of Americans who most likely didn’t live among us as long as we stayed in the progressive cities. And if ever the White Supremacists marched the streets, or voiced their hate, our lawmakers and people in positions of authority and morality came to our defense.
This is the world I grew up in.
This is not the world I am getting old in.
The day after the video of George Floyd’s brutal murder surfaced, we, my Jewish friends at the helm, missed work to march in the streets maskless during Covid, gave I don’t know how much money to BLM, changed our FB images to black squares. We were expected to do all of this to show our solidarity with our Black brethren. And there was no question we would. But something, even then, was gnawing at me. BLM had made a statement awhile back against Israel. They had called for divestment from Israel because of its status as an “apartheid” nation. What? Why would BLM even take a stance on the Jewish people? How is that any of their business? Also, this is ignorant and untrue, and why on earth are all my Jewish friends supporting them? I asked these questions.
My Jewish friends answered that they didn’t know about any of that, and that it simply didn’t matter right now. They didn’t want to hear it. Those who did know said we needed to put that aside and rise above it to protect the Black people in America from racism and terror. It didn’t matter that an organization that we were supporting hates Israel and, in turn, the Jews, and would never march alongside us for our rights to exist. We were expected to put that aside. I guess “they” needed “us” more than we needed them.
My husband knew. He explained to me what the roots of BLM were and that they went much deeper than protecting Black lives. I said he was being ridiculous and, quote, everyone supports BLM, unquote. I was being naïve and jumping on the social justice bandwagon. But it gnawed at me. Enough so that instead of giving my money to BLM, I gave it to my Black friend and told her to do whatever she wanted with the money. I understood - ne, felt! - how the Black community was suffering and I wanted to show my support. But BLM was not, for me, the way to do it.
I was somewhat vindicated a year or so later when we discovered that our money was going to luxurious houses for the founders rather than to the cause. So why does BLM continue to have such a powerful voice, I ask myself? That’s simple. Because who in their right mind is going to disagree with a cause named “Black Lives Matter?”
Following George Floyd’s murder, ideologies that are not new, but have been lying dormant under the surface, emerged. Kendi’s book became a hit and white people jumped on the book club bandwagon to become anti-racists and hold their white skin accountable for the problems of the oppressed. Did anyone ever ask themselves who Kendi is? Where these ideas emerged from? Whether they are correct? Whether they are historically accurate? The answer is no. Because if we did, we would see that they are flawed. They are based on assumptions and radical ideas that were formed as an ideologic viewpoint. That means, they were someone’s opinion. Ideologies are just that. They are opinions that serve the purpose of being debated in universities and cocktail parties. They are not necessarily grounded in fact or historical truths to then be formed into policy and practice. But alas, the anti-racist movement was born and has become policy and practice in many, most, corporations.
Now, this ideology, I think because it has an indisputable name – Anti-Racism - is irrefutable. But now, we are no longer judged by our actions of support. Now, we are judged by the ideas we read about and by the language we use. Now, we are judged by, wait, the color of our skin.
In summary, here’s the anti-racist creed. Those who are oppressed have brown skin. Those who are the oppressors have white skin. Society has been run by white-skinned people from time immemorial, and therefore, colonialism exists. Colonialism no longer means what the definition says, it means brown skinned people are oppressed by white skinned people. In conclusion, all white people need to fix themselves and take ownership of their responsibility for all people of color being oppressed.
I don’t call myself white, and I sure as hell am not a white supremacist, so I asked myself in 2020, would my BLM supporting friends march in the streets for the Jews? Would they come to my aid against anti-Semitism? Would they hide me? Probably not. Do I care? Do I need them to support me? The Jews are safe from anti-Semitism. No one’s gonna come after us.
Then anti-racism grew into this weight of personal responsibility to take care of and protect all “marginalized” people. I guess the logic goes something like this. I must fight for your beliefs, not just support them. I must believe everything you believe. If I don’t, I’m your enemy.
Here’s what I support. I support every individual’s right to be whomever they want to be and to live in a world where they have the same rights as every other person. Period. If you have me as a friend, I’m with you. I will die on your cross. But I will not disavow my beliefs and what I know to be true to support your cause. I will not jump on the bandwagon with an ideology that has no basis in historical fact, and I will not use words to define myself that don’t apply or to which I have no definition that makes sense. I am a good person, I’m not a racist, I’m not a Terf, I’m not homophobic. I care for people for whom I have affection and love. It is not my job to nurse the feelings of every human being on the planet. It is my job to protect the people I care about. And it is certainly not my job to protect and care for people who, ultimately, want me dead.
So, I promised to connect the dots. Here you go.
In 2023 in America, being a good person means being a liberal democrat.
Being a liberal, democrat means you believe in all the teachings of trans rights, anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion programming and providing safe spaces for anyone who isn’t white and/or heterosexual.
Being anti-racist means you believe that all people of color are oppressed by white society and therefore we need to dismantle all of our institutions and rebuild them with people of color at the helm. And, we need to acknowledge that our whiteness is the problem.
The Palestinian people are an oppressed dark-skinned people. By whom? The Jews in Israel. So Israel must be an apartheid nation.
Now, please re-read this and see how absurd it is in so many ignorant, undeserving and hateful ways. A movement based on falsehoods and big voices has managed convince all of us who consider ourselves good people that the Jews are to be vilified and hated and that we are the cause of all the bad in the world.
I live in a world of people who, in order to be "good," subscribe to the movements that they are told to subscribe to. Anti-racism is being taught to them in the curriculum of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Jewish institutions wear their multi-cultural/anti-racist badges all over their buildings and websites. They sell the books in their bookstores and host book clubs. They host dinners for their white friends so they can all learn about how bad they are. They can no longer call themselves Jewish institutions without a caveat, “we are multi-cultural.”
When, underlying this entire ideology is a vein of anti-Semitism. October 7th changed everything for me. I don’t know how to be in the world anymore. At a time when Facebook profiles should have been outlined by Jewish stars, and we should be marching in the streets against terrorism and for the Jewish victims, it has gone in the opposite direction. That makes me so angry. SO angry! BUT, guess what? Not angry enough that I will say bad things about or hurt anyone else. Even if you think I’m a racist, Terf, white supremacist, Jew.
Safe spaces are created everywhere so that LGBTQ and BIPOC people can be safe from right-wing words that might hurt their feelings. Words are violence, etc. etc. Really? Saying “Death to the Jews” isn’t? Israel was created so that Jews would have a safe space. So now, I ask you, where is our safe space?
If you are misinformed and jumping on the “Israel is an apartheid nation” bandwagon, here’s a quick tutorial. Israel is a recognized nation formed for the Jewish people when they had nowhere safe to go in the world. They didn’t rape and pillage the Palestinians who were there. The Palestinians were displaced, perhaps unfairly, but the Jews didn’t kick them out violently, and over the years, the Jews have fought for Arab rights. There are also some radical, extremist Jews living in Israel who don’t represent the majority. Israel doesn’t control the Gaza strip. In the name of a two-state solution and a move toward peace, the Israelis GAVE THE PALESTINIANS that land in 2005, and the Palestinians subsequently voted Hamas in as their ruling government. And needless to say, no peace was found.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Like ISIS. Remember ISIS? Hamas rapes and pillages Jews. They kill their own and call them martyrs. So ask yourselves, why, when Israel is at war with Hamas do you expect Israel to save the Palestinians? Why don’t the Arab nations save their own? Why doesn’t Hamas protect them? I’ll tell you why. Because the Arab nations want nothing to do with Hamas and their Palestinian victims either. Israel provides resources to the region because Hamas doesn’t. Period. Why, now, is Israel expected to provide those resources to save the Palestinians from the destruction that Hamas has caused in the first place? Why should Israel send resources that will be intercepted and used to kill their people?
Go ahead! Fight for Palestinian rights! The Palestinian people are oppressed by a “government” that hates democracy, hates the west, hates women, hates LGBTQ people, hates African Americans. You want to defend them? Go ahead! Fight against terrorism! But leave the Jews out of it. Place blame on those who deserve blame, and you can still fight for justice and Palestinian liberation. Those of you who speak up for justice and for what is right are so deafeningly silent right now it’s ear-splitting.
Never again? Yeah, right.
Your perspective is refreshing and insightful.