Antisemitism: what it is and how to end it
Antisemitism is prejudice against Jewish people, on this much we can agree. Attempting to characterize it any further lands us in a fierce debate. It’s on the rise, but it’s so debated that even Jews are questioning by how much. This disharmony hinders anti-racist action: we cannot defeat what we cannot define.
A definition of antisemitism
My preferred definition of antisemitism is the one offered by author Emily Tamkin. It’s a definition that recognises that antisemitism is unique, but not alone. It works with other bigotries, conspiracy theories, and xenophobias. It cannot be defeated in isolation.
Antisemitism is the conviction that Jews are forever foreign or alien to whatever population they happen to be in, and often have designs on corrupting that population.
Using this working definition, this article will explore the distinct characteristics of antisemitism. It will also propose that we form coalitions to overcome it, an approach called safety through solidarity.
Antisemitism is a problem across the political spectrum
In today's alarmist climate, false claims of antisemitism are often weaponized. So, it’s tempting to declare that it’s not an issue in your own group. This instinct is misguided.
A 2022 study found that liberals and conservatives believed equally in conspiracy theories about the Jewish Rothschild family. Antisemitism also travels from one group to another. For example, right-wing figure Dan Bilzerian misrepresented the Talmud, a Jewish holy text. He claims it shows Jews are "evil." These claims were boosted by left-wing grifter Shaun King.
In another case of antisemitism shifting from right to left, Max Blumenthal, editor of the left-wing Grayzone, recently blamed the "Zionist occupied government" for the congressional losses of Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. Neo-Nazis coined that term.
No anti-racist should be using the phrase "Zionist occupied government" for any reason. You can express concerns about lobbying, even pro-Israel lobbying, without antisemitic framing. Broadcaster Rafael Shimunov put it best:
You don't have to be antisemitic to fuel it. Avoiding it isn't just "the right thing to do", it's the strategic thing to do for the survival of all marginalized people.
I often feel raising antisemitism in a time of genocide may feel disproportional to what is needed in the moment, but I must remind myself that it is critical to end genocide. We cannot end genocide by leaving a bomb inside the coalition working to end genocide.
Antisemitism is a faulty analysis of power
One of the core features of antisemitism is that it’s not true. It’s an inaccurate story about Jewish "wealth" and "power" causing society’s ills. My favorite response to this conspiracism is, "Antisemitism is the socialism of fools." I love this saying. It mocks the fallacy and hints at the fix: an analysis of our society's failings that blames decision makers and incentive structures, not wicked cabals. Let’s apply this antidote to a couple of famous antisemitic libels:
America’s Jews are driving America’s wars
Ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson said this. But the idea that Jews are responsible for America’s wars has existed since at least the First World War. It omits that America has never had a Jewish president. It ignores that American foreign policy is driven by self-interest. It neglects that both of America’s political parties and its Evangelicals support Israel's wars, and it ignores that Jewish support for those wars is enormously overstated by warmongers.
Some, trying to fight this trope, say that "Neoconservative" and "Zionist" are antisemitic terms. This is a losing game of whack-a-mole: bigots might be stupid but they’re capable of thinking up new words to mean Jew. Refusing to call political movements by their name insulates them from legitimate criticism. Doing so for fear of reinforcing stereotypes pretends that those stereotypes exist because of what Jews do. This is untrue: stereotypes do not need real Jews to function, or to carry dire real world consequences. A clear-eyed analysis reveals that Jews are not to blame for America’s wars. America is.
HIAS [founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.
The man who wrote this murdered eleven people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. He believed the stereotype that Jews cause U.S. immigration. Again, a clear-eyed analysis reveals that Jews are not to blame for migration. Indeed, people are to blame for displacement. But, nobody is to "blame" for immigration. It's a proven economic benefit and a great cultural one. This is one of many cases where solidarity could help. It would protect both oppressed, overlapping groups: migrants and Jews.
Antisemitism is not just a problem for Jews
Everything seems impossible or terribly difficult without the providential appearance of antisemitism. It enables everything to be arranged, smoothed over and simplified.
Charles Maurras of the far-right Action Française wrote this, praising the ability of antisemitism to reconcile opposites and simplify politics. Most conspiracy theories are antisemitic. So, Jews often suffer from attacks not aimed at them. Whoever they’re targeting, hatemongers use antisemitism like glue to hold their worldview together. This connectedness is why I support safety through solidarity. It's an anti-racism based on mutual self-interest and collective liberation. We can defeat antisemitism, together.
Antisemitism cannot be compromised with
Some in civil society sadly ignore, downplay, or compromise with antisemitism. Days after the Pittsburgh shooting, Donald Trump mused that he "wouldn't be surprised" if Jewish philanthropist George Soros was funding a "migrant caravan." A year earlier when protestors in Charlottesville chanted "Jews will not replace us", Trump praised "very fine people on both sides". Trump’s allies also altered an image of their Jewish opponent to enlarge his nose. They accused various Jews of "buying congress".
It's no surprise that partisan Jewish groups, like the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Zionist Organization of America, appeased Trump and his allies. But, so too did nominally non-partisan groups, like the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Similarly, Elon Musk accused Jewish people of "hatred against whites." He then received a warm welcome to Israel from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite Musk's hate speech, Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL praised him for his "leadership in fighting hate." This was after Musk banned the term "decolonization" on Twitter.
Also shielded from criticism for antisemitism by Netanyahu was Viktor Orbán who said:
We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open, but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.
What we are seeing here are two objectives - ending antisemitism and supporting Israel - coming into conflict. Time and time again, Israel is winning out. This is seedy transactional behaviour. It damages the fight against antisemitism.
Antisemitism is fueled by gatekeeping
It’s not just civil society organisations that have been degraded by tensions between anti-racist and political commitments. The Jewish community, to the extent that one exists, is also riven with strife. This is best illustrated by the number of slurs that Jews have come up with to distance themselves from each other: as-a-Jew, bad Jew, court Jew, Jew in name only (JINO), kapo, self-hating or simply not-a-Jew, just to name a few. Columnist Zoe Strimpel wrote:
To me whatever rituals they perform, they are useless Jews. Superfluous. In the enemy camp.
I can't believe I have to say this. To call Jews superfluous, within living memory of the holocaust, is an unconscionably grim and unhelpful thing to do. It is nauseating to take something as sacred as Jewish identity and then claim that only those who support your political project can access it.
Conclusion
Mohammed el-Kurd’s forceful article Jewish settlers stole my house. It’s not my fault they’re Jewish can be read in opposition to a lot of what I’ve written here.
What a burdensome impulse. Not only do we live in fear of displacement at the hands of a colonialism that professes itself as Jewish, not only are our people bombarded by an army that marches under what it claims is the Jewish flag, and not only do Israeli politicians over enunciate the Jewishness of their operations, we are told to disregard the Star of David soaring on their flag—the Star of David they carve into our skin.
I admire and respect el-Kurd. I agree. For Palestinians, fighting their oppression must be the priority. It's exhausting to be told not to conflate Judaism and Zionism while your oppressor does it on the world stage. Palestinians deserve our understanding when their fight against systemic violence occasionally slides into semantic violence.
I have a strategic disagreement with el-Kurd. The ongoing genocide in Palestine is the most pressing issue, but I believe that fighting antisemitism bolsters, not burdens, the fight against this genocide, and that words matter. Our movement should be able to accommodate disagreements like these.
The people we will not accommodate however, are the repeat offenders. Those who, despite being told that what they are doing is at best unhelpful, continue to do it. Also deserving of our ire are systems that breed inequality and thus antisemitism. If you are reading this then you have time on your hands to think things through and to lead by example on this. It is on people like you and me to disarm, as Rafael Shimunov calls it, "the bomb inside the coalition working to end genocide." End inequality? End antisemitism? Free Palestine? These are complementary goals.
The dizzying spread of conspiracy theories and antisemitism shows that we haven't reached enough people with our analysis of what's wrong with society, who's to blame, and how we can fix it together. We have our work cut out for us.
Acknowledgements
This article owes a debt to:
Emily Tamkin. Her provocatively titled books The Influence of Soros & Bad Jews expanded and historically contextualised my thinking on this topic. They also raised a few eyebrows when I read them on the train.
Shane Burley and Ben Lorber. Reading their book Safety through Solidarity, felt like sunlight breaking through dark clouds.
Arielle Angel and the whole crew at Jewish Currents.
Dan Griliopoulos whose feedback (Smaller sentences. Have you considered using structure?) massively improved the readability of this piece.