#rising antisemitism

[edenfenixblogs]

Bibi Netanyahu is gonna get us all killed.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 2, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 3, 2023

On Wednesday, November 29, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered a landmark speech on American antisemitism, inspired by the fact that protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza after the October 7 attack by Hamas have descended into an embrace of Hamas’s stated goal of the complete destruction of Israel. From there it has, for some people, been a short step to attacking Jewish people in general. 

“I feel compelled to speak because I am the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America; in fact, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official ever in American history,” Schumer said. “And I have noticed a significant disparity between how Jewish people regard the rise of antisemitism, and how many of my non-Jewish friends regard it. To us, the Jewish people, the rise of antisemitism is a crisis—a five-alarm fire that must be extinguished. For so many other people of good will, it is merely a problem, a matter of concern. Today, I want to use my platform to explain why so many Jewish people see this problem as a crisis.”

Schumer anchored his speech in the long history of civil rights advocacy on the part of American Jews. In 1909, New York Jew Henry Moskowitz was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Jack Greenberg, whose family fled pogroms in Europe, served 23 years at the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund after its founder, famous Black jurist Thurgood Marshall, stepped down.

In 1958, in a speech to the American Jewish Congress, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.” 

Five years later, the president of the American Jewish Congress, New Jersey rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz, spoke before King at the March on Washington. “I speak to you as an American Jew,” he told the crowd. “As Americans we share the profound concern of millions of people about the shame and disgrace of inequality and injustice which make a mockery of the great American idea. As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a two-fold experience—one of the spirit and one of our history…. It…is not merely sympathy and compassion for the Black people of America that motivates us. It is above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience.”

It was that painful historic experience and an attempt to make oppression impossible that led Jewish activists to support the civil rights movement. In the Freedom Summer of 1964, half the civil rights workers who traveled to Mississippi were Jewish, including Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, murdered alongside Black activist James Chaney outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. 

That history of Jewish support for civil rights is written across the landscape of our country: the main bridge dominating the Boston skyline is named for civil rights worker Leonard P. Zakim in memory of his work to “build bridges of understanding between different ethnic, racial, and religious groups,” as his wife said at the bridge’s dedication. 

In his speech, Schumer tied into that history, saying that “bigotry against one group of Americans is bigotry against all” and noting that he had worked to protect Asian-Americans and Arab-Americans, as well as to protect houses of worship for all religions from extremists. He also noted, at some length, that it is possible both to abhor Hamas and to deplore the destruction that has rained down on the Palestinian people. 

But Schumer expressed dismay that as hatred toward American Jews is rising dangerously—the Anti-Defamation League estimates that antisemitic incidents have increased nearly 300 percent since October 7—some Americans, people that Jews believed were “ideological fellow travelers,” are celebrating the October 7 attack as an assault on “colonizers.” 

“Not long ago,” Schumer said, “many of us marched together for Black and Brown lives, we stood against anti-Asian hatred, we protested bigotry against the LGBTQ community, we fought for reproductive justice out of the recognition that injustice against one oppressed group is injustice against all. But apparently, in the eyes of some, that principle does not extend to the Jewish people.”

“Many, if not most, Jewish Americans, including myself, support a two-state solution,” he said, “We disagree with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his administration’s encouragement of militant settlers in the West Bank, which has become a considerable obstacle to a two-state solution.” But “the most extreme rhetoric against Israel has emboldened antisemites who are attacking Jewish people simply because they are Jewish.”

These attacks, Schumer said, conjure up the history of millennia in which Jews were slaughtered. “[W]hen Jewish people hear chants like ‘From the river to the sea,’ a founding slogan of Hamas, a terrorist group that is not shy about their goal to eradicate the Jewish people, in Israel and around the globe, we are alarmed.”

“More than anything, we are worried—quite naturally, given the twists and turns of history—about where these actions and sentiments could eventually lead. Now, this is no intellectual exercise for us. For many Jewish people, it feels like a matter of survival, informed once again by history.”

“Can you understand why Jewish people feel isolated when we hear some praise Hamas and chant its vicious slogan?” Schumer asked. “Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable only 80 years after Hitler wiped out half of the Jewish population across the world while many countries turned their back? Can you appreciate the deep fear we have about what Hamas might do if left to their own devices? Because the long arc of Jewish history teaches us a lesson that is hard to forget: ultimately, that we are alone.”

Schumer begged the American people “of all creeds and backgrounds” to defend the “pluralistic, multiethnic democracy” that has enabled Jewish people in the United States “to flourish alongside so many other immigrant groups.” 

He asked them to “learn the history of the Jewish people, who have been abandoned repeatedly by their fellow countrymen—left isolated and alone to combat antisemitism—with disastrous results,” and to “reject the illogical and antisemitic double standard that is once again being applied to the plight of Jewish victims and hostages, to some of the actions of the Israeli government, and even to the very existence of a Jewish state.”

Schumer asked all Americans “to understand why Jewish people defend Israel.” They do not “wish harm on Palestinians,” he said, but instead “fear a world where Israel is forced to tolerate the existence of groups like Hamas that want to wipe out all Jewish people from the planet. We fear a world where Israel, the place of refuge for Jewish people, will no longer exist. If there is no Israel,” he said, “there will be no place, no place for the Jewish people to go when they are persecuted in other countries.”

In view of history and of rising antisemitism, Jewish Americans are afraid of what the future might bring, Schumer said. “And perhaps worst of all,” he said, “many Jewish Americans feel alone to face all of this, abandoned by too many of our friends and allies in our greatest time of need.”

He implored “every person and every community and every institution to stand with Jewish Americans and denounce antisemitism in all of its forms.”

“We are stewards of the flames of liberty, tolerance, and equality that warm our American melting pot, and make it possible for Jewish Americans to prosper alongside Palestinian Americans, and every other immigrant group from all over the world,” he concluded. 

“Are we a nation that can defy the regular course of human history, where the Jewish people have been ostracized, expelled, and massacred over and over again?” he asked. Then he answered his own question: “Yes. And I will do everything in my power—as Senate Majority Leader, as a Jewish American, as a citizen of a free society, as a human being—to make it happen.”

“Ken Y-hi Ratzon,” he concluded. “May it be his will.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[ecoamerica]

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[doberbutts]

Thank you for defending Nazis. They're just little guys. Just misunderstood, with genuine grievances. I noticed you accidentally forgot to defend child rapists. Dumb commies like you are all the same 🙄

Piss on the poor! Also I'm not a commie and never claimed to be one.

[whitesunlars]

coming in hot with my first take on antisemitism in a while after trying to limit my time on this cesspit of jew hatred: being an ally is not something you can identify as, it is something that you become through actions and are deemed so by the minority you are allying with. 99% of you who identify as an ally of the jewish people are actually raging antisemites. if we are scared of you (we are) you are not an ally, not matter how much you identify as one.

[avi-on-jumblr]

it is mind-boggling that the first thing people do after seeing a horrible antisemitic attack, or the firebombing of a synagogue, or a mob going after a jewish teacher, or the assault of a jewish student, is to go out and make a statement condemning "islamophobia and antisemitism and other forms of hate" in that order.

[gxlden-angels]

I cannot express the anger I experience being unable to do anything about anything while Christians salivate over the idea of the Israel-Hamas conflict being a sign of the Rapture

[ecoamerica]

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[vraska-theunseen]

i remember talking to my mom in like december and she was very confident in israel and i was like "mom they're doing genocide" and she was like "i'm not comfortable with you calling it a genocide" and i was so frustrated and baffled by that that "how many people would have to die before you consider it a genocide" just came out of my mouth and it was like rhetorical befuddlement and in retrospect i regretted asking it bc it was a bad question but she was like "hmm id have to think about that" and i just think about it all the time like man thousands of people were dead hundreds dying every day and you an american upper class jew who visited israel and proclaimed praise at how "multicultural" it was who can "return" to it whenever you want even though it's never been your or anyone in your family's home have to think about at what level YOU'RE comfortable with it being called genocide. really just exemplifies all of it for me. she and the rest of my family get to hide behind the holocaust as a defense for anything. a genocide isn't a genocide except in retrospect when you can feel comfortable by saying no one could have known (except people did)

[no-cinnamon-for-synonym]

Really wish the media would learn the difference between Judaism, Jewish, Zionism, and Israeli.

Judaism is a an ethno-religion

Jewish/Jew is an ethnicity and/or person who practices Judaism

Zionism is a nationalistic political movement

Israeli is a nationality

Someone is not automatically antisemitic if they support Palestine! Antisemitism is the prejudice against Jews, who either practice Judaism, a religion, or are ethnically Jewish.

Someone who practices Judaism is Jewish, but someone who is Jewish does not necessarily practice Judaism.

Someone who is Israeli is not automatically Jewish or Zionist. That's like saying all Brazilians are Christian or all Americans are nationalists. Sounds absurd, right?

Someone who is Zionist is not automatically Israeli or Jewish! Many Jews around the world aren't Zionist! Your non-Jewish, non-Israeli neighbour could be Zionist! I see it all the time in conservative circles!

None of these are the same! 🙅‍♀️

[cree-future-rabbi]

I saw another blog change their name in solidarity of being half aboriginal and half Jewish

I BREATHE TO SPITE THOSE WHO TRIED TO WIPE OUT MY ANCESTORS BECAUSE I AM HERE AND I WILL FIGHT THIS HATE UNTIL WE WIN OR I DIE

LOOK WHERE YOU STAND AS YOU PROTEST

LOOK AROUND YOUR UNIVERSITIES, HOW MANY ABORIGINAL STUDENTS DO YOU SEE?

Do you even realize you are protesting about stolen land ON STOLEN LAND, we did not give you our land.

Your shitty ass ancestors killed us, slaughtered us like pigs, you called us savages. You stole our language and culture.

Fuck you, YOU GO HOME PROHAMASSHOLE

[daisythornes]

god the way the ‘for you’ tab pushes constant antisemitism and warmongering and absolutely cruel takes is insane

[pianapplez]

I usually never use tumblr for its intended purpose (blogging) but i feel like this time i really need to get some things out of my chest. I've seen posts on twitter about people in France spraying the magen david on houses where jewish people supposedly live; that antisemitism is on the rise in my country (just to be clear, they were twitter posts and i didn't research futher so i can't be 100% sure that the pictures are recent but for the sake of this post i'll take it as fact.) I just want you to know, all of it is a consequence of people (nazis) conflating zionism and judaism and finally finding an excuse to be nazis out in the open. Ironically, it actually ends up aiding Israel because now they can claim, "see? the world hates us, and it's the palestinians fault". I've seen it with jewish people around me, how they see these acts of antisemitism, and while they might have not spoken out before (maybe they were unsure, maybe they didn't care, whatever the case may be), suddenly this confirms the fact that the "terrorist" palestinians want to kill all jews, even though the palestinian people being carpet bombed right now have nothing to do with nazis going, "see, we told you the jews were a plague!"

These acts of antisemitism are exactly what Israel needs to keep making itself the victim and gain the support of jewish people who were not that well read about what's going on, and now jewish people who were already playing the victim can give further "proof" of their victimhood.

TL;dr: people being more openly antisemitic has nothing to do with palestinians and people thinking that it does only helps solidify Israel's lies. Israel is commiting genocide by the way. Just in case.

Yours truly, a jewish girl form latam.

[porcelain-rob0t]

with peace and love and respect and compassion, some of you are getting dangerously close to "Jews control the media", please think about the implications of what you say. with peace and love and respect and compassion and kindness and sympathy, please dont repeat alex jones infowars conspiracy theorist type rhetoric. with peace and love and respect and compassion and kindness and sympathy and gentleness and harmlessness and niceness, please evaluate whether your activism comes from a place of love or hatred.

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

Brianna Wu is such a vile zionist. Accusing Palestine protesters of being paid when people are literally being blacklisted or killed for the slightest support of Palestine. Social media are shadowbanning Palestine posts, including TikTok! This article is literally an opinion piece with 0 evidence and she tweeted it like it's a fact. I hope she rots in hell.

[thebusylilbee]

zionist israelis who think that they're the equivalent of jewish people who were victims of the nazis and that palestinians are the equivalent of the nazis are the most insane people on this fucking planet. literally cuckoo-bananas-nothing-is-working-anymore-in-that-head-of-theirs type of logic.

the problem is they've completely tied their hateful zionist ideology to their jewish identity so to them ANYONE who somehow opposes or attacks zionists automatically attacks jewish people as a whole, and the One True Enemy of jewish people is the nazi so any enemy of zionists (aka jewish people as a whole in their logic) is automatically a nazi, regardless of the actual power dynamics at play in Palestine.

which is how we end up with batshit insane israeli zionists thinking they're somehow the ones in danger of having to deal with a new genocide when they are, in fact, the ones supporting and committing a genocide against palestinians as we speak, just like the nazis did to jewish people during the holocaust. absolute insanity. psychologists will need to study this.

[jewishbarbies]

WHY are people still shocked when european countries with atrocious histories of racism, fascism, antisemitism, etc., start to slide back into those behaviors?? none of the WWII related bigotry actually ended with WWII across europe. there has always been a remaining nazi presence. there has always been that hatred. it’s NOT surprising. it’s concerning, but you need to stop with the shock and awe. everyone who’s going to be affected by it has been warning about it for many years. ask yourself why you weren’t listening.

[silverfox66]

Maybe a hot take, but antisemites are to blame for the rise of antisemitism in Europe, not Israel.