For those of you who can’t tell from my name, I am Jewish. That is a necessary disclosure for what follows.
I am a quietly proud Jew, a secular Jew who notes Jewish holidays as a cultural phenomenon, but observes only Yom Kippur, the most holy Day of Atonement, by staying home. I do not go to synagogue, I have a quiet conversation with God, whose existence I question.
He tells me Judaism is built on questioning, so that is all right with Him. (As a journalist I have long published a conversation with God around Christmas.)
Anti-Semitism has the reputation of being the oldest form of hate. Except maybe for snakes. People have hated snakes longer.
That comes from the Bible.
So does anti-Semitism, in my opinion.
Jesus was crucified and for 2,000 years the church blamed the Jews.
Until, God bless his memory, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council and wrapped his arms around the Jewish people, whom he called “brothers.” But it wasn’t until 2011 that the Catholic Church officially exonerated Jews for the death of Christ.
It was the longest lockup in history.
That brings us to the present, where anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S., generally, and illustrated by recent remarks and actions by African-American celebrities Ye (formerly Kanye West), an admittedly bipolar musician and garment designer, and Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, an admitted 6-2, Australian-born point guard.
Both engaged in an anti-Semitic action and each was punished financially, by commerical partners breaking contracts with them and walking away. Irving has been suspended for at least five games for tweeting out a link to a reportedly anti-Semitic movie called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up, Black America.”
Sales of the movie immediately climbed.
Why? Anti-Semitism by Christians, or curiosity by Jews? Or both? The movie is based on a book of the same name, from what has been reported, shopping anti-Semitic tropes that Blacks are the original Jews. That’s the same garbage that the goofball Black Israelis have been peddling at the Clothes Pin, Liberty Place and Market Street for years.
A bunch of major companies — these — broke with Ye after his comments about Jews.
“On Twitter, West claims he is going to go ‘death con 3 on Jewish people,’ an apparent misspelling of ‘defcon,’ and says it was not anti-Semitic for him to say so because ‘black people are actually Jew also’ —his account is promptly locked by the social media platform,” reported Forbes, along with other controversial statements.
For its part, Nike dumped Irving after his comment, and his initial failure to apologize. He eventually did, but the Nets suspended him for five games without pay. The team also wants him to meet with Jewish leaders.
Why?
As a private entity, it legally can force a behavior code on employees, but it troubles me.
Courts have ruled that ugly speech and hate speech is protected speech. But how “protected” is it when you can be punished for using it?
The First Amendment refers specifically to government, banning it from interfering with free speech — short of direct calls for violence — as it prohibits interference with the free exercise of religion.
It does not prohibit private entities from doing what they like, providing they do not violate the Constitution. (In 2020, the Philadelphia Eagles penalized wide receiver DeSean Jackson for posting anti-Semitic quotes he attributed to Hitler on Instagram this week. The Eagles did not provide details about the penalty, but said it acted because of “conduct detrimental to the team.” Jackson accepted the consequences and apologized, according to the team statement.)
I don’t know if Irving is anti-Semitic, clueless, or just garden-variety stupid. I don’t expect athletes or musicians to be deep thinkers. The major problem with his tweet is that is spreads misinformation, while Kanye’s approaches a physical threat.
As with racism, I need solid proof before I label someone an anti-Semite.
So I don’t know about Irving or Ye, who hasn’t (to my knowledge) explained why he is going “death con 3 on Jewish people.”
As to Irving’s second attempt at an apology, how sincere is it, if it is forced?
I don’t need it. I would have been fine with the Nets putting out a statement saying they disapprove and disavow their point guard’s statements. They didn’t have to punish him financially, which plays into the slur that all Jews care about is money.
Or that they rule big business. And the media. And communism. And that they are “taking over” and “replacing” you.
That gives Jews an enormous amount of credit, being as they are 2.4% of Americans, and 0.2% of the world’s population.
Yes, 0.2% of the world, a tiny, tiny fraction.
So why the fear? Why the hate?
Because they are the “chosen people?”
That term has caused a lot of pain, I think, yet all it means is “chosen” to proclaim the existence of one, singular God.
It does not mean they get to go to the head of line or receive special favors. If anything, it has brought unique misery throughout history, culminating in the Holocaust in which 6 million were “chosen” to be murdered.
That toll was one-third of the world’s 16 million Jews in 1939, a number larger than the world’s Jewish population today, 80 years later, of about 14 million.
At the beginning, I said I was a quietly proud Jew.
Here’s why — in certain fields, we are wildly disproportionate.
Remember the 0.2% worldwide.
20% of 900 Nobel laureates are Jews.
Almost two-thirds of Tony awards for Broadway musicals went to Jews.
In Pulitzers, Jews claimed 14% of the prizes for fiction, and 46% of the prizes for nonfiction
From psychiatry (Sigmund Freud) to physics (Albert Einstein) to literature to medicine, Jews are greatly over represented.
I don’t want this to come off like bragging, but how could so few people bring so much to the table? And for this, they are hated?
I don’t know, but it’s been suggested that the love of reading and education is the root, along with debate and questioning, which is fundamental to Judaism.
Like I said, I don’t know why. I also don’t know why people are punished for unpopular, even hateful, opinions.
This Jewish hatred troubles me, Stu. The Charlottesville chants and torches harkened to a different era in a different land, and we know where that lead. My wife’s mother is 97 and she was there. She was forced to work in Hitler’s bomb factories and had her lineage thoroughly traced by the Gestapo to make sure she was “pure”. She recognizes all this for exactly what it is, and it looks and sounds painfully familiar to her. And although a lot of this gunk clearly came out in the open because of The Orange Man, there is no denying that it was there hiding in the shadows all along.
I am not a Jew, but I stand with all those who are the target of such hatred. Whether the Knicks or Nike or whomever wants to punish such celebrity spokespeople for their asinine words is kinda irrelevant to me. That’s their business. As long as the government allows free speech, I am good. However, I think it is essential that all men of good character speak out against such things so they do not become acceptable in any way.
Hatred must not be allowed to grow unfettered lest it becomes the norm. However, it should be noted that hating hatred or hateful people is not hatred. It is indeed the opposite of that. Stand for goodness and righteousness at all times.
👍
For forty-plus years I have played poker almost every Thursday evening with seven Jewish guys. We are in our late 70s or early-to-mid 80s, and the games have become a laboratory for early-onset stupidity, even among the brightest of the group. I am — and remain — the only Christian in the group. These seven men (now six, as we recently buried one of us) have included me in their children’s weddings, bar- and bat mitzvahs, and other celebrations and mournings, as I have included them in mine. Yet I have never felt ‘Jewish,’ as I am unable to bridge the gap of the thousands of years of oppression and suffering the Jews have endured. I believe there is a God and that He will make all things right…someday, somehow. Until then, there will be anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred, as it is in man’s nature and his free will.
Hate is inevitable, but it is reducible.
And it has reduced, substantially, and in my lifetime. (Remember Bull Conner and the police dogs down South?) The South has accepted Blacks — and if the South can do that, anything is possible.
History has never stopped from passing on antisemitism writings and blatant religious statements about the Jews. In 1879 German Journalist Wilhelm Marr who popularized the phrase antisemitism wrote about the ‘tribal peculiarities” and “alien essence” of the Jews. Money changers, Christ killers, anti-assimilation even using the book “1984” to point to the future takeover by the Jews. Until the year 1965 the Catholic church celebrated mass honoring the birthday of Hitler. The memory of World War two has diminished in the minds of today’s generation but the twisted history used by people like David Dukes, Karl Marx and the European Union’s increase in antisemitism activity has reached a point where one in four Jews has felt the lash of bigotry. The positive contributions of the Jews is without equal but the main thrust of the modern “deniers” is to continue to rewrite history and continue to spread hate against the Jewish race. Our country unlike Europe has always responded to racism in the black and gay communities and hopefully will succeed against the upheaval of antisemitism. The Documentary film “Chosen and excluded” sums up the hate in Europe against the Jews and could be used here to address the same growing situation.
Official and mainstream USA has condemned all forms of anti-Semitism for at least 50 years, but it started with George Washington welcoming Jews as citizens in a letter to a synagogue in Rhode Island, as I remember.
That comment about the Catholic Church celebrating Hitler’s birthday is total bullshit. It’s the sort of bullshit that anti-Catholic haters repeat as if it were true. Shame on you.
https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/3465-hitler-the-nazis-and-the-catholic-church/
Vince, I referred to the below history of the church that failed to condemn Hitler and in fact one of the first documents Hitler signed was with the Catholic church allowing them full recognition and the only religious school system allowed in Germany. My extended family were all practicing Catholics as I was until I did research that raised my doubts. I have great respect for the Church and would never malign them, but history is exactly what happened, and the church should have excommunicated Hitler as they did with many of our most famous scientists, philosophers and inventers
Posted March 25, 2016
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April 20, 1939 Archbishop Orsenigo celebrated Hitler’s Birthday party. The celebrations were initiated by Pope Pacelli (Pio XII) and became a tradition. Every April 20th, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin went to offer “the warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the German Diocese”, and added that “fervent prayers that the Catholics in Germany are sending to heaven upon their altars”
What you said in your first post is a far cry from the Catholic CHURCH (the universal Catholic Church) celebrating Hitler’s birthday. The Catholic ‘Church’ is NOT one diocese in Germany trying to keep Hitler satisfied enough not to close down the Church in Germany; rather the CHURCH is the universal worldwide Church, and it NEVER celebrated Hitler’s birthday.
My last word on the matter is the church is led by Pope who cannot err in Faith or Morals, so I stand behind my point when Pope Pio XII initiated the honoring of Hitler on his Birthday. Pope John Paul had an opportunity to denounce the actions of Pope XII and mention the holocaust but delivered a watered down “Confession of sins against the people of Israel by stating we deeply regret the errors and failures of those sons and daughters of the church.”
Free speech is important, but then calling out wrong and misleading speech is also important, as in the case of Ye and Kyrie Irving. Thanks for your perspective Stu!
As a Christian, I love and appreciate the Jewish people because they are the ones to whom God chose to reveal his word, and it’s because of their rejection of the gospel that it went to the Gentiles (this is according to the apostle Paul, who was a Jewish man himself). But he and the Old Testament prophets also say that there will be a time when God removes the sin of his people Israel and delivers them. Have you ever read Isaiah 53? It’s quite the passage. Christians and messianic Jewish people say it’s about the messiah, while anti-missionaries say that it is about the nation of Israel. In this video two scholars of the scriptures discuss: https://youtu.be/9kq4sCWOMcw