The “new anti-Semitism” starts with Israel

“The Jews didn’t nail Jesus to the cross, but they sold the Romans the wood.”

That’s one of the oldest anti-Semitic jokes I know, one that employs two eternal lies about the Jews: That they killed God, and they will do anything for money.

Do I have to blow them up?

In today’s world, apparently yes, even while disproving them will not stop some people from believing them. Some people love to chew on hate the way a dog loves a soup bone.

The execution of Jesus occurred after Rome defeated and occupied Judea in 67CE.

Even the Catholic church now teaches that Rome is responsible for his death.

As for money, the wealthiest ethnic group in America is Asians, not Jews. Primarily Indians, who also lead in educational achievement. 

Jews are above average in income. Like Asians, they also rate higher than average in education. There is linkage between education and wealth. D’uh!

A couple more tropes — Jews run Hollywood and the TV networks.

Jews pretty much invented Hollywood. Most of the early studios were created and owned by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Loew’s and Universal were all products of Jewish capitalists. But that was 100 years ago.

Today’s TV networks are owned by corporations. There may be a disproportionate number of Jews in the networks, but that is also true of medicine, physics, literature, law, chemistry, journalism, comedy, music, etc. When Jews are called people of the book, it’s not just the Jewish Bible. It is learning.

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Despite many achievements — 22% of all Nobel Prize recipients had at least one Jewish parent; 14% of Pulitzer Prize winners were Jewish — until just a few decades ago, Jews, only 2.4% of Americans, 0.2% of world population, were banned from certain occupations (like banking, law, education).

Many Ivy League colleges set quotas for the number of Jewish students they would allow. (The same charge today is levied by Asian students, even while Jewish enrollment is falling, perhaps victims of diversity programs that prize race over achievement.)

With all that said, I am not a kosher Chicken Little squawking about the sky falling every time an anti-Semitic episode is reported in the press, or on social media.

As I have reported in the past, even when anti-Semitism ticks up, it is not cause for alarm. Early last year, responding to reports of a 65% increase in anti-Semitic episodes in Pennsylvania in 2022, compared with the year before, the Inquirer  called it an “alarming” rise. The 2022 total was 114. That is 114 incidents in a state with 12.9 million. 

You almost have a better chance of getting struck by lightning. It is not necessary for Jews to barricade themselves in their homes.

With all that said, the current Time magazine’s cover story on “the new anti-Semitism” does give me pause.

To condense Noah Feldman’s long essay into a central theme, it is this:  What’s “new” about anti-Semitism is the element of “anti-Zionism,” casting Jews as the oppressor.

What is Zionism?

It is nothing more than the belief that the Jewish people deserve their own homeland, just like every other people. Muslims are a majority in 49 nations, 157 countries are Christian majority, Buddhism is the majority religion in 7 countries, Hinduism in 3 countries. Judaism has 1.

Palestinians? They are Arabs and there are 22 Arab countries that share their traditions, religion, language, and history. And Palestinians do run Gaza, and have administrative control over part of the West Bank. Eventually, they will achieve statehood.

“The new narrative,” writes Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law, “of Jews as oppressors is, in the end, far too close to the anti-Semitic tradition of singling out Jews as uniquely deserving of condemnation and punishment.”

When Israel behaves badly, he states several times, it deserves condemnation. 

However, as one example, the genocide charge is false, under international law. Israel’s military operations “resemble campaigns fought by the U.S. and its coalition partners in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he writes, “and by the international coalition in the battle against ISIS for control of Mosul.”

There was no talk of genocide then.

It is not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel for its actions, but it is anti-Semitic when only Israel is being criticized.

“If Israel becomes the very archetype of a genocidal state — then Jews are much less likely to be conceived as a historically oppressed people engaged in self-defense,” Feldman writes.

Knowing that is important, but knowing is not enough. Anti-Semitism is snowballing, built on lies and disinformation.

I have tried to knock down the lies here and here, but one voice is not enough. 

Stopping anti-Semism is an obligation Christians and Muslims and atheists should assume, because — remember this pledge? — never again. 

Do we mean it?