Fighting Antisemitism, Fighting Injustice

By Donna Nevel, Florida

When I think about how to end antisemitism, I feel grounded in principles I learned from my parents. They taught me to be proud of who I was as a Jewish person but never to think I was better than any other person, group, or community. They showed me by example that caring about antisemitism meant caring about anti-Black racism and all forms of injustice. They lived by these principles always, which inspired my love of being Jewish as well as my desire to participate in movements challenging injustice and for collective liberation.

Antisemitism is generally understood as discrimination against Jews, violence against Jews, or targeting Jews simply because they are Jewish. Sometimes antisemitism is expressed through stereotypes and generalizations about Jews.

Jews come from many different experiences and histories. There are white Jews, Jews of color, and Jews from different parts of the world (my family migrated to the United States from Eastern Europe). Antisemitism does not always look the same for each of these communities and groups; there are differences based on geographies, class and race, intersections with other political identities, and more. 

Some examples of antisemitic violence in recent years in the US include the 2018 massacre of eleven congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Jewish cemeteries being destroyed; and people who are visibly Jewish (wearing a skull cap or another Jewish symbol, for example) being attacked.  

The most well-known example of antisemitic violence is the Nazi murder of six million Jews (the Holocaust). In 1933, there were nine million Jews in Europe. By 1945, the Nazis had exterminated approximately two thirds of European Jewry in death camps and through mass murders. The Nazis also targeted and murdered other groups and communities on a racial and political basis, including Roma, Poles, and other Slavic peoples, queer people, those with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and communists and members of political opposition groups.

Today, white nationalist violence–which, in many different, harmful ways, targets and denigrates Black people and other communities of color, trans and queer people, immigrants, Muslims, and Jews—is increasingly on the rise in many spheres of our society. White nationalist tactics include the use of conspiracy theories, among other manifestations. Antisemitic conspiracy theories promote notions of Jewish power and control and of Jews as untrustworthy and sinister. 

Ending antisemitism also means understanding what is not antisemitism. False accusations of antisemitism are too often directed at those who criticize the State of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinian population. It is important to know that Palestinians had been living in Palestine for centuries before Israel was established. In that process, 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or dispossessed from their lands and homes. (See more on Israel’s establishment/Zionism and the Nakba in note below.)

Antisemitism is directed at Jews as Jews. Criticism of Israel and/or its ideology is directed at a nation-state. Criticisms of Israel’s ongoing violence against the Palestinian people and the expulsion of Palestinians from their land and homes reflect a commitment to human rights and equal rights—and to what is just. Palestinians, Jews (such as members of Jewish Voice for Peace), and many others are committed to those principles. That is the furthest thing from antisemitism, and it is deeply harmful to suggest otherwise. 

So, how can we participate in ending antisemitism? Antisemitism has its own distinct characteristics—as do other types of discrimination—and is also connected to other forms of racism and injustice that different communities experience. Therefore, thinking about ending antisemitism also means thinking about how to end all types of injustice. We know that fighting injustice against one group while being silent or supporting it against another group will bring justice for no one.

This is what it means to have a commitment to collective liberation—the belief that we all are entitled to live lives with justice and dignity. Collective liberation also means that we have each other’s backs and can count on one another to speak out when anyone or any group faces an injustice.

People of all ages can participate and take action in different ways although we know it is much harder in these repressive times. For students, that might include holding educational workshops (maybe at a community space or in a friend’s home) on pressing topics of interest or encouraging your schools to open up spaces for participation in social justice actions and discussion of issues of social concern (including the ways that false accusations of antisemitism have been used to shut down student protests in support of Palestine).

Throughout history and until now, Jewish people have been part of many movements devoted to their own safety and the safety of all people. Jews have joined together with others who care about the well-being of all our communities to fight against any form of racism and discrimination. For example, Jewish civil rights activists and labor activists joined together with all those committed to civil and human rights and economic justice. The fight against antisemitism is part of that larger struggle for justice.

A Note on Israel’s establishment/Zionism and the Nakba:
Zionism is the primary ideology that drove the establishment of a Jewish-majority nation-state in the land of historic Palestine. As nationalism rose in Europe in the late 19th Century and as antisemitism intensified, Jews responded in a number of different ways. Some Jews, notably Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern Zionism, thought the solution to antisemitism was Zionism: the establishment of a nation state for Jews in Palestine. During the years leading to 1948, as part of the Zionist movement’s process of colonizing Palestine and establishing Israel, 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians living in Palestine were expelled from their land and homes.  The “Palestinian Nakba (“Catastrophe” in Arabic) refers to the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians during the establishment of Israel as a Jewish majority country on land that had a two-thirds majority Palestinian Arab population. The Nakba is present-tense; the displacement of Palestinians and the destruction of Palestinian life has been ongoing for over a century.”    —www.project48.com 

Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and educator, is co-director, with Nina Mehta, of PARCEO, a resource and education center that partners with community groups and institutions seeking to deepen their organizing and educational work for justice. PARCEO has co-created and facilitates workshops on Antisemitism from a framework of collective liberation, from which this piece is drawn.