Hate, Politics, and Standing with Jews
After the Congregation Beth Israel terrorist attack, it is clear that defense of Jews is a radical idea
Why is it so radical to defend Jews?
I ask this because in 2022 America we’re mainstreaming the victimization of identity groups for their own protection. But Jews seem to have an unspoken refractive ability preventing them from being worthy of this same treatment. Real violence following decades of rising antisemitism is being met with apathy and cognitive dissonance at best, and denial or animosity at worst.
When political agendas and social justice virtue signaling take precedence over evident threats and violence, the result is the construction of a victim hierarchy with one group at the top and one inevitably at the bottom. What the hostage-taking attack on the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas shows, is that Jews inevitably and consistently find themselves at the bottom of the victim caste system in America. Why is this important? Because it reflects the value we place on different people in society for the express purpose of advancing a political narrative. When the splintering of America into different victim groups has been normalized, defending Jews against acts of hate is seen as a radical view.
During the summer of 2020, it was advantageous to allow mass BLM protests across the country, even as COVID was in full swing. Yet Jews were targeted for much smaller, more socially segregated gatherings. The Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York City were specifically targeted by public health officials in the midst of a rise in COVID cases in October of 2020. At a time right before the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered the New York Police Department to enforce public health guidelines, impeding the Jewish residents of those communities the ability to gather in synagogues, even closing yeshivas in violation of social distancing guidance.
This scapegoating of Jews is more outrageous when compared with other groups at the time. In June, thousands of people gathered in Brooklyn for a “Black Trans Lives Matter” protest. But for this demonstration, there were no police citations, no threats from the mayor, and no super spreader insinuations. If the cause is just in the eyes of the woke elite – if it checks the right boxes of intersectionality and holds the proper amount of social justice credit, anything is justified - just not for Jews.
Part of why we have fractured so deeply is a societal apathy, handed down from political leaders and the media, in the face of violence & hatred against "this" group and not "that" group. The outgroup always being Jews. The only outrage is reserved for identity groups that perpetuate and deepen the wounds of America's original sin, no matter how much progress is made. When evil and heinous acts are minimized, it dehumanizes victims - signaling their diminished importance in society, allowing hatred against them to fester & metastasize like a cancer. We can never heal if we cannot treat it, and we can't treat it if we don't acknowledge the problem.
Jussie Smollett is an actor who starred in a hit network television show, richer than a large majority of Americans, and likely has access to anything he wants. And yet he was suddenly cast into the middle of a story in which he is the victim of a racial hate crime – the one thing that burns so hot and fierce in this country that even to approach it burns the soul. But it turned out to be a lie. And not just a flippant one, one that took planning and preparation and multiple deceptions. But this lie was given the full force of unquestioned belief and undeniably sympathy from politicians and celebrities.
The situation evolved into the quintessential hate-crime everyone was looking for: one that tied MAGA-supporters to the vile bigotry everyone knew was lurking in the hearts of every Trump voter, evidence of the toxicity of America that was allowed to persist too long without a real reckoning. It was a cause celeb, gotcha-game, and white-guilt bandwagon - and everyone wanted a seat. We mustn’t diminish the hateful acts against any American, but to compare the length and scope of the outrage after the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg to the Jussie Smollett hoax – or the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse – one can only conclude the disparity of value placed amongst groups of Americans based on the social currency to be wielded and potential political power at stake. Think of how many hoaxes, misinformation, and lies are told with no evidence except maybe “it seems like it could happen” and think of how many of those involve Jewish victims. Telling, isn’t it? Because being a Jewish victim offers no special protections – in fact, it often invites blame for the very violence perpetrated against them. Some blamed Jews for the Jersey City shooting because they has the audacity to exist there.
The story isn’t really about the media’s continuous pattern of assuming first, make corrections later – although it certainly plays a supporting role. It is really a story about the outsized value we place on certain victims for certain crimes that confirms a politically expedient and lucrative narrative. The “victim” escalates his profile above that of a television celebrity. For the supporter, it proves one’s empathy, compassion, “wokeness,” and alliance with a “most favored victim” group. In the game of race-bingo, there’s nothing better than finding evidence of America’s failure to overcome the crime of its original sin.
Media attention isn’t the only barometer of human value. It is also how we insulate different groups from potential violence and threats and the reaction to the nature of those threats. Chad Felix Green has written extensively about claims of an “epidemic” of anti-trans violence, debunking a popular narrative that fits with a growing movement weaponizing the group in order to consolidate power and squelch dissent using radical means against opposing views. And where trans-activists are often lauded for their courage in self-identifying and proclaiming support, Jews are increasingly afraid of displaying outward symbols of their Jewish identity such as kippahs and Stars of David.
When it is alarming when a horrific attack on the Jewish community, such as what happened at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, is met with more warnings of a backlash against the Muslim community than the current reality that faces American Jews. As Abigail Shrier wrote on Twitter, “In the last 5 years, my kids' Jewish camp & my kosher grocer have hired armed guards b/c of threats. This is how Jews live now. Americans should know.”
Our political leaders are making it worse. Nancy Pelosi refused to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her antisemitic remarks including references to a dual loyalty of American Jews and repeating tropes suggesting political support for Israel is driven by money from American Jews. Instead of unconditionally condemning the remarks and censuring Omar, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) instead passed a resolution condemning not just antisemitism, but “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry.” This is not just an exercise in lip service, but blatant cowardice and nauseating resignation to an actual act of bigotry.
But Jews are not afforded the same protections offered to other Americans, we shouldn’t be surprised when acts of violence and terrorism are committed against Jews are summarily dismissed. It is the natural endpoint of devaluing and dehumanizing people because they at a minimum don’t serve a political purpose, and at worst, are an enemy of the politically powerful, and politicians with whom they’re aligned are too cowardly to oppose. And while the media uses its influence to create moral panic around white supremacy and bigotry - failure to accept even the possibility of hate crimes against favored victim groups is evidence of hatred. The media and elites are allowing politics to drive a wedge between Americans based on race, religion, and class, and people are literally being killed because of it.
Evil is evil, and to place victims on a hierarchy of importance is equivalent to placing people themselves - their inherent human value - on the same order. It is disgusting and it is wrong, and Americans should never stand for it. In the opening pages of her book, How to Fight Antisemetism, Bari Weiss included the words of Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” It should never be a radical act to defend Jewish Americans, because if not now, when?