Recently, an Orthodox Jewish man waiting to board a New York City public bus was the victim of an anti-Semitic bus driver. The bus driver refused to stop and allow him to board, forcing the man to chase after the bus. When finally allowed to board, he was told “go in, Measles” by the bus driver who covered her face to prevent supposed infection. This is merely one example of a spreading wave of stereotyping that Orthodox Jews are somehow not only unhygienic, but supposedly beacons of festering illness (Pink). Even as blatant anti-Semitism occurs close to home, the anti-Semitic epidemic is no less prevalent across the nation. During the fatal Unite the Right rally, Nazi flag-wielding white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville chanting, “Jews will not replace us,” in a grotesque display of anti-Semitism which blazed across the headlines for weeks to follow. The global Jewish population, however, has yet to return to its pre-Holocaust numbers—16,728,000 in 1939, but only 14,511,100 in 2017, seventy-two years after the systematic genocide of 6 million innocent Jews. Jews, the apparent root of all the world’s evil, make up merely 0.2% of the world population, but receive the bulk of its hatred. Anti-Semitism is a complex issue, and cannot be attributed to any one cause—just as it has no one solution, but instead requires an overall change in mindset and cultivation of empathy. Before addressing the problem, it first needs to be defined. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted a working definition of anti-Semitism in May 2016: “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews … directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities” (“Working Definition of Antisemitism”).

However, the definition does not resolve the most important question: who are Jews? Judaism is a religion, “yet, most Jews today do not believe in the specific tenets of the religion itself, most do not participate in all the rituals, or even attend synagogue with much frequency” (Zuckerman). In fact, “in a recent Pew study, 62% of American Jews said that their Jewish identity was mainly about ancestry and culture, 23% said it was mainly about religion, ancestry, and culture, but only 15% said it was mainly about religion.” Judaism is an ethnic group, with a shared heritage, culture, history, and struggle, yet “because of the history of diaspora, there are actually many distinct ethnicities within Jewish civilization.” The notion of Jews as a race, especially popular during the twentieth century, is difficult to sustain—while many Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews share similar features, they do not extend to all Jewish denominations. Furthermore, as Israel “offers citizenship to anyone who is born of a Jewish mother,” Judaism has become somewhat of a nationality. However, “since millions of Jews do not live in Israel and are not citizens of that nation, the notion of Jews as comprising a nationality is regionally lrimited.” Judaism is fluid, defined by all who identify as Jewish as they see fit. It could be only one of the categories, a combination of multiple, or even all four, depending on their personal connection with being Jewish.

Before pondering the root of anti-Semitism, it is necessary to first locate the origins of bigotry as a whole. Psychologists and psychoanalysts, beginning with the renowned Jewish psychologist Sigmund Freud, “suggest that otherwise disunited groups require an outside enemy in order to stop fighting and to experience group cohesion” (Chesler). This, in turn, leads to scapegoating, when “now-cohesive group members project all their own undesirable or forbidden traits” onto their “outside enemy.”

Modern anti-Semitism is viewed as a largely European issue, however it has been unfortunately prevalent in American society since colonial times when it traveled with immigrants seeking freedom from religious persecution in cruel irony. The roots of Christian anti-semitism began in the Roman Catholic Church with accusations that Jews caused the crucification of Christ; their exile from Palestine was their punishment for failing to convert (Zimmerman). Such anti-Semitism only intensified during the Middle Ages when “Christians massacred entire Jewish communities in the Crusades, forced hundreds of thousands of Jews to convert, and caused them to flee to Muslim lands.” Expulsions continued as “Jews were banished from country after country throughout Europe.” Christian anti-Semitism followed the pursuit of religious freedom to the New World. In the mid-seventeenth century, New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant wanted to expel Jews, the “deceitful race — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ,” who he loathed for ‘their customary usury and deceitful trading” (Nadell).

Even the much loved books of children’s tales, “Mother Goose,” was not exempt from anti-Semitism’s pervasive reach with the verse: “Jack sold his egg / To a rogue of a Jew / Who cheated him out / Of half of his due.” The nineteenth century’s growing nativism only served to intensify anti-Semitic sentiment, “Jews, once accepted as paying guests at boarding houses, hotels and resorts, were turned away” and “No Israelite” policies and signs advertising “Gentiles Only” entered the mainstream. Ethics have evolved throughout the years, interfaith cooperation and understanding have reached new heights. Yet 2017, with all of its twenty-first century social superiority, “saw the largest single-year increase since the A.D.L. [Anti-Defamation League] began this annual audit in 1979–a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents” (Greenblatt).

In the mid-twentieth century, new anti-Semitism emerged, “a particular form of anti-Semitism, which is expressed as opposition to Zionism or the State of Israel” (Zimmerman). New anti-Semitism “equates the actions of the Israeli government with all Jews and assumes that Jews, comprising a politically, ethnically, and geographically diverse people, all subscribe to the same beliefs about Israel.” Perhaps the most prevalent example of new anti-Semitism is present in college campuses. Vassar College, for example, has recently come under harsh criticism with Jewish students reporting that “at Vassar, it’s unwise to advertise that you are Jewish because it will threaten a student’s sense of safety” (Dahl). On campus, Jewish students must “self-censor pro-Israel opinions out of fear of retribution from intolerant peers and professors.” Apart from cutting ties with Jewish collegiate-organization Hillel for its Pro-Israel ideology, Vassar has invited known anti-Semitic speakers who “demonized Jewish Israelis as Nazis… advocated the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East and exhorted students to rise up against Zionists.”    

Unfortunately, anti-Semitism has become an increasingly common sight on college campuses. Laurie Zoloth, director of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University describes, “In response to a Hillel student-sponsored pro-peace, pro-Israel demonstration, pro-Palestinians began chanting for the death of the Jews, and pushing, shoving, and cornering some real Jews” (Chesler). An angry mob closed in, shouting “Go back to Russia,” “We will kill you,” and “Hitler did not finish the job” at peaceful Jewish protesters. In the age of social media, anti-Semitism was given another far reaching platform with minimal policing. Participants of a the  “Palestine Live” Facebook group, including advocates for Amnesty International, “who posted articles ‘questioning’ the Holocaust were told they ‘should be allowed to discuss this rather than being silenced’” (Steinberg). Organizations preaching equality have similarly turned a blind-eye to anti-Semitism within their own ranks. Two leaders of the nation-wide Women’s March Inc. “were accused of saying at a private organizing meeting that Jews bore a particular responsibility for the oppression of people of color” in a blatant display of contradictory anti-Semitism (Silva). How can they claim to stand for marginalized women whilst so blatantly furthering the baseless slander of Jews?

Contemporary anti-Semitism takes many forms; juxtaposed to the far left’s new Anti-Semitism is that of the Alt-Right. In recent years, anti-Semitic threats, acts, and conspiracy theories have increased exponentially (Zimmerman). Neo-Nazi’s, during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, chanted “blood and soil,” the nativist slogan of Nazi Germany. A deadly shooting in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue led to the murder of eleven Jews during Shabbat prayer by a white supremacist. Anti-Semitism is not a foreign issue, it is real, it is dangerous, and it occurs in our communities, in places where we are meant to feel secure. A wave of bomb-threats aimed at Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) spread across the country. Among those affected were the local Staten Island JCC, which saw an increased police presence for a duration of weeks, and my younger cousins’ JCC not too far away in Delaware, where their pre-school classes had to be evacuated.

Adolescents, whether maliciously or simply from pure-lack of education, increasingly find themselves in unscrupulous situations promoting anti-Semitism, through the lens of white supremacy. Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman describes her experience with a caller defending a group of  high school students from Wisconsin pictured posing with a Nazi salute prior to their junior prom. “They were having fun. Can’t you just laugh it off? It wasn’t like they were wearing brown uniforms,” the caller argued. “It’s true, they weren’t wearing brown uniforms. But my, how our standards have fallen,” where is justice when clearly anti-Semitic actions are not held accountable for unless the perpetrators are dressed as Nazis? This was just on example in an ever growing sea of similar photos. In March, 2019, for example, another group of high school students from California came under fire for posing with the nazi salute behind solo cups arranged in the shape of a swastika—there is only so much that can be claimed to be “unintentionally harmless.”

Predating both aforementioned forms of anti-Semitism by more than two millennia, however, is religiously motivated anti-Semitism—a constant throughout all of history which has only been increasingly agitated in recent years. In the feudal ages, “the myth of the Blood Libel accused Jews of using the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes, and widespread riots against the Jews followed as a result of these accusations.” Though, anti-Semitism has since become less fanatical, it has become no less ubiquitous. Even now, Saudi Arabian textbooks highlighted by the ADL feature excerpts charging that “among the goals of Zionism is a ‘global Jewish government to control the entire world,” and others inciting violence, “the hour will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, so that the Muslims kill them, until the Jew hides behind rock and tree, so the rock or the tree says: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of God, this Jew is behind me, so kill him’” (Bruton). Similarly, the Trump administration’s recent decision to move the United States’ Israel embassy to Jerusalem was propelled for by conservative and evangelical Christians, not out of goodwill for the Jewish nation, but “because their theology dictates that God’s eternal promise to the Jews requires an expanded ‘greater Israel,’ they lobbied the administration to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel” (Zimmerman). Southern Baptist pastor, Robert Jeffress, who spoke at the embassy’s opening ceremony, had previously stated that “you can’t be saved by being a Jew.”

History has also been studded with cultural envy turned anti-Semitism.  “Jews have been feared and hated for their various cultural and intellectual achievements—and lack of achievements,” somehow they were both the symbol of economic prosperity and poverty, of free thought and superstition, depending on the stereotype aggressors saw fit to paint (Chesler). The stereotypical greedy Jew “is commonly attributed to the fact that for centuries, Jews were excluded from professional guilds and denied the right to own land, forcing them to work as merchants and financiers” or, others argue that “Jewish financial success is instead due to the community’s high literacy rates” (“Jews and Finance”). Whatever the historic reason, “financial success has more often than not been a major driver of anti-Semitism.” For instance, Shylock from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who infamously extracts a pound of flesh from a debtor who failed to repay his plan, reinforces the Jewish stereotype of overwhelming greed.

During the Black Death, “Jews were perceived as being less susceptible to the plague than their neighbours (likely the result of Jewish ritual regarding personal hygiene) and they were accused of poisoning Christian wells: thought to be the source of the plague” (“The Plague, 1331-1770”). Two-hundred Jewish communities were wiped out in the resulting hysteria, and many innocent Jews burned to death. The executions did not end in the fourteenth century, but merely less than seventy years ago—the burnings a continued looming shadow.

Today, the genocide may have ended, but the persecution continues. It is ever growing, pervasive, a silent veil shrouding thoughts, and it must be stopped. It is impossible to govern thoughts; the change needed here goes much deeper than that. Then solution lies not only in governmental intervention or on the corporate level, but also in the initiative of every individual. The solution for anti-Semitism is not simple: I propose that as a first step it is necessary to expand government guidelines for funding NGOs, ensuring that they must refuse to propagate anti-Semitism in order to receive federal funding (Steinberg). Education on the importance of equality must begin early; schools should install anti-bias training, such as the Anti-Discrimination League’s A World of Difference® Institute and No Place for Hate® programs. The other steps toward eliminating anti-Semitism, however, must be taken on at an individual basis. All people, in every corner of society, must unite to speak out clearly and fiercely against anti-Semitism in all its forms. If your allies in other matters of social justice indulge in anti-Semitism or are apologists for others who do, then find other allies, for those who support any form of discrimination are not true warriors in the fight against bigotry. Refuse to use social media networks who turn a blind eye to users who promote anti-Semitism and unfounded conspiracy theories. Join in solidarity with other targeted groups and become allies in fighting each others’ plight (Zimmerman). Realize your own implicit bias and delve into the deepest recesses of your minds to remedy it from its roots—do not ignore it. The fight against anti-Semitism has many fronts, but the most important battle must happen on the front lines at home, with every single person denouncing anti-Semitism together—from there it will spread to all levels of society.

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