(RNS) — The anniversary of the massacre of Israelis by Hamas has occasioned a number of reflections on the rise of antisemitism in America. Among the more notable is “The Year American Jews Woke Up,” by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens.
While Stephens does not fail to cite recent manifestations of antisemitism on the right, he devotes most of his attention to the left, where anti-Zionism has not infrequently manifested itself in antipathy to Jews. “After Oct. 7, it became personal,” he writes.
It was in the neighborhoods in which we lived, the professions and institutions in which we worked, the colleagues we worked alongside, the peers with whom we socialized, the group chats to which we belonged, the causes to which we donated, the high schools and universities our kids attended. The call was coming from inside the house.
In other words, it became personal because it wasn’t coming from the likes of the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville or Nick Fuentes and Kanye.
But I want to suggest another reason why it hit home. The antisemitism of the right is of a piece with the long tradition of antisemitic accusations because it is based on manifest untruths.
“The Jews” did not kill Christ in 33 CE. In the Middle Ages, “the Jews” did not poison wells to spread disease during the Black Death or kill Christian children to make matzohs for Passover. In the modern era, “the Jews” were not to blame for capitalism à la the Rothschilds, or for plotting world domination à la the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or for spreading Communism à la Trotsky.
Likewise, in our day and age, “the Jews” are not bringing in immigrants to supplant American workers, à la the Great Replacement Theory, nor do Jewish space lasers cause wildfires, à la Marjorie Taylor Greene, nor is George Soros the source of all left-wing evil, à la a legion of MAGA propagandists.
But the antisemitism derived from hostility to Israel — anti-Zionism — is not based on a demonstrably false claim. It is based on the true claim that Jews in America, and elsewhere in the Diaspora, support the Jewish state.
That’s not to say we support the policies and practices of the Netanyahu government or the river-to-the-sea imperialism of the country’s religious right. Far from it. Nor does it mean that there aren’t American Jews who disavow the Zionist project — from some Haredi (ultra-orthodox) communities who believe only the Messiah can reclaim the Land to some progressive activists for whom the Palestinians can do no wrong.
The vast majority of American Jews do, however, believe Israel is a legitimate state that has a right to defend itself and its citizens against its enemies. And they believe the eliminationist goal of Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran — a goal not only to eliminate the Jewish state but also the Jewish people who live there — is an abomination.
Never mind that many of those protesting on behalf of Palestine on college campuses and elsewhere do not share that goal, are unaware of it and are merely acting on behalf of the suffering people of Gaza and, now, Lebanon. It is simply the case that hostility to Israel, and not merely to its current government, has embedded itself in a sizable segment of the American public.
For American Jews, attached to Israel and its people as most of us are, this amounts to hostility to who we are and what we think and feel. And in an America where we have long felt fully accepted, that is a very painful thing.
