The old antisemitism was more a right-wing than a left-wing phenomenon—perhaps best personified by the now-withered Ku Klux Klan.
A new antisemitism followed from the campus leftism of the 1960s. It arose from and was masked by a general hatred of Israel, following the Jewish state’s incredible victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.
That lopsided triumph globally transformed Israel in the leftist mind from a David fighting the Arab Goliath into a veritable Western imperialist, neocolonialist overdog.
On campuses, Middle-East activism, course instruction, and faculty profiles are now virulently anti-Israel—and indistinguishable from anti-Jewishness.
When columnist Ben Shapiro spoke at Stanford University in 2019, left-wing posters were plastered around campus depicting Shapiro as an insect menace. A “BenBGon” bug spray bottle in Nazi fashion unsubtly suggested that a chemical agent is the best remedy to make sure Jews “be gone” from the premises.
The avowed socialist Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) retweeted the old propaganda boast, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Tlaib knew well “to the sea” could mean only the extinction of Israel itself and its 9 million Jews. She deleted her tweet—but only after an outcry of protest.
Anti-Zionists and leftist Palestinian activists Linda Sarsour and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—“it’s all about the Benjamins”—often made no effort to hide their antisemitism.
Yet now a dangerous new, new antisemitism is trending, predominantly among African-Americans—especially prominent politicians, celebrities, and billionaires.
The old trope that blacks inordinately were prejudiced against Jews due to past inner-city stereotypes of exploiting Jewish landlords has been recalibrated. It is now repackaged by black elites claiming that their careers are overly profitable to and orchestrated by “the Jews.”
It has been difficult to find any major black leader who has not trafficked in antisemitism, whether Jesse Jackson (“Hymietown”), Al Sharpton (“tell them to pin their yarmulkes back”), Louis Farrakhan (“gutter religion”), or Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright (“Them Jews”).
Yet what is different about the new, new antisemitism is the open defiance, often even or especially when exposed.
Kayne West was met with pushback after warning, “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” Yet he trumped that by soon praising Adolf Hitler.
The Black Hebrew movement absurdly claims blacks are the real Biblical Jews, Jews the imposters. Black Lives Matter clumsily disguised its antisemitism when claiming Israelis were committing mass genocide in the Middle East.
When novelist Alice Walker was chastised for praising virulent antisemite David Icke (he claimed that Jews formed a cabal of “lizard people”), she too was unremorseful. Walker retorted that Icke was “brave” for publishing his nutty rants.
Rappers from Public Enemy and Ice Cube to Jay-Z and Kanye West all spouted anti-Jewish venom. And billionaires, from the late Michael Jackson to LeBron James, dabbled in antisemitic talk, the first in lines from lyrics, the second in retweets.
In the hate-crime statistics, blacks as perpetrators are overrepresented, and, as victims, Jews and Asians are overrepresented. “Knock out the Jew” occasionally resurfaces as a common sport among New York city black youth.
In our “woke” age, race is seen as an indemnity policy for any self-described victim. Thus even elite blacks, as the still oppressed, cannot be seen as oppressors against “white” Jews.
Wokeism’s competitive victimization often embraces Holocaust denial. That way, the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews in industrial fashion does not overshadow the need for a reparatory legacy to atone for slavery and Jim Crow.
When Whoopi Goldberg claimed the Holocaust was not about race and was, for a while, suspended from her morning chat show, she only temporarily apologized. Goldberg this week returned to claiming that the Holocaust was only a crime by white people against white people.
In her ignorance, she was oblivious that Hitler and the Nazis did not believe Jews to be fully human at all.
Among black elites in professional sports and entertainment, the belief that Jews inordinately are represented as agents, executives, or commissioners is considered proof of exploitation—and often ridiculously reduced to master-slave psychodramas.
Marquee professional athletes like Kyrie Irving, DeSean Jackson, and the retired Stephen Jackson only reluctantly backed off their blatant anti-Jewish messaging.
Apparently, if the athletes of the NFL and NBA are approximately 60 percent or more African American, then they are merely diverse. But if Jews in the entertainment and sport hierarchies appear more frequently than their 2.4 percent demographic, then as a “cabal” they supposedly pose a threat to black livelihoods.
Black antisemitism is spreading in strange, dangerous ways.
Why? Woke orthodoxy offers cover by insisting supposed victims can never be victimizers. A leftist-dominated media hides or contextualizes the hatreds promulgated by its own constituents.
Jewish-American groups remain predominately liberal. And too often, they conveniently overlook black antisemitism, given the demands of left-wing intersectional solidarity.
So, expect the new, new antisemitism to grow more common—and more toxic.
Illuminating and unabashedly candid. These two quotes alone are very revealing:
“Wokeism’s competitive victimization often embraces Holocaust denial” so that it (the Holocaust) “does not overshadow the need for a reparatory legacy to atone for slavery and Jim Crow.”
“Woke orthodoxy offers cover by insisting supposed victims can never be victimizers. A leftist-dominated media hides or contextualizes the hatreds promulgated by its own constituents.”
VDH has the exceptional ability to bring to the surface and brilliantly articulate what one senses and feels but has difficulty putting words to.
I agree, Mr.Mueller. This is a confusing time of sudden changes in our culture, morals, and even our linguistics. Prof. Hanson’s skill at identifying and clarifying the issues is much needed. I have always rooted for Israel, and appreciate this article.
Extremely important & powerful essay.
One correction: Per Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Dec. 2022 estimates:
Israel has 9.7 million residents:
7.2 M are Jews (74% of total population), 2 M are Arabs (21%), 5% other
Extremely important & powerful essay.
One correction: Per Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Dec. 2022 estimates:
Israel has 9.7 million residents:
7.2 M are Jews (74% of total population), 2 M are Arabs (21%), 5% other.
The “other” are Russian immigrants connected to Jews but not Jewish themselves.
And it’s not like the Arabs would refrain from killing Christians, Druze, etc.- or each other.
The American ruling regime is Woke Democratic. Two of its major components are Jews, who vote over 70% Democratic and have for DECADES, and blacks, who vote over 90% Democratic and have for DECADES.
The former group supplies the money and propaganda for the Woke Democratic electoral machine. The latter supply the votes.
It is a very effective, but tenuous combination. Joe Biden and James Clyburn proved in 2020 that you can be a gay, a woman, a progressive or a multi-billionaire and be a Democratic presidential candidate, but you can’t be a Democratic presidential nominee unless you have black voter support.
Lately, however, there are troubling hiccups in that machine. The group with the numbers is chafing at the alleged victim status of the group with the money. Why do the so-called “canaries in the coal mine” own so many of the coal mines and make so much money on the labor of the black-faced coal miners?
To the rescue comes VDH, eager for some reason that Democratic blacks and Democratic Jews stop fighting and stay united, against their common white oppressor.
This is the idiotic level of “conservative” thought leadership today: worrying about divisions among conservative America’s long-time and most virulent enemies. No wonder VDH’s type of conservatism conserved nothing. It loftily turns its back on strategies like divide-and-conquer, even as it decries the failures of “Marquis of Queensbury” Republicans.
I say, let ‘em fight.
Are you aware of the fact that elderly Jews are being knocked out in something called the Knock -out game that Black people ‘play’. I believe there was a fatality from that. Baby strollers and carriages are being kicked, and Jews have been targeted by Blacks in other ways. They are not just fighting with words.
It ain’t the rich Jews who are being attacked by blacks. But we’re all the same, I suppose, to both black and white anti-Semites.
Wokeism is inseparable from anti semitism. CRT is merely recycled anti semitism.
Did Kanye say, “I’m going death con 3 (instead of Def Con 3) On JEWISH PEOPLE?”
What does “death con 3” even mean?
Nope, he said “death con”. One *hopes* it was just the slip of a tongue of an illiterate, but I’m not too confident.
Excellent article, as always, but I have just one slight correction: while the total population of Israel hovers around 9 million, of that only about 7 million are Jews. The rest are Arabs (Moslem, Christian, Druze), Samaritans, Christians (Orthodox Armenian, etc.). I think the whole population of Jews in the world is something like 15 million (less than the entire New York metropolitan area which is about 18 million).
15 million is probably an overcount. By this point, almost certainly over half the Jews in the world live in Israel.
Excellent article. Well thought out and informative. I wish we had more professors like him.
I continue to be astonished at how any Jew can vote or support Democrats.
Anon, most Jews in the Conservative and Orthodox branches of Judaism vote for Conservatives. It is the Reform branch that is confused about what is in their best interests. lol And they are people, and hold views that are leftist and want to support those too. As an Independent with strong views on both sides, I totally understand. And too many on both sides won’t listen to anything you say unless your views parrot theirs. The idea that we’re not all twins seems lost.
I’m pretty sure most Conservative Jews vote Democrat only.
But beyond Orthodox, Conservative, and even Reform Jews, at least 40% and as many as 70% or more of American Jews are completely unconnected to other Jews or Judaism in any way. They vote Democratic exclusively. Add all the Reform Jews and the majority of Conservative Jews, and you’re up in the 85-90% range of Jews with no religion other than Wokeism.
Our stats are at war. Most Conservative synagogues I’ve checked fully support Israel, etc. Where are you getting your info? Granted, there are a large no of secular Jews. Not sure of the stats for them at this point. I so prefer the word Hebrew, which is outlawed. But in the Beginning, and until the late 20th century, ‘them Jews’ and ‘Hebe’, were synonyms. lol Judaism was simply the religion associated with the Hebrew people, and in ancient times Christianity was a branch of Judaism. But Hebrew/Jewish linguistic acrobatics performed by Jewish leaders changed everything around, and now anyone is a Jew who wants to be. I assume this is to confuse enemies of Jewish survival, but it shortchanges ethnic Hebrews, and confuses everyone. lol
I never saw it as a movement. I thought it was just individuals venting. This article is an eye opener !
Thank you, Mr. Hanson.
To those who wonder how the Democrats control 80% of the Jewish Vote, look no further than FDR. FDR refused to allow entry to European Jews (the United States not only didn’t raise their admission quotas; they didn’t even fill the low immigration quotas that were in place!), and were subsequently marked for execution by the Nazis at the Wannsee Conference when Hitler & the German High Command realized that the only way to get rid of Germany’s “Jewish Problem” was the systemic execution of all of Europe’s Jews. Yet American Jews were enthralled by FDR, and the Democrats realized that they had no reason to campaign for the Jewish Vote; they were already in their pocket (not unlike the Black Vote that the Democrats rightfully take for granted). America’s Jews (with the exception of the Orthodox [observant] Jews), are according to Pew Research the least religious Denomination, have no affiliation with any synagogue, do not attend services, have little to no interest in Israel, and are more likely to marry someone from a religion other than Judaism. The majority don’t believe in G-d, and consider themselves “culturally” Jewish (they like smoked salmon on a bagel). So for the majority of American Jews, Orthodox Jews embarrass them, a strong Israel embarrasses them, and they feel overwhelming guilt for “White Privilege” & Slavery, even though neither they nor their ancestors had anything to do with Slavery, and were ostracized, expelled, and murdered by Whites.
Well said, Mr. Segal.
Excellent summary, Mr Segal, of the liberal American Jew’s mindset. Despite the best efforts of Jews to assimilate and fit in (ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, more recently Spain, Portugal, eventually Germany) tragedy befell these communities when they were no longer convenient to the host nation. We have not learned well the lessons of our own history. For this reason I’m not optimistic that liberal/progressive American Jews will ever change their voting habits.
Remember that Jewish intellectuals have been at the forefront of establishing DEI and diversity ideology which has comfortably arrived at consistently and explicitly hating on straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males. What Jews are experiencing now is the blowback of that policy. What is “strange” about Black anti-Semitism is that Blacks were supposed to be allies. Hating on straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males isn’t in question by the author. It’s the norm he wants to return to. This is one reason why many, many, many, many normal straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males are eating their popcorn right now. Maybe Jews should pull back on the anti-straight white cis-gendered heterosexual male hate? For example, it is incorrect to capitalize white and fail to capitalize Black. This is official policy of Reuters and other news agencies. Where is the outcry about that? Why is hate of straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males perfectly okay, but suddenly hate is completely wrong, dangerous, and evil? Need I remind the author that more white males than Jews died in WWII? Claiming Jews are overrepresented is a hate crime, according to this author. But accusing straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males of being overrepresented is just a correction of historical wrongs. Why is there a double standard? Maybe that’s why anti-Semitism is finding new roots. Straight white cis-gendered heterosexual males are tired of the double standard.