Burning Walls, Building Bridges: Antisemitism

Ever since starting this blog project, I have wondered where antisemitism fit in with it, or if it fit in at all. Is it racism? Is it institutional racism? I am not Jewish, and there isn't a large Jewish community where I am, so it's not something I've really had to think about or deal with before. It's not like I have have an issue with Jewish people. I respect the religion, culture, history, and cultural aspects like the food and holidays. I mean, I know antisemitism is a thing that happens, I don't disbelieve it. I see it on tv and hear about it all the time. I've just never seen it up close before. I think here in Seattle, we think of it as something that happens "over there". "Over there" probably meaning the East Coast. We're more laid back over here. We don't care about things that divide us like that over here. People are just people. I mean, of course we have racial divisions, and segregated neighborhoods, but in our minds, Jewish people are mostly white, so they're white people. Plain and simple, right? That's what I thought, until discussing it with an online friend who is Jewish and has white skin, but doesn't identify as white. This was very confusing to me and I didn't really understand it at all. But then I read things online from nationalist groups and other racist hate groups who say things like "Jews aren't white" and that made me think that must be what it's about. But how can white people not be white? Why the big distinction? And then last Saturday, there was a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and eleven people were killed. I felt awful, I felt helpless, and all these questions I've been pondering recently came to a head and I knew I had to write about it for this project.

I am ashamed that I've lived this much of my life without really ever thinking deeply about this before. I don't know if I've been an idiot or just woefully naive about this, but I am making up for lost time and educating myself on this subject. I just wish it hadn't taken the lives of eleven people to spur me on.

The following are links for anybody looking to learn more about antisemitism. I would encourage people who haven't ever experienced antisemitism to study up on this. In order to not accidentally contribute to it, we need to be fully educated on it.

First up, a brief explanation on the proper spelling and punctuation of the term "antisemitism." "Anti-Semitism" or "antisemitism"? Which is correct? The article is a few years old, and I just tested it on a blank doc file and Microsoft has fixed the issue since this article was published.

This is a great source of answers to basic questions about Judaism and all things Jewish. I highly recommend this one!

Here is the Anti-Defamation League's definition and explanation of what antisemitism is.

This is has good information on racially-based antisemitism. This plays into the idea of antisemitism as racism.

One of the things that confused me, is the idea of how white privilege works with being Jewish. There is an ongoing debate in the Jewish community of how much white privilege affects or doesn't affect white Jewish people. Ultimately, it's not up to me to make a decision on that or even to have an opinion on it. Definitions of "the thing" are to be made by the people affected by "the thing," not by people on the outside or those inflicting "the thing" on others.

I think one thing I need to work on to make sure I don't contribute to more confusion or antisemitism of my own, is to remember that while a lot of Jewish people are white, a lot of them are not. Assuming Jewish=white is racist. And that while white Jewish people have white privilege in some situations, it is negated in others. It's sort of a "gray" area, if you'll forgive the pun. I will try to do better with that from now on.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has an excellent Twitter thread on the topic of white privilege within the Jewish community.

This opinion piece from The Jerusalem Post explores the idea of antisemitism being racism, whether or not it is institutional, and also speaks to white privilege.

There is good news and bad news about antisemitism. The bad news first-It's still very much a thing, as last week's shooting shows. The good news? We no longer live in a world where information is hard to find and share. There is so much information out there about this issue that there really is no longer an excuse not to become educated about it. And as knowledge is power, the more we know about it, the more aware we'll be, the more we'll be able to see it, and hopefully, the braver we'll be to stand up against it. We just have to hope and pray that the people fighting against it far outweigh the people perpetrating it. So, go out there and learn all you can about this! If not for yourself, then for these people:

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