J'Accuse!

The Ultimate Antisemite

Repost from December 2013 (with a few updates).

There is always consternation about defining antisemitism. Just who are these people who denigrate anything Jewish? They use Nazi-like imagery to denounce Jewish society and Israel. They use false allusions to try to destroy the right of the Jewish nation to exist and the Jewish people to live free in their ancestral homeland. They extend their reach into the secular world and deny Jews the right to practice Judaism, be it circumcision, kosher slaughter, or the right to wear religious garb for fear of being attacked.

They take from the Jewish citizen the right to be counted among the nations of the world and be counted as human beings. Whether the antisemitism takes its form as those that deny the holocaust, deny Jewish history, and attachment to Eretz Yisroel or the senseless need to dehumanize, delegitimize and equate the Jewish people with their persecutors, this is antisemitism.

The antisemite teaches their children that Jews are descended from apes and pigs. They teach their children that it is glorious to die when killing a Jew, or they are entitled to paradise for killing a Jewish baby, they send martyr payments to the families of those that murder Jews.

They try to remove proud Jews from all levels of society, be it the arts, academia, science, and sports. It is also an accepted part of society and welcomed worldover on an ever evolving basis. Whether it comes from respected journalists, politicians, “peace activists,” Nobel prize winners or religious leaders, it is a daily barrage of hate aimed at anyone Jewish.

Yet the ultimate antisemite is not the gentile that spouts the hatred and bile that has become commonplace once again in the world. The ultimate antisemite is the Jew who joins with the persecutors and tries to use the fact that they emerged into this world from a Jewish womb, as a right to destroy their own people. You can’t call them antisemite after all they are Jews, they shout…but they are Jews without a shred of attachment to the Jewish people, to history, or to reality. Or they have so convoluted their idea of Judaism that they have decided that in order to be a “good Jew,” you must remain the persecuted, the outsider, the forever emasculated spineless trembling victim.

There is a wonderful book written years ago by the well-known author Erica Jong, called Serenissima. It was a masterful look at the Merchant of Venice through different eyes. In that book the author discusses the character of Jessica. Jessica is the daughter of Shylock. She betrays her father, her people and her heritage to win the love and acceptance of a man. Erica Jong, wrote that in the end, it was not the courts, nor the Christian community that were the  ultimate antisemite in the story, but that  it was Jessica herself. Denigrating everything that she was born to be in order to win the approval of those that would never accept her as their equal because in the end, no matter what she did, they would always think of her first and foremost as a Jew. Unfortunately, there are many Jessicas today, both female and male, in positions of power, influence, politics, and education.

In fact today’s ultimate antisemite can even claim to be religious Jews. You may have seen them, parading around with their strummels and palestinian banners draped around their shoulders as if they were wearing a tallit, at the hate filled pro-Hamas marches. They like to think because of how they have chosen to practice their judaism that they are better Jews than the rest of us. I am not sure how celebrating the barbaric killers of your fellow Jews follows the Torah or the Talmud, and makes you closer to the coming of the mashiach.

However,  at least it appears that the vast majority of these ultimate antisemitic Jews, never enter a synagogue, may not be married to a fellow Jew, or have Jewish children or grandchildren. (And no I am NOT saying if you fall into any of these categories you are automatically an antisemitic Jew.) They have divorced themselves from the Jewish People, except when they can denigrate everything about others Jews. Or they are GenZers who are outside their own religion so much so that they blow the wrong end of a shofar, celebrate seder on the wrong day of Passover, or protest at Hillels on Jewish holy days when other Jews are in synagogue.

These ultimate antisemites have no real knowledge or attachment to their judaism. They denigrate the Jewish religion, Jewish history, and Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel while trying to change what it means to be a Jew to suit their needs. They would never dare demand others upend their heritage, or religion. They would call that racist. They never question the perspectives of any other group especially if that group denigrates the Jewish narrative. They offer to destroy the story of the Jewish people in order to belong to those that would wipe us from the face of the earth. Ultimately, they cosplay at being Jews.

Religion, its symbols, its history, its essence, has meaning. All aspects of religion have purpose. All aspects of history is reality and has created who we are today. To try to change the religion to make it fit some neopolitical paradigm is hubris, narcissism and above all disrespect. To promote revisionist history to serve your politics of hate is evil. It is the act of the ultimate antisemite to change what eons of Jewish thought and contemplation has put forth. It is the act of the ultimate antisemite to rewrite Jewish history to blame antisemitism on the Jews. It is the act of the ultimate antisemite to think that they know better than the most learned and respected sages of all time. Ultimately, it is the act of the ultimate antisemite to rewrite Jewish history, and belittle Jewish suffering, to promote their hate filled politics.

In fact some claim that they are holocaust survivors themselves, as if that gives them a special license to betray the Jewish people and side with those that support another holocaust. You do need to ask why does society imbue with survivors some kind of moral halo? Sorry, but holocaust survivors are people just like everyone else, there are good and bad among them. Those that are moral and those that are amoral. There are those that are liars and those that are honest. There are those that try to make the world a better place by bringing truth and justice to all peoples, including that the world will never again slaughter Jews.

However, being a holocaust survivor does not keep a person from criticism, but the ultimate antisemite thinks it does. That is why there is always the requisite holocaust survivor among the Jew-haters. Cover they think for their vapid immorality. It is essential for the antisemite, to Jew-wash their antisemtism. They will take any traitor to the Jewish people, but their ultimate goal is to glomb on to someone who can claim that they were a holocaust survivor.

In truth it is the antisemite who needs these ultimate antisemitic Jews for cover. To make themselves believe their hyperbole that they are not Jew-haters but freedom fighters. That they are the moral and better human beings. That they are the righteous among us. The problem is that we, the members of the Jewish people, allow it to happen. We get all defensive when some inane individual, who has no bearing upon our world, says, “As a Jew….” Well to say “as a Jew,” you at first have to care about the survival of the Jewish people, the religion of Israel, and the Land of Israel. These 3 aspects combined make up what it means to be a Jew. These ultimate antisemites care about none of this…what they ultimately care about is only themselves.

But those of us who love our heritage, our people and our freedom can say the same thing. We can say to the world, “As a Jew,” my voice is important on matters affecting the Jewish people.

“As a Jew,” I do not have to apologize for being a Jew.

“As a Jew,” I do not need the world’s approval for my existence.

“As a Jew,” my word and beliefs about my people are what matters, not anyone else’s.

“As a Jew…” I defend Israel, especially as a citizen of the United States, where freedom, truth, and justice is something we fight for every day.

“As a Jew,” I defend the right of every Jew, who wants to live in our ancestral homeland, in a Jewish state, and use any means available to protect the people in that state.

“As a Jew,” I have the right to demand that the world recognize my humanity and that I am part and parcel of humankind.

“As a Jew,” I demand that I have a right to call out the antisemites for being antisemites including and especially those who demonize and wish to destroy Israel, no matter their religion including another Jew.

“As A Jew,” I demand the right to be heard and not to have to give credence nor respect to those who have abandoned our people and help those that wish to murder our children.

“As a Jew,” I say there are not always two sides to every story.

(You may be entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts- Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.-John Adams.)

“As a Jew,” I say, Jewish history is Jewish history, who we are, where we came from, where our indigeneity began is indisputable, if you cannot accept it, then “as a Jew,” I call you an antisemite.

“As a Jew,” I demand that my history be respected and honored and not denigrated by those who celebrate the slaughter of Jewish children.

So “As a Jew,” I say that the ultimate antisemites are those Jews who betray their people and try to use their Jewish heritage as an end run around their own self-hatred and self-degradation. If their actions would be seen as antisemitic if they were not Jews, then their actions are antisemitic as Jews. They do not get anymore of a pass because they are from the People of Israel. In fact, what it does is make their betrayal even more apparent and their lives even more devoid of heaven.

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