NOT SMART

No Jew in the history of Judaism ever looked smart by saying things aren’t as bad as you think.

 
Wisdom Wherever You Find It
 
No Jew in the history of Judaism ever looked smart by saying things aren’t as bad as you think.             Rob Eshman
 
Since I retired, my phone is a lot quieter than it used to be. My thirty-plus years in the pulpit and subsequent leadership of advocacy non-profits made me a logical person to call when people, Jewish and not, had any kind of question about Jews, Judaism and Jewish community. But now that I am a man of leisure, I mostly hear from people (and mostly of the non-Jewish persuasion) who are struggling to understand antisemitism.
 
I have said before that Jews have the sad distinction of being the only people with a prejudice named specifically for them. The term was coined in the very late nineteenth century, so technically speaking you can’t call bigotry against Jews by that modern name before the 1890s. But that is a technicality. There is no era in Jewish history without oppression. In our earliest holiday – Passover – to our latest traditional holiday – Chanukkah (note spelling) – the telling of the history includes both the specifics of the persecution we overcame and the affirmation that in every generation, someone is out to get us. The modern days of commemoration we have for both tragedy and triumph are all framed in the context of antagonists who wanted to drive us into ovens, gas chambers or the sea. You have heard the joke about the story of every Jewish holiday: they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.
 
By whatever name, anti-antisemitism has become the religion of most modern Jews.
 
So it makes sense that people who are not antisemites want to understand how to be good allies and how not to be accused of prejudice against Jews (or enabling it). Those are the calls I field more than any these days.
 
Privately, Jewish parents fret about intermarriage. Ironically, the best evidence that Jew hatred is at a low ebb in this country is the high rate of non-Jews marrying Jews. You don’t fall in love with someone you hate. And acceptance of Jews as Jews is unquestioned; no more Jack Benny, John Garfield, Judy Holliday – now it’s Jerry Seinfeld, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Gadot.  A Jew is the Second Gentleman. A Jew is on the Supreme Court. A Jew is most dangerous person in the world (at least according to Mike Pompeo, who doesn’t like the teachers’ union for some reason), but not for being Jewish.
 
But there are still plenty of people who believe ridiculous lies about the Jews and are willing to express them in words or deeds. Public figures who leap to rebut the idea that a white patriarchy is inherently dangerous to people unlike them nonetheless promote the notion of space lasers, banking cabals, or comprehensive replacement strategies in the hands of the International Zionist Conspiracy.  Some of them will act violently. They make my grandchildren into conspirators-in-training.  They will fail.  Let’s eat.
 
And yet. (Here’s where I get not-smart.) Things aren’t as bad as you think. Jewish community is awash in what we call defense organizations. Both Jewish groups and secular groups supported by Jews devote a huge cache of resources to identifying and combating antisemitism. They do audits, post banners in cities and on interstates, offer trainings, develop curricula, and circulate suggested sermons to remind the Jewish world that in every generation, including this one, the bad guys arise to destroy us.
 
Among the results is that Jews report antisemitic incidents more frequently than most other victims of bigotry and hate crimes.  Should we? Yes. Does that mean that the antipathy toward Jews in the United States exceeds prejudice against Blacks, Muslims, Asians, Sikhs, Spanish-speakers, immigrants, Mormons, Roman Catholics, poor people, and Southwest Airlines in whole or in part? Only if you posit and promote the notion that 97.5% of the population agree on only one thing: the other 2.5% deserve the worst they can muster.
 
And I don’t. The effectiveness of our defense groups and reportage is evidenced by the numbers of people who are not Jews but would rather be Daniel Patrick Moynihan than George Lincoln Rockwell, who would rather read Ann Frank’s diary than the magnum opus of he-who-shall-not-be-named. These folks are not worn down and covering their backsides; they are our sisters and brothers and, as I mentioned a moment ago, our husbands and wives. We betray them when we suspect every non-Jew of being an antisemite until they prove themselves otherwise.
 
Greater challenges to the future of the Jews come from disaffection and neglect from within than threats from without.  After I thank the people who call me with their loving concern, that’s what I tell them. Smart or not.