The resurgence of antisemitism in the 21st century has been unnerving and dangerous, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise, writes founder of The Free Press and former New York Times and Wall Street Journal staffer Bari Weiss in her 2019 book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism.
Composed partly in response to the 2018 murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where Weiss became a bat mitzvah, this brief (200-page) book explores how we got to this distressing point – well before Oct. 7 multiplied antisemitic attacks and language tenfold – and what we can do about it.
I’m not going to go into details here about the horrific history of antisemitism – more qualified scholars have written extensively on the subject – but I want to share excerpts from Weiss’s final chapter, simply titled “How to Fight.” The book may be a few years old, but the calls to action are even more relevant today.
Weiss’s approach is to accentuate the positive. “Building is better than begging, affirming is better than adjuring.” And while “nothing can remind you of who you are like a gut punch, the Jews did not sustain their magnificent civilization because they were anti-antisemites. They sustained it because they knew who they were and why they were.”
Here are a few of Weiss’s suggestions for fighting antisemitism:
Trust your discomfort. We try to “put on a good face, to blend in with our neighbors, keen not to play the victim,” writes Weiss. That might have worked for a brief time, but that time is over.
“If an organization you supported is making common cause with [antisemites], don’t look for a way to justify a relationship.” That’s an important rejoinder for Jewish supporters of protest groups like Students for Justice in Palestine or Jewish Voice for Peace. “Do not give your time and money to causes, institutions, nonprofits, or universities that condone antisemitism.”
Resist hierarchical identity politics. For the Right, Jews can never be white enough. For the Left, Jews can never be oppressed enough. “Typically, the only way out of this vise is for the Jew to confess her sins and disavow part of herself,” Weiss writes. But any party “that forces us... to check part of our identity at the door is not one worth joining.”
Call it out. Especially when it’s hard. Publicly calling out antisemitism risks your being called “hysterical, oversensitive, a racist, [or a] white supremacist.” But the opposite response – to hold your tongue and “hope someone changes the subject” – has led to “a conspiracy of silence [that has taken] hold among too many progressive Jews. Outrage is increasingly reserved for the privacy and safety of our own homes. This tactic will not stop the spread of antisemitism. It will hasten it.”
Apply the kippah (or Star of David) test. If you’re in a public venue where you might be the only Jew in the room, don’t hide symbols of your faith. You want people to know you’re not afraid, Weiss writes.
“Ask yourself if where you’re living passes the ‘kippa test.’ If you would be uncomfortable wearing a kippa or a Magen David necklace in your neighborhood, you should make a plan to improve your neighborhood or make a plan to leave it.” I recommend checking out Israel.
Don’t trust people who seek to divide. Here, Weiss is referring to the warped phenomenon where antisemites try to separate “good” Jews (those who unequivocally denounce Israel) from “bad” Jews (i.e., those “evil genocidal Zionists”). You shouldn’t have to renounce your beliefs to pander to the haters.
Notice your enemies. But even more, notice your friends. “A thousand voices condemning you – even ten thousand – will be drowned out when a single person you admire tells you that you are courageous, that you are standing up for what’s right, that you’ve inspired them to do the same. Make sure you’re listening closely, [then] pay it forward by being that voice for someone else.”
Fight antisemitism on our own side. There is power in showing up. “The people complaining about bigotry on the Left who think ‘someone else will deal with this, I’d rather go to brunch’ are either lazy or not seeing the big picture,” Weiss quotes Amanda Berman, who runs a progressive Jewish organization called Zioness. “We have to be as intolerant of antisemitism from our political allies as from our foes.”
Stop blaming yourself. Why do some of us believe that antisemitism is somehow our fault? Maybe “because that is what the world has told the Jews for so long. [But if] reasonable people do not blame rape victims for their choice of dress... we should not place ourselves in the position of beseeching our enemies to affirm that we are not, in fact, pigs,” Bar-Ilan University’s Ze’ev Maghen wrote many years ago and whom Weiss cites in her book.
Nurture your Jewish identity. For Jews in the Diaspora, that might be deciding to have Shabbat dinner every week, sending their children to a Jewish day school, or booking a trip to the Holy Land. Cultivating and strengthening your Jewish identity is “one of our most powerful weapons” against antisemitism.
Tell the truth. “This sounds simple, but it may be the hardest rule to follow. Sometimes we tell ourselves lies because reality is too painful to face,” Weiss warns. Are we being truthful when we stick with former progressive “allies” who have since turned against us?
One person can change history. When faced with uncertainty, we tend to believe that there’s nothing an individual can do. But history tells us otherwise.
“If Churchill had not possessed his singular resolve, we might all be speaking German,” Weiss writes. Think about the influence of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or, heaven forbid, Adolf Hitler. One person can make an enormous difference. Can it be you?
The writer’s book Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World was recently published as an audiobook. Available on Amazon and other online booksellers. brianblum.com