Anti Semitism is not about the Jews Alone
Anti Semitism is not about the Jews Alone
When official forms ask for my racial identity, I’m always a little bit flummoxed.
I know I’m not Asian or Pacific Islander, nor am I Black or Hispanic, but I’m not White, exactly, except when I am.
Which is to say, I don’t really see myself as White, but I know that in the eyes of most people who see me, I appear as white and get to enjoy the privileges and benefits of white skin in our society.
Like many white skinned Jews in America, I’m white - sometimes, sort-of - except when I’m not.
I occupy a position like ancient Queen Esther, who we celebrate this week at Purim. Queen Esther had access to the corridors of power, as long as she kept her Jewish identity quiet and “passed” in the palace. She only sometimes saw herself as Jewish, which is to say, other and vulnerable. At a particularly precarious moment in the tale, Mordechai reminded Esther not to “imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace.”
Her position in the hierarchy of the palace was provisional - it could be revoked as easily as my position as a white person in the racial hierarchy of America can be revoked.
Eric Ward is an African-American anti-racist activist who wrote Skin in the Game: How AntiSemitism Animates White Nationalism, one of the most important recent articles exploring the central role that anti-Semitism plays in the White Nationalist movement. Ward writes, “American White nationalism... is a revolutionary social movement committed to building a Whites-only nation, and antisemitism forms its theoretical core.”
He goes on to elaborate,
The successes of the civil rights movement created a terrible problem for White supremacist ideology. White supremacism—inscribed de jure by the Jim Crow regime and upheld de facto outside the South—had been the law of the land, and a Black-led social movement had toppled the political regime that supported it. How could a race of inferiors have unseated this power structure through organizing alone?... Some secret cabal, some mythological power, must be manipulating the social order behind the scenes. This diabolical evil must control television, banking, entertainment, education, and even Washington, D.C. It must be brainwashing White people, rendering them racially unconscious. What is this arch-nemesis of the White race, whose machinations have prevented the natural and inevitable imposition of white supremacy? It is, of course, the Jews. Jews function for today’s White nationalists as they often have for antisemites through the centuries: as the demons stirring an otherwise changing and heterogeneous pot of lesser evils.
It is well worth the time it takes to read the whole article and see how the nationalist and anti-semitic moment we find ourselves in is not about us alone.
Tonight, we can celebrate that Esther defeated the forces of Jew hatred long ago. We can celebrate also that to this very day, people fighting to defeat the forces of Jew hatred that appear on the streets of Beacon. We can celebrate the coalitions this community has built with other targeted communities in this area.
More than anything though, we can refuse to be defined by the stories that white supremacists tell about us and our supposed power, but rather hold tight to what is asked of us - to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with the Holy One.
Fri, April 26 2024
18 Nisan 5784
Today's Calendar
Chol Hamoed Pesach |
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: 6:00pm |
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Friday ,
AprApril 26 , 2024Friday Torah Study For Adults Led by Rabbi Brent Spodek
Friday, Apr 26th 5:00p to 6:00p
Join us on Friday nights at BHA for a soulful exploration of the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Brent. -
Friday ,
AprApril 26 , 2024Kabbalat Shabbat at BHA Led by Rabbi Brent Spodek
Friday, Apr 26th 6:00p to 7:00p
Please join us to light the Shabbat candles followed by Kabbalat Shabbat services led by Rabbi Brent. -
Sunday ,
AprApril 28 , 2024Masa for All Ages & Grades
Sunday, Apr 28th 9:30a to 12:00p
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Sunday ,
AprApril 28 , 2024Intro to Judaism-Introduction to Jewish History
Sunday, Apr 28th 9:30a to 11:00a
This year long class divided into 3 trimesters will be proceeding from the assumption that neither this culture nor those of us who have come together this year to study it are simple or simple-minded. -
Wednesday ,
MayMay 1 , 2024Morning Minyan at BHA and on Zoom
Wednesday, May 1st 8:45a to 10:00a
Whether you have been davvening with tallis and tefillin for years or you don’t know how to say those words you just read, come and be part of this most intimate of Jewish liturgical moments! BHA Members will lead services at BHA and on Zoom