On the Dangers of Fighting Antisemitism

The first quote is from Donald J. Trump, in his Executive Order to “Combat the rise of antisemitism.” The second quote was shared by Mike Pence in his statement at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum. The third quote comes from Pastor John Hagee during a “Night to Honor Israel” at his church in Texas. These three men are all white Christian Zionists who take every opportunity to condemn antisemitism and demand that we fight it. What would it mean for us to agree with those statements? As a young Jew, much of my Jewish religious education, both formal and informal, was focused as much on antisemitism as it was on Judaism. While this might be hyperbolic, it really felt like antisemitism was one of the fundamental components of Judaism. Many of the ways antisemitism was being discussed, studied, and even fought, felt so weird to me and the people who most ardently claimed to “fight antisemitism” made my skin crawl. It felt like much of the fight against antisemitism was not really about antisemitism at all. At the time, I didn’t have a vocabulary to effectively articulate these feelings, so I just felt lost. <a href="https://emcohen.medium.com/on-the-dangers-of-fighting-antisemitism-c888c0bbd79f">Website</a>