#jewish rhetorics

[snapbookreviews]

Summer 2024 Behind-the-Scenes Reading

This summer was the summer of thesis reading.

There’s a very academic bent to this write-up, because, as I mentioned in last quarter’s write up. This was the summer of thesis reading. The write up you see before you is in no small part an extension of my thesis journaling, which was the half of my summer that wasn’t reading, meaning that even the non academic books here have been read in an academic mindset with an academic…

[still-searching-for-something]

Today was Yom HaShoah, the day that Jews remember the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the industrialized genocide of the European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941-1945.

This is a really simple opening statement, but bear with me--I think it gets a lot more... 'yeah, buts' than most people may realize. And I think a good way of illuminating that is to break down the difference between how gentiles and Jews commemorate and remember it.

In my experience, gentiles seem to view the Holocaust as the ultimate example of mankind's barbarity to mankind. Like, the distillation of evil, the most obvious example of dehumanization and bigotry brought to its horrifying and extreme conclusion. They emphasize Nazi Germany's responsibility, elevate the instances of non-Jewish Frenchmen and Poles and Germans who made efforts to save Jewish lives, and generally view Nazi oppression as a catastrophe of whom Jews were one of many victims. And they emphasize the Allied Powers' role in ending it by liberating the camps and invading Germany. Hence why International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on January 27th, the day Auschwitz was liberated.

But Jews have a different perspective.

We view the Holocaust as the most extreme manifestation of--but far from the conclusion to--mankind's barbarity to Jews. Not to his fellow man, per se, not to some universalized insert minority here slot, but to Jews, particularly and deliberately. The Nazis could never have accomplished their genocide were it not for the two millennia of anti-Jewish hatreds and dehumanization embedded deep in the institutions and political structures of European society. They didn't have to persuade Europe that the Jews were incurably evil, the Europeans already believed that. The Nazis had 99% of their work done before they'd even come to power, work that was done by the the Russian Empire, the Romans, Martin Luther, Christian Passion Plays, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the centuries of blood libels, the Fourth Lateran Council, the New Testament, the Spanish Empire, and on and on and on and on. It's as if some people think Hitler just woke up one day, out of the blue, with a total hatred of Jews and managed to use propaganda to convince the previously 100% tolerant Germans to hate Jews, too. Antisemitism did not begin or end with the Holocaust.

The sole responsibility of Nazi Germany in the Holocaust is also just... not true. Vichy France rounded up 13,152 Jews in the Vel' d'Hiv roundup, with not a single German participant, and sent them off to be murdered in Auschwitz. Vichy passed antisemitic legislation without any outside coercion--French Jews were hiding as much from the French police as they were from the Gestapo. France, of course, was the home of the Dreyfus Affair--antisemitism was and is a deep part of French society. And it isn't just France. Ukrainian nationalists participated in the Lviv pogroms, killing maybe around 8,000 Jews, Poles perpetrated the Jedwabne pogrom, and that doesn't even bring in that countries like the US, Switzerland and Ireland and Britain blocked Jewish emigrants, and I could just keep going on, but I think you get the point. Quite simply, six million Jews interspersed throughout Europe don't get murdered if it isn't without the collaboration of--or at minimum, silent assent and indifference--of all of their neighbors. The Nazis were the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust, of course, but almost all of Europe collaborated on some level, too. And this is a history that gets wiped away in favor of the comforting narrative of the Allied Powers bursting into Auschwitz, killing Nazis, and being horrified by what they've found, and then the poor people in the surrounding towns having NO IDEA about what had been going on. I think this narrative is why gentiles have International Holocaust Remembrance Day when Auschwitz was liberated--when they 'came to the rescue'--and why we have Yom HaShoah on the day in the Jewish calendar that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began--when we died on our own terms in spite of our murderers.

Think of the tiny, unwritten, centuries old minhagim of small Jewish shetls and towns like Trochenbrod, which were entirely annihilated. The end of the burgeoning Yiddish cinema. Yiddish going from 13 million speakers to 600,000 today. See how many entries in this list of shetls end with "town/city survived, but all/most Jews exterminated." Imagine for a moment, the potential rabbis and scholars and actors and scientists and artists who could have lived, had they survived or been born of Jews did. Three and a half million Polish Jews, to around 15,000 to 20,000 Polish Jews today. Imagine if Thessaloniki were still a majority Jewish city. How many Jews worldwide would be alive today had the Holocaust never happened? I've heard estimations of 32 million, compared to the real life 16 million. To kill such a massive number of people from an already tiny minority group--that has real consequences. The cultural loss for the Jewish people is staggering and beyond human comprehension.

And yet, the Nazis deliberate targeting of us is, in many ways, being pushed aside. Magnus Hirschfeld was gay, yes, and advanced the Institute of Sexology way ahead of its time and yeah, the Nazis were homophobic. But they were homophobic for antisemitic reasons. They viewed his work as Jewish perversions BECAUSE Dr. Hirschfeld was Jewish. In fact, they viewed homosexuality as a creation of the Jews. But so many progressive queer people, especially those who run in antizionist circles, seem to be trying to co-opt the Holocaust as being their trauma, downplaying Hirschfeld's Jewishness and holding the Institute up as proof that queer people were the 'real' victims of the Holocaust, entirely shutting out the millions of Jews, Sinti, Roma, and Slavs who were murdered. You can also see this in anti-mask conservatives comparing masking mandates during the pandemic to anti-Jewish legislation in the Holocaust, or the comparisons of the ongoing war against Hamas as being a 'modern day Holocaust.'

This phenomenon, Holocaust universalization, gets so much pushback from Jews for a reason--it downplays the anti-Jewish character of the Holocaust. It's softcore Holocaust denial. And it's so ridiculous we even have to say that, as the whole point of the Holocaust was to be anti-Jewish, to be the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." It's 'All Lives Mattering' the Holocaust. Holocaust universalization, and Holocaust inversion--the phenomenon of talking about Jews, Zionists, or Israelis as perpetrating a 'new Holocaust'--minimizes and trivializes the astounding damage and traumas and death and destruction wrought by the Holocaust. It's a polemical lie, so incendiary and so insulting--imagine telling a sexual assault survivor that they're morally no better than their rapist--that the only thing it can be is antisemitic. It is beyond reprehensible to talk like that, but it's so mainstream and acceptable to do it. Activists who say these things need to examine their own rhetoric, because it's dangerous, antisemitic, and adjacent to Holocaust denial. Not a place I think anyone should want to be.

The Holocaust is not a lesson Jews should have learned, an educational seminar, a 'card' Jews play, a choose your own adventure novel, a philosophical meditation on the nature of mankind's evils, or an empty slate upon which to project modern politics, warfare, or your ideology onto.

The Holocaust is, quite simply, the industrialized genocide of the European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941-1945. And today was Yom HaShoah, the day we remember that.

[gingerswagfreckles]

Incredible. Every single one of these comments except one is virulently antisemitic.

[edenfenixblogs]

For the record, the man accused in the shooting of the three Palestinian men was NOT JEWISH.

Please do not allow this terrible event to contribute to antisemitism or retaliatory Islamophobic violence.

James J. Eaton, the accused, is a white Christian man whose mother thought he was decorating a Christmas tree she gave him at the time of the shooting.

Many of us—Jews/Muslims/Israelis/Palestinians/Arabs—have been BEGGING those who claim to be our allies to dispense with violence and violent rhetoric against all of our communities precisely because we all know that these kinds of things happen as a result.

When I say that the rhetoric and tone you use online and the dogwhistles you espouse thoughtlessly can get people killed, this is what I’m talking about.

We all know that you want to be on the “right” side of history. But you have to want peace for all MORE than you want the self righteously fulfilling feeling of being right. This is not a game. People in your country are dying because people who claim to want to help are hurting everyone instead.

The only sides in this conflict are peace vs war, love vs hate. We must all be united in our desire for peace, not by our (self-proclaimed)“righteous” fury.

If you are demonizing Israel and Israelis and Jews or Muslims and Arabs and Palestinians, you are not only on the wrong side. You are not even on a side that can possibly be right.

Your personal political identity is irrelevant. Being a leftist/liberal/progressive doesn’t mean you’re immune to being hateful and Islamophobic and antisemitic. Being right wing/conservative doesn’t meant you are, either.

So, once again, I’m BEGGING YOU ALL: please tone down your rhetoric. Learn what dog whistles affect all parties in this conflict and then stop using them. Elevate the voices of people working for peace, not victory. And spend more time learning from those more familiar with the conflict than you do from those speaking most loudly about it.

And for the love of G-d. Please learn to interrogate a source for credibility before sharing it.

[spacelazarwolf]

“converts are too sensitive abt antisemitism, why are they making such a big deal out of it, they’re not even really jewish anyway”

i will shit directly into ur mouth

[edwardallenpoe]

the conflation of Zionism, the state of Israel, and Judaism is the worst thing on the planet, actually. Saying that supporting Palestine is antisemitism not only makes the struggle against genocide worse but it also makes the struggle against antisemitism worse! The more we conflate antizionism with antisemitism the less we will be able to spot actual antisemitism and the more we will harm the Jewish community and it is the greatest betrayal to Jewish people of all. Zionists (and 'leftists' who's hate for antisemitism is stronger than their love for jewish people and therefore inact alienation and conflation themselves) are doing a huge disservice to Jewish people (especially Jewish people who support Palestine and are being attacked by zionists and face so much antisemitism from zionists) and it's sickening.

I'm saying this as a non-jewish black person. You can SEE how much ACTUAL antisemitism is affecting the Jewish community but zionists are trying to conflate that with pro-palestinian protests and it's so frustrating.

How can zionists say that "from the river to the sea" is more colonialist than "we want '48"?

This post was inspired by an interview on MSNBC about the book "uncomfortable conversations with a jew" and seeing how they're also trying to frame antizionism and anti-Israel protests as equivalent to the civil rights protests and efforts towards freedom from the black community is sickening. This is an actual conversation to be had about antisemitism, antiblackness and intersectional activism and class solidarity between the Jewish community and the black community but the way they frame it in this lense is the biggest disservice, not just to the black and Jewish community but to every marginalized community. You CANNOT say that Israel's efforts to ethnically cleanse and genocide Palestine is the same as the African diaspora's (but specifically African American's) fight for rights and freedom, especially since the two biggest faces of the civil rights movement (Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X, who was a pan African) were for the Jewish community AND for Palestine.

please. We can be pro-palestine and support Jewish people. That is something you can do. And I ENCOURAGE it.

Zionism ≠ judaism. Israel ≠ judaism. We understand this the same way we understand that nazi ≠ German citizens and that the state of russia ≠ russian citizens.

[cruelsister-moved2]

i honestly think one thing gentile non-palestinian leftists need to do urgently is eradicate the idea from your mind that zionism is somehow good for jewish people. we pay lip service to the fact that antizionism isn't antisemitism, that jewish people aren't inherently associated with the state of israel, even that israel doesn't keep jews safe; yet the subtle implication that jews ultimately benefit from zionism creeps into our arguments.

zionism has fostered fundamentalism and pushed jewish communities globally to the right, marginalised and outright erased disaporic cultures, and has contributed to the near-disappearance of entire judaic languages. the zionist project exacerbates antisemitism and then warps discussions of it, encouraging the same dual-loyalty myths and racialised categorisation that were popular in nazi germany. it courts antisemitic christian fundamentalists who fund it because of their apocalyptic beliefs which ultimately involve the annihilation or conversion of all jews, and provides a smokescreen for antisemites who want to push jews from their own countries. and it isolates, incriminates, silences, and arrests the many, many jews who speak out against it.

i don't say this to try and decentre palestinian suffering at this time, hence why this isn't directed at palestinians, but i think it's incredibly important for the integrity of our arguments to recognise unequivocally that zionism is not beneficial to jewish people either.

[alwaysbewoke]

You know you fucked up when you got a slimeball like this talking like this about you...

[royalberryriku]

TERFs 🤝 Zionists

Using the exact same talking points and rhetoric.

[locrianking]

hey im saying this with so much love. but y’all have got to stop saying “zio” as a shorthand for zionist/zionism. it’s not a funny quirky abbreviation it is a derogatory term/maybe slur that was popularized & brought to the mainstream by david duke. you know. the kkk grand wizard.

jewish people feel free to add/critique

[lem0nademouth]

this is the part where I remind you that Judaism is a matrilineal closed practice and if you see someone screaming “(((they))) wouldn’t even consider me Jewish because [reason]!!!!” pause for a moment to remember that you are only considered Jewish under halacha if you 1. are born to a Jewish mother or 2. complete the (very long and difficult) conversion process. you can’t just wake up one day and decide to be Jewish.

and yes, patrilineal Jews exist, and they are Jews by every measure. i’m talking about the letter of the halacha that determines who can perform certain mitzvot. in most reform & conservative communities, patrilineal Jews are treated as matrilineal Jews in this respect. in most orthodox communities, patrilineal Jews and previously non-orthodox Jews are expected to convert. and no, this doesn’t make orthodox Jews “bad” or “evil” or “exclusionist”. they’re just more halacha then other communities.

Judaism is not bad for being a closed practice. A lot of closed practices don’t even allow conversion! So the next time a person you have never met who you know nothing about is complaining about the way they are viewed by a people group you know nothing about, ask yourself if they’re a reliable source for an entire culture and religion’s opinions.

[lynchiangf]

wrote and then deleted this post like 3 different times bc I can't put my thoughts about this into words as clearly as I'd like but it makes me so angry how zionists have largely "monopolized" judaism bc the narrative that all jewish people are zionists benefits them. I wish more people understood that they don't even care about jewish people on the whole. they're perfectly happy to erase the many jewish people who are and have been vocally anti-zionist. on zionist terms you can only be jewish if you agree with everything israel does, otherwise you don't exist. they're not interested in jewish people as people at all, they're interested in using them as tools to justify a nation-state's violence. and yet people still buy into the idea that israel is there for all jews. drives me up the wall

[vamptastic]

tikkunolamresistance got deleted 🙏

[anonymousdandelion]

Imagine if all the energy spent on arguing about whether or not Terrible Thing can/should be compared to the Holocaust, was instead spent on actually trying to address Terrible Thing on its own merit.

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

I’m sorry but you can’t cry “human rights violation!!!!” when you are actively carrying out a campaign of genocide.

[feuilletoniste]

This post is all bad but this part especially. Whew. You're conflating ALL Palestinians with the terrorists who murdered twelve hundred innocent people, and you still think you're helping the Palestinian cause?