search
Steven Windmueller
Where Jews and Judaism Meet the Political Road!

At this Time & in this Decade The New Anti-Semitism

At this time and in this decade, we are experiencing a fundamentally different form of anti-Semitism. This current iteration of hate represents a fundamentally different set of characteristics from prior expressions. As a result, we will require a new way to understand its implications, measure its impact, and manage our response.

October 7th serves as the core generator in advancing this new modality of anti-Semitism.  In the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities, we specifically encountered this new type of Jewish hatred:

  • The denial of Israel’s legitimacy as a nation-state.
  • The identification of Jews as “Zionists” and accordingly, “Colonialists” and “Racists”.
  • “Are Jews White People?” as both the political left and far right attempt to redefine both who we are and what we represent.

Revisiting Traditional Tools for Measuring anti-Semitism:

Historically, the ADL’s methodology for measuring anti-Semitic attitudes focused on group traits and individual behaviors. This approach, developed in the post Second World War era, provided a snapshot as to how Jews were seen.

Posted below are the eleven standards employed by ADL:

  • Jews stick together more than other Americans.
  • Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America.
  • Jews have too much power in the business world.
  • Jews have too much control and influence on Wall Street.
  • Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.
  • Jews are just as honest as other people.
  • Jews always like to be the head of things.
  • Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind.
  • Jews have too much power in the United States today.
  • Jewish businessmen are so shrewd that other people do not have a fair chance at competition.
  • Jews have a lot of irritating faults.

As a community who has lived through centuries of anti-Semitism, we need to confront today a difficult type of hate messaging and in response develop a new set of indices for measuring anti-Semitism and create different strategies in countering this new and dangerous version of hate.

Unpacking the New Anti-Semitism:

Where the old form of monitoring beliefs about Jews was specifically tied to individualized practices and personal traits, the new anti-Semitism is collective in characteras it seeks to address the actions and outcomes created by Jews as a people and the role and place of the Jewish State. The “global Jew” is being identified as destroying established cultural and religious norms while advancing Jewish influence and control. The other objective, in connection with this new assault, involves the delegitimization of the State of Israel.

My earlier work on anti-Semitic thought and practice may be instructive in understanding this emerging model. In some of my previous writings, I have dealt the shift from individualized acts of anti-Jewish behavior to global and collective forms of anti-Semitism.

  • The role of “whiteness” in connection with the new anti-Semitism.
  • The simultaneous emergence of the left and right in anti-Semitic expression.
  • This form of anti-Judaism is being driven by a new and younger generation, marking the first time in modern history that the levels of anti-Semitism are markedly higher among 18–35-year-old individuals. Historically, negative attitudes and behaviors were driven by older generations.

Today’s anti-Semitism has a different set of “influencers” as social media provides the key delivery system of hate messaging. “Whiteness” and “Delegitimization” are the new standards by which Jews and Judaism are being judged. For the contemporary anti-Semite, Israel serves as the collective embodiment of the “international” Jew. The presence of Jews in positions of power points to their conspiratorial efforts to convert and employ their access of influence toward advancing self-interests.

To better understand this current form of anti-Semitism, these five principles reference its distinctive characteristics:

  1. The New Delivery Modality,Social Media as the New Framer of Hate: No longer understood as a set of confirmed facts, “truth” is now defined and established by its individual creator. Access to the internet offers to its users the power to define “the other.” Accordingly, these social networks now are the essential purveyors of the new hate and the arbiters of facts!
  2. Whiteness as the New Test: The new anti-Semitism reintroduces the issues of“race” and “nationality” into the mix, as Jews are being challenged in connection with their “whiteness” as well as their legitimacy as Americans. Jews are seen today as “white” pretenders. This is understood by the left who classify Jews as “too white.” The far right defines Jews as seeking to “replace” authentic white people in positions of power. For the latter, Jews are seeking to reshape American values and social practices as part of their quest for power, while for the left, Jews are no longer to be defined as victims of history but as part of the “new oppressors.”
  3. Jewish Statehood: The State of Israel has replaced “the individual Jew” as the embodiment of contemporary anti-Semitism.Israel has become the collective Jew! Its actions reflect the Jewish people’s shared political and economic objectives. Israel’s conduct is being called out as oppressive and sinister, while the State’s very existence is being challenged and demonized as represented by the BDS Movement.
  4. Creating a New Image of the Jew Conspiracy Theories: about Jews, Israel and Judaism are the new mantras. In the process Jews are described as possessing characteristics that make them dangerously “super-human.” Their power and influence as disrupters is not merely understood to be greater than others but rather their practices are defined as diabolical. Jews are being renamed today as a “Zionists” as we are described and identified as the embodiment of a whole people and a nation. The individual Jew has been redefined and targeted as the embodiment of the State of Israel. Whatever Israel’s actions may represent, the individual Jewish is now identified as being responsible for the collective behavior of the Jewish State.
  5. Legitimacy in Question Denial as the New Core Symbol of Anti-Semitic Practice: The case against the Jews begins by denying them their historical claims, namely, the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the truths concerning the Holocaust. By employing these tools, the new anti-Semitic tropes seek to remove the two defining experiences of 20th century Jewish history, by negating the Shoah as an untruth and by de-legitimizing Israel as a credible nation-state. Employing the motto, “From the River to the Sea,” our enemies have simply rejected the existence and viability of the Jewish State.

The goal of this new form of hatred is to discredit the 20th Century Jewish story as being without merit, legitimacy, or standing.

By employing these five criteria, Jews are being identified as problematically influential and destructively powerful, while at the same time being castigated for operating as “white” imposters. The new anti-Semite holds to the view that Jews, and more directly the Jewish State, have no claims to its past or credibility in defense of its national political identity in the present.

These ideas are being constructed and introduced on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Messenger, and various other social media platforms. Many of these themes are being crafted by the two ends of the political spectrum, by the intellectual base that drives the far right and the activist leadership that shapes the political left.

 Final Reflections:

In confirming this new reality, we should note that “over half (54%) of Jews in America have either experienced antisemitism…”

In the past, the individual Jew was identified as being problematic, today the collective story of the Jewish people is being challenged, just as the place and role of Jews in history is being minimized. Jewish claims in connection with our historic ties to homeland are being disputed. Our global and philanthropic institutions are seen as threatening to the welfare and interests of others, serving only to accrue power to the Jewish enterprise.

We are moving from one moment in history to another, as we identify this global form of anti-Semitic expression, delivered through social media and directed toward the marginalization of the Jewish people.

As a community who has lived through centuries of anti-Semitism, we must prepare for the unfolding of this emerging political platform of hate, seeking new means for both measuring and responding to its specific characteristics. Realizing that the current “treatments” we have created to battle anti-Semitism were constructed to be responsive to a different form of Jewish hate. Correspondingly, the delivery system employed today requires a totally different format of response. At this moment, the Jewish community is losing this war against anti-Semitism, precisely because we are misreading the characteristics, the tools, and the objectives associated with 21st century Anti-Semitism.

About the Author
Steven Windmueller, Ph.D. is an Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Service at the Jack H. Skirball Campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Prior to coming to HUC, Dr.Windmueller served for ten years as the JCRC Director of the LA Jewish Federation. Between 1973-1985, he was the director of the Greater Albany Jewish Federation (now the Federation of Northeastern New York). He began his career on the staff of the American Jewish Committtee. The author of four books and numerous articles, Steven Windmueller focuses his research and writings on Jewish political behavior, communal trends, and contemporary anti-Semitism.