BLAMED
Jews are blamed. Even when folks hold us high, saying they support us, we are blamed. They prop us up and point, the better to aim the blame.
What is blame? Blamed if I know. (They used to say that in old books and movies.)
Blame and more blame. I am blamed if I do it. I am blamed if I don’t.
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, as the song says.
Jews are blamed. It isn’t always us, but we are a shining example. (I’d almost rather they blame us; we’ve been taking it longer, we can handle it if we must. Leave the others alone if you have to blame someone.)
They ask what is a Jew. Darned if I know what to tell them, but I certainly am one.
I inherited it like a yoke of proud responsibility, no matter how one defines us. Jews think; we are compelled to learn, it behooves us to press for increasing intelligence, caring, and being useful in the world. We aggregate our history and draw upon its wisdom. And no two Jews have the same opinion on any one thing. Life is filled with nuance, as we keep the flame burning. We might have to run with that flame, but it stays alive.
Sometimes we know a Jew when we see one. Sometimes we don’t. Same with the auditory – sometimes we know a Jew when we hear one. (If they are discussing recipes for matzoh brei or chrain they are probably are Jewish.) The antisemites think they know us.
What is antisemitism?
Blamed if we can define it. But we know that it consists of blame.
When one Jew is perceived to be guilty of something, we are all seen to be responsible.
This is why one Jew can bring shame on the entire Jewish people. When a Jew commits a crime, or does something even slightly questionable, we all murmur that it is a shonda, a shame upon the lot of us. We know that shame can bring blame.
Even if no Jew does anything wrong, guilt can be applied through insinuation, through propaganda. If they believe it, they will act upon it. “A Jew made the sky fall!” “Okay, let’s get them now.”
They claim we define antisemitism too broadly. Again, Jews are blamed.
Governments bandy about the term “antisemitism” as if it is some kind of hot potato poisoning their water, but they never just get out of the water. I think they are spreading hate more than they are earnestly trying to stop it.
Some are passing laws including antisemitism, pro or con. Some lawmakers have good intentions but difficulty navigating; others are ham-handed and end up solving nothing.
Some high-level governmental officials are using the word itself as a tool to incite compliance with restrictive and destructive covenants about other matters entirely, matters which make some Jews cringe. Certainly Harvard’s President Alan Garber has noticed and is speaking clearly.
Is it worse that some governments overseas pass laws that are meant to stop Jewish practices? Examples would be forbidding all meat slaughtering except clubbing the animal over the head, or banning circumcision, baselessly framing the rules as pro-animal and pro-human while clearly they are anti-Jew. Are they antisemitic? Maybe we need a new word for it.
Right now there are a lot of things going on in the world that are purported to be good for the Jews. The heads of state in various countries are taking actions of questionable benefit to Jewish interests though they righteously declare them so; I am a citizen of the United States, so I am watching Donald Trump, who makes such claims.
In 2018, Trump was president, continually spouting off about Invading Immigrants, and Jews were widely purported to be paying out scads of money to bring in Trump’s perceived invaders. So an already antisemitic shooter began planning his attack on the Jews. He hunted us down to brutally murder each of us. He regrets not having killed more.
Thus Trump is not exempt from complicity in that hate crime, no matter how many times he says he is the best thing for Jews since sliced matzoh, regardless of how many flowers he laid beside our synagogue the following week.
During his election campaign, Trump additionally proclaimed himself the best thing for Israel. He was really catering to the 23% of the U.S. population identifying as evangelical Christians, who believe that Jews must live in Israel for the End Time to properly take place (so that we can die there). He does not really care about the two percent of the population who are Jews, though a significant number of Jews were convinced to vote for him. We will be his useful levers until we are not.
Now Trump is strong-arming educational institutions under the pretense of their not properly getting rid of antisemitism, just in case we Jews consider not supporting Trump, not kowtowing, not paying obeisance, or not falling on the floor in front of him with his gold-plated Bible and sneakers.
Trump is laying the path for us to be held responsible for the destruction of our educational systems – from K-12 through college. If we kowtow to him, he will continue to say he is doing it to defend us, which leaves us open to the wrath of those who understand how wrong it all is. If we demur and request that he stop, he can call us out and put us into the crosshairs; Trump will aim blame at us and find someone else to “rescue” by eliminating education.
No matter what, we are being set up as pariahs. Nothing will be Trump’s fault: not the right-wing antisemites he let out of prison from the January 6th Capitol attack, not the dismantling of education by his Wrestler in Chief, not his Third-Reich-saluting Liege Doge, not his backing the country out of research commitments with universities, not the destruction of educational television and radio, not the banning and decimation of the news media, not even eliminating books from the military libraries (but leaving two copies of Mein Kampf); none of it will be Trump’s fault. Jews will be held responsible by the left wing because he says he is doing it for us, and by the right wing if we say we don’t want him to do it. Netanyahu will be angry if Trump abandons him, and Israelis will be angry if American Jews abandon Trump. It’s almost like we are being framed. Are we being framed?
As an old friend used to say, “disirregardlessly” we will take the fall.
The blame for everything is sure-as-shootin’ going to be put on us. Framed, shamed, and blamed, no matter what we do.
So while I have the moment, and possibly still have the freedom, I unequivocally hold Trump and his cronies, fellow despots, and oligarchs responsible for nearly everything wrong in the world right now. Named and declaimed. Blamed.
