Fear, Denial and the Jewish-American Response to Jew Hatred
Funny how planting feet and soul in the Promised Land can clear up one’s vision. On July 8, after witnessing twenty-one months of anemic responses to Jew hatred by Bay Area Jewish legacy organizations, I made Aliyah from Oakland, California. I had lived there through Jew hatred in Oakland schools, the City Council, and County Board meetings. It’s where the Chabad center and its Hanukkah menorah were vandalized, and where Jew hatred graffiti relentlessly appeared in public spaces. It’s where Jewish legacy organizations seemed overwhelmed and outmaneuvered by Bay Area anti-Zionist groups, ceding ground in the absence of an effective counterstrategy.
From vantagepoint Israel—where soldiers openly carry assault rifles and civilians carry handguns—it became clear to me how many Jewish Americans and legacy organizations were permitting fear and denial to rule their responses to Jew hatred, preventing them from meaningfully confronting this evil. So, shortly after my arrival, and well under the influence of Jerusalem’s spell, I submitted this opinion piece to a Bay Area Jewish news outlet. In it, I spelled out the failure of Jewish legacy organizations and laid out a proven strategy to combat Jew hatred. Two months later, my opinion piece was rejected because, in the managing editor’s words, “It was not directly tied to current news or events, which is one of the first things we look for in opinions of this sort. (Yes, I know Jew hatred is a constant.)” I had to laugh, because this response perfectly illustrated my thesis: Jewish legacy organizations—here, legacy Jewish media—have their heads in the sand. I’m now publishing my opinion piece here because while my focus was on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, it’s a story repeated in too many American Jewish communities, and its very rejection is the story. The only addition is the pictures. What do you think—does my opinion piece fail to tie into “current news or events”? Let me know in the comments.
A CALL FOR A NEW STRATEGY TO END JEW HATRED
Since October 7th, Jews in Oakland and beyond have found themselves up against organized, virulent Jew hatred that threatens our safety and security and has proven deadly. This hatred has revealed itself as systematic, structural, institutionalized. It is dogmatic and ideologically based. It transcends party lines. Facts do not matter. The approach that legacy Jewish organizations have taken to deal with this Jew hatred is not working. It’s time for a new strategy.
First, we must retake control of the definition of our plight by asserting that the Jew hatred we face is a civil rights issue. To be clear, as Jews, we face hate and discrimination because of our Jewishness. That, in essence, is Jew hatred.
Second, we, as Jews, set the rules of engagement by defining the purpose of our civil rights movement as ending Jew hatred, discrimination, and the threat of violence against Jews. Responding to Jew hatred in terms of pro-Israel advocacy sets up the counterargument. That’s not what we want to do because it allows Jew haters to take the issue outside the context of civil rights. Ending Jew hatred is about enforcing Jewish civil rights and not about a disagreement over Israel. This does not mean we abandon our pro-Zionist beliefs. What it means is we set the rules of engagement.
Third, we must go on the offensive by utilizing some of the same tools and tactics employed by other successful civil rights movements. These include impact litigation, political lobbying and organizing, the engagement of social tactics designed to change the culture by calling out Jew hatred, and the creation of social, political, and legal consequences to the tolerance of Jew hatred.
Most importantly, we must stop being afraid to assert ourselves as Jews. We must demonstrate Jewish pride through proactive Jewish activities that the entire community can see and participate in, such as marches, protests, public rallies, and entertainment events. Public assertions of Jewish pride not only act as a deterrent to Jew hatred activity but also strengthen Jewish identity. Seeing fellow Jews proudly and bravely assert their Jewishness encourages others to do the same. That’s what builds a movement.
Finally, no civil rights movement has been effective without significant grassroots mobilization. Many legacy Jewish organizations are excellent at political lobbying and can play a vital role in this new strategy. But such groups have not shown a willingness to engage in grassroots organizing. Rather, it’s been the frontline community groups, such as the Oakland Jewish Alliance, the Jewish Coalition of Berkeley, the Jewish Community of Piedmont, and the Bay Area Jewish Coalition in the South Bay, who are getting their hands dirty and doing the heavy lifting.
For example, the Oakland Jewish Alliance has connected with politicians, worked in political circles, reached out to and developed relations with potential allies, recruited volunteers, organized Jewish community programs. OJA volunteers were the first and only Jewish, pro-Israel voices many on the Oakland City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors had ever heard. We regularly removed hateful graffiti around Lake Merritt that, to this day, relentlessly reappears as testimony to the extent of the brazen Jew hatred problem in Oakland.
Alleging chronic antisemitism, Jew hatred, and anti-Jewish indoctrination, OJA brought suit against the Oakland Unified School District for its systematic failure to comply with the law and properly investigate complaints of Jew hatred, the District’s failure to address and prevent illegal discrimination and harassment, and its repeated failure to comply with the Public Records Act. The case is pending.
But OJA and other Bay Area grassroots groups face formidable, well–funded Jew hatred groups that have been at it for years. We are outfunded, overwhelmed, and outnumbered. Our efforts are nowhere near enough, and hardly anyone has come to our aid.
It’s time for the Jewish community to take its collective heads out of the sand because Jew hatred is only getting worse. We need a strategy change, and what I am proposing here is a tried-and-true approach that has already proven successful by civil rights attorney Brooke Goldstein and her #EndJewHatred movement. But to prevail in Oakland and the Bay Area against Jew hatred, we need significant funding for community organizers, a legal team, social media experts, and program support. For this, Jewish philanthropists and legacy groups must reevaluate their priorities and be open to constructive change, because the current approach is not cutting it.
