Jewish Body Politic Needs an MLK. Jr.
Classified Ad: “Wanted a MLK Jr.-type leader who will teach the Jewish body politic on how to confront and respond effectively to antisemitism.
“The good news: he/she will not have to worry about reversing existing policies because none exist. The bad news: it will require changing centuries of political behavior and beliefs that staying quiet –- sha shtil –- and ‘building bridges’ are the preferred strategies and tactics.”
If only we could find such a leader because we have never learned that antisemitism can only be defeated by strong confrontation as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized in the civil rights movement.
I had the privilege of interviewing him in an Atlanta hotel in the mid- ‘60s before he became a major national figure and I asked him to respond to criticism he was receiving from blacks that he was igniting more hatred with his activism rather than helping the cause.
With his eloquence, he explained that the racism must be brought to the surface in order to reveal all its ugliness, and the racists must be made to pay a price. Racists, he said, will not change their abhorrent beliefs because they suddenly discover a sense of morality. They will respond if they find their self-interests in jeopardy –- thus the economic boycotts in the South and elsewhere. That is, of course, just a very brief summary of his response.
Activism not only produces results, but it also gives warnings to other bigots that they will be held accountable for their hatred. Jews have never learned that lesson.
Can anyone reading this point to a boycott launched by Jews or a picket line composed of Jews to protest Jewish-hatred or anti-Israel demagoguery?
Years ago, a major Jewish organization adopted a resolution that it would never –- never –- no matter the circumstances engage in a boycott. (I am not naming it because I support its apolitical work).
Yes, boycotts directed at blacks, gays, women or other minorities are to be denounced. But boycotts protesting hate, racism, misogyny should not only be conducted but encouraged. I, for one, would not have bought a Ford in the days of the antisemite Henry Ford I.
Just one “minor” recent example of regrettable Jewish political pacifism. Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would not attend her own party’s convention because, as a Jew, she did feel safe.
The reaction: Silence.
Imagine if Democratic Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is black, had said he would not attend the convention because he feared doing so would be unsafe since he is black.
What would have happened? All hell would have broken out not just in Michigan but in the country. And rightly so.
Question: What would blacks do if they faced the kind of vilification now suffered by Jews? What would the gay community do? What would women do? The answer, of course, is self-evident.
(And we failed badly in the election for Michigan U.S. senator in not comprehensively and effectively decrying the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel harangues of Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed. We’ll experience the dire consequences in the coming years. In his victory speech, in the interest of bringing people together, he again decried Israel’s apartheid and genocide. I will keep it at that in this column because I have discussed El-Sayed and his anti-Jewish animus at length in several previous pieces.
(Most important: This is not about one man. What has received little, if any, attention, is that, along with El-Sayed, about a half dozen “progressives” who presumably share his views were elected to Congress and many others won lesser local political offices. We need to remember: Political movements are evolutionary; they are not created overnight. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) celebrated the victory of its candidates, chanting “Free Palestine,” and promised, “We are just starting.”
(Consider: when President Carter accused Israel of “apartheid” in the title of one of his books, he was castigated even by members of his own party. Now the charge is embraced).
Which brings us to the post-October 7 era and how we have failed politically to fight all the charges of genocide, apartheid and more, and thereby allowed antisemitism to grow uncontested and very rapidly.
There are dozens of major Jewish organizations and hundreds more at local levels, yet none responded with the fervor required.
What should they have done?
Every time a public figure engaged in Jew-hatred and stigmatized Israel, they should have been called out –- and instantly. These organizations should have adopted a rapid response mechanism, allowing them to contest ugly charges in a timely manner.
Every newspaper, major or weekly, that published antisemitic news stories or opinion pieces, should have been publicly condemned. Jewish advertisers should have withdrawn their ads from these publications. Hold your emails: Yes, the First Amendment gives them a right to publish even bigoted stories, but we don’t have to finance the distribution of Jew-hatred, and help their bottom-line.
Jewish leaders should have appeared on political talk shows constantly, not only to denounce the hatred, but educate the public –- and the journalists –- on basic facts and perhaps even some history on the Gaza Strip and the treatment of Jews in Arab countries vs. Israel’s treatment of Arabs.
In the three years since October 7, I don’t remember seeing one Jewish spokesperson on a national political talk show. There should have been dozens.
In addition, press conferences should have been held constantly in every community. This tactic forces coverage because journalists have to attend for fear of losing a story to competitors.
What about a major social media program paired with a multi-million dollar –-or even multi-billion dollar–- ad campaign given what’s at stake?
We have never done any of this historically no matter how virulently we are attacked. Indeed, during the Nazi years in Germany, when some Jews went on the offensive to denounce the slaughter of Jews, they were attacked by fellow Jews.
In the ’30s, leaders like Hillel Kook (also known as Peter Bergson), a Zionist activist, and the famous playwright Ben Hecht, among others, were ostracized from Jewish organizations for their “unacceptable” political activism in decrying the Holocaust.
They organized mass meetings at Madison Square Garden in New York and placed ads in major newspapers, only to be chastised by more “moderate” Jewish activists.
When Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Weiss took to the streets in the late 1980s and early ‘90s for various Jewish causes, he was, basically, shunned and ignored by the mainstream Jewish body politic.
Through the years, I know of one major exception of political activism by the Jewish community. In 1987, some 250,000 Jews protested on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on behalf of Soviet Jewry. Called “Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews,” the demonstration was held a day before a summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. The protest demanded freedom of emigration for the three million Soviet Jews, as well as an end to their persecution within the communist bloc.
It worked. The doors in Russia started to open and Jews were permitted to emigrate. Many credited the demonstration for producing results because of the pressure placed on Gorbachev.
The irony is that, to our credit, we always have helped others. In the 1960s, we went to the South in droves to help blacks in their civil rights battle. In 1964, two of three civil rights activists killed by the KKK –- Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner –- were Jewish. The third, James Chaney, was black.
We have assisted labor unions, the LBGT community, women and other minorities.
Worth noting: When black people, union leaders, gay rights activists and other minorities fight for their rights, they are labeled “liberals.” But when the few Jewish activists have confronted anti-Semitism and taken controversial positions in behalf of Jews they are labeled “conservatives,” and the characterization is not meant to be positive.
I have previously used the following quote from Rabbi Hillel the Elder, who lived in the first century BCE and is considered one of the most significant religious leaders in Jewish history, but I think it is worth repeating: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”