The IHRA working definition of antisemitism should include lies about Judaism

It’s a lengthy definition but there are prominent oversights to be corrected

The first addition is not my idea, but it’s so excellent, I want to spread it.

A remark by Avi Shevin read: The IHRA working definition of antisemitism should be amended to include making false claims regarding Judaism.

1. Or better: antisemitism includes making false claims regarding Judaism that are meant to portray the Jewish Tradition as a wicked or secret plot, promoting evil, especially rape and murder, inferior, obsolete, or stupid.

How did no one think of this? There are so many examples of such falsity:

• The Talmud condones pedophilia
• The Talmud says that Jews should enslave the Gentiles
• The Talmud secretly teaches Jews to hate Christians
• The Talmud goes into great detail because Jews do not grasp ethics
• The Talmud is spiritually empty, and so is the entirety of Judaism
• The Talmud is full of “idolatry, lies, curses, and apostasy” (Luther)
• Jews hold on to these ancient books because they never developed
• Jews have different moral standards for Jews and Gentiles
• Jews slaughter Christian kids to use their blood in matzos
• Jews are too stubborn to be truthful and accept Jesus/Mohammed
• Judaism commands taking false oaths, murdering Jewish children converted to another faith, testing medication on Christians, and selling them rotten meat
• Jews must kill any Jew who tells Gentiles the truth about Rabbinic literature because if they’d know what it says, they’d kill all Jews
• The Torah says G^d baselessly favors the Jews, which is supremacy
• Kosher slaughter is needlessly cruel
• Circumcising boys is barbaric and disgusting
• Jews refuse to turn the other cheek and are full of revenge
• The Old Testament G^d is cruel, the New Testament G^d is loving.

This is all untrue, which is obvious, when one doesn’t see Jews as wicked.

***

I could think of four more anti-Judaism aspects of antisemitism.

2. A next point must be preventing or hindering people, Jews and Gentiles, from freely learning or teaching and preserving or developing pure Judaism. This was done in Israel during the Roman occupation 2000 years ago that forbade Jewish learning, in the Middle Ages the attempt to burn all handwritten copies of the Talmud, and in the former Soviet Union in the previous century where teaching religion was outlawed.

3 Let’s also include: a. appropriating Jewish teachings, b. falsifying Jewish teachings, or c. presenting teachings foreign to Judaism as Judaism. Taking Jewish ideas and pretending they are foreign to it. Love your neighbor as oneself. Walk the Golden Mean. Also: explaining Jewish texts in ways different from Judaism without acknowledging it. An eye for an eye means revenge. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality. Judaism is full of diversity, but clearly, some foreign ideas defile it.

One example of each of the three prejudices in this point 3:
a. Hiding that certain non-Jewish teachings were taken from Judaism
b. [See the many examples in the first point 1.]
c. Mixing the Old and the New Testament and teaching it as Judaism.

4. Claiming that effective attacks on Jews prove G^d’s approval. This goes especially for ‘the Jews’ killed Jesus and/or reject him as messiah.

5. Irritation that Judaism, though promoting equality for the law, gives different responsibilities to Jews from Gentiles, men from women, etc.

The current IHRA definition of antisemitism focuses on safety for Jews and their possessions. Yet, the (in)ability to learn and teach Judaism is certainly a concern too that plays at Jewish survival from genocide.

***

Thinking about this, eight more ideas came to mind. I checked, but they’re not yet included in the current IHRA non-legally binding working definition:

6. Denying Jews are a nation with its own ethnicity of which religion is an important part, Atheist Jews are Jews, antisemitism is racism and genocide, or a need for a special name because it is as any racism, or claiming that in essence, Jews are not oppressed but oppressors. The essence of genocide is not even a mass murder aimed at erasing a nation, wicked as this idea is, but rather, aiming to erase a Culture.

7. Claiming an idea can’t be antisemitic because some Jews agree with it, possibly including oneself. I have several good friends who agrees with me, and they are Jews themselves. I say so as a Jew.

8. Fraudulently or rightly claiming to be a Jew just to win sympathy or trust from Jews. George Santos. Madoff. Missionaries pretending to be Jews to try and introduce Christianity to unsuspecting Jews.

9. Gentiles in power favoring Jews, speaking highly of them, and hiring goodhearted or terrible Jews to high positions to exercise unpopular or hurtful measures, as an insurance policy in case of attacks on their rule, to deflect blame on the Jews as if they are the powerful and wicked ones who wronged them. This only ‘works’ where the Gentile working class is already hostile to Jews. This is the oldest form of State antisemitism. Trump and Kushner and Miller. Not to be confused with rulers who favor Jews because they proved them helpful. The King of Morocco.

10. Blaming the victim, highlighting hurts in Jews caused by antisemitism or flaws in Israel caused by the threat of or actual genocidal wars to ‘explain’ why Jews are evil. Lack of trust, optimism, and hope, and too much worry, over-responsible-ness, and heaviness.

11. Being jealousy of Jews because of imaginary or actual success. Possibly, the most popular antipathy against Jews is jealousy. Jews often do better than their Gentile counterparts. Yet, there is no foul play. Jews tend to work harder, if not frantically, since survival frequently had been only in money. Jealousy of Jews is then ‘justified’ by their fight to survive. Yet, richer Jews are still a minority. Some 80% of Jews are working-class.

12. The IHRA working definition already has: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” This could be improved (news words in italics) to: Denying the Jewish people their right to national self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a colonialist or racist endeavor or just a repayment for the Holocaust.

13. A journalistic hyper-focus on Israel and what’s really or imaginary wrong with Israeli Jews, portraying Jews as constantly creating trouble, especially fabricating they do onto others what was done to them: lying, discrimination, racism, murder, and genocide as if to say that the Holocaust was not so bad because Jews do the same to others.

***

To sum up my thirteen suggestions:

Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

• Making false claims regarding Judaism that are meant to portray the Jewish Tradition as a wicked or secret plot, promoting evil, especially rape and murder, and as inferior, obsolete, or stupid, which is all untrue, which is obvious, when one doesn’t see Jews as wicked.
• Preventing or hindering people, Jews and Gentiles, from freely learning or teaching and preserving or developing pure Judaism.
• Appropriating Jewish teachings, falsifying Jewish teachings, or presenting teachings whole or partly foreign to Judaism as Judaism.
• Claiming that effective attacks on Jews prove G^d’s approval. This is especially for ‘the Jews’ killed Jesus and/or reject him as messiah.
• Irritation that Judaism, though promoting equality for the law, gives different responsibilities to Jews from Gentiles, men from women, etc.
• Denying Jews are a nation with its own ethnicity of which religion is an important part, Atheist Jews are Jews, antisemitism is racism and genocide, or a need for a special name because it is as any racism, or claiming that in essence, Jews are not oppressed but oppressors.
• Claiming an idea can’t be antisemitic because some Jews agree with it, possibly including oneself.
• Fraudulently or rightly claiming to be a Jew just to win the sympathy or trust of Jews.
• Gentiles in power favoring Jews, speaking highly of them, and hiring goodhearted or terrible Jews to high positions to exercise unpopular or hurtful measures, as an insurance policy in case of attacks on their rule, to deflect blame on the Jews as if they are the powerful and wicked ones who wronged them.
• Blaming the victim, highlighting hurts in Jews caused by antisemitism or flaws in Israel caused by the threat of or actual genocidal wars against it to ‘explain’ why Jews are evil.
• Being jealous of Jews because of their imaginary or actual success.
• Denying the Jewish people their right to national self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a colonialist or racist endeavor or just a repayment for the Holocaust.
• A journalistic hyper-focus on Israel and what’s really or imaginary wrong in Israeli Jews, portraying Jews as constantly creating trouble, especially fabricating they do onto others what was done to them: lying, discrimination, racism, murder, and genocide as if to say that the Holocaust was not so bad because Jews do the same to others.