Confronting antisemitism in the US begins by addressing hate on campus
Antisemitism is the world’s oldest and most pernicious prejudice. Thankfully, antisemitism is once again receiving the attention it deserves. After two years of inaction—during which record numbers of antisemitic attacks have been documented in New York and other major cities—the White House has finally convened a roundtable on the subject and lawmakers are pushing for a strategy to address the subject.
It is wishful thinking to imagine that antisemitism will be completely eradicated any time soon. It has existed for millennia, and it is unlikely that a government-led task force will suddenly change public attitudes. Indeed, American music is saturated with antisemitic rhetoric. As the Algemeiner has carefully documented, antisemitic tropes can be found in the lyrics of pop sensations from Michael Jackson to Jay-Z. Music is an important barometer in any culture—a glimpse into what is collectively celebrated or valued—and an especially profound influence on the mores and attitudes of young people. Or consider institutional accommodation for the same harmful stereotypes including at the highest levels of government. At the U.S. State Department, for example, veteran diplomats have noted a record of suspecting Jewish employees of dual loyalty to Israel.
And yet there is another reality: Never, outside the establishment of the modern State of Israel, since their exile from Israel in the year 70, have Jews found a more hospitable home than they have in the United States of America. This remains true today, though rising numbers of recorded antisemitic incidents, including violent attacks, are rightly raising alarms. To continue that legacy, one all Americans should be proud of, will take serious introspection and more than glitzy roundtable discussions.
Where in American society should we look to solve a problem tied to an existential ideological threat Jews have faced for their entire existence as a people? Why do our musicians perpetuate the lazy stereotypes that makes life difficult and unwelcoming to Jews without a second thought? To answer the question, it is necessary to ask where antisemitism’s proponents feel free to articulate an intellectual defense of the hatred they advocate. In other words, where within American society does one find an academic case for antisemitism—a grand theory that justifies a thousand daily instances in everyday life?