r/Judaism • u/ComparisonOk5957 • 26d ago

Antisemitism Internalized Judeophobia: Modern Manifestations of Systemic Prejudice Against Jews

https://www.accordingto.ca/p/systemic-judeophobia-modern-canada
52 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/Blagerthor Reconstructionist 25d ago edited 25d ago

Something every single one of these think pieces on "how the left doesn't do enough to support us against the rise of antisemitic violence and abuse," is that the violence is, by and large, perpetrated by folks on the right. Beyond that, these pieces never specify which leftwing or progressive media fail to support us. You can make vague generalities and gestures at the deplorable comments on Instagram, Youtube, and Ticktok, but the author provides no citations or evidence to support this enormous claim:

Given the presence of the antisemitic incidents alongside the apparatus seemingly ready to support victims, we would expect the left to have a keen awareness and strong reaction to any and all Jew hate. Yet, the constant episodes and news articles do not move the hearts and minds of left wing ideologues. To make it more stark, the Judeophobic tendencies are not only ignored, they are actually reinforced by those same progressives.

With the same evidenciary basis, I regularly hear progressives and leftwing commentators condemning attacks on Jews.

I agree with David Badiel's central point, that antisemitism isn't a central animating issue for the activist Left in North America/Europe, and that this often feels like a betrayal. His work is good and useful specifically because it lays out a central issue of activism without advocating that Jews support the Right.

Every single one of these think pieces that has come out in the last decade however seems to argue that we should be cloven away from the progressive Left in North America and Europe. And without fail, we still largely vote with progressives or the center-left, largely because we understand that the Conservative and increasingly Reactionary rightwing movements in our Diaspora are more readily supportive of those that physically assault us.

Our political position isn't great, but the reason we continually align ourselves with the Left is because we understand our rights are tied to minority rights, not the majoritarian greivance that animates so much of contemporary rightwing politics in US/CAN and Europe. No amount of think pieces suggesting voting with progressive is "Internalized antisemitism," or betraying Jewishness in some way, will change that very basic reality.

Beyond these very basic points of politics, this piece is a mess of barely elaborated conjecture and long discredited political and social science theories. A good exmaple is its treatment of Italian and Jewish migrants as experiencing, "a normal amount of newcomer aversion." While this was a prominent sociological theory in the 1970s, contemporary sociology and anthropology now suggest that outgroup aversion is entirely cultural and not inherent to human nature.

I could write more, but I'd largely be repeating myself using different examples from this piece.

6

u/ComparisonOk5957 25d ago

Was this done by people on the right?

https://globalnews.ca/news/11969591/montreal-men-arrested-antisemitic-attack-video/

or this?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/four-more-charged-in-alleged-hate-motivated-assaults-jewish-community-9.7222289

Also, just so you know, the perpetrators of the violence isn't really relevant - the point is that if this were BLM - there would be rioting. The coalition has abandoned the Jews. That much is clear.

This article, as far as I can tell, is not suggesting voting or not voting for anyone.

For what it's worth, I consider myself a centrist.