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There Is a Better Way to Fight Antisemitism | Opinion


American Jews watched President Donald Trump’s inauguration with trepidation—the majority of us, after all, had not voted for him and were concerned what a president who has pushed antisemitic rhetoric might mean. Our fears were not assuaged by his talk of going after a mysterious corrupt elite, or when his right-hand man, billionaire Elon Musk, performed what looked like two Nazi salutes at a victory ceremony after thanking voters for saving civilization.

To be sure, as was the case when he was last president, Trump is vowing to fight antisemitism. Yet his approach is likely to be both divisive and ineffective. He has consistently minimized the widespread, too often deadly, antisemitism emanating from the white supremacist and Christian nationalist right, including from some of his own supporters. He ignores the key role of education in countering antisemitism and other forms of hate. And he fails to mobilize the broad-based multi-faith and cross-ideological coalitions that are indispensable for effective action, instead relying on key government appointees who themselves have troubling track records of antisemitic views and statements.

If the administration’s key response to this challenge of balancing passionate criticism of Israel and the right to free speech with protecting Jewish safety is to crack down on peaceful protests on and off campuses, going so far as threatening to deport pro-Palestinian student protesters, then this strategy will divide people within both major parties, and divide Jews from one another.

Chaos in Congress
CEO of National Jewish Advocacy Center, Rabbi Mark Goldfeder (R) arrrives to testify as demonstrators protest during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on antisemitism on college campuses on May…


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At the same time as he has promised to fight antisemitism, Trump has put together a roster of appointments and nominees who are all too comfortable with antisemitic rhetoric and ideology. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has selected to represent the United States at the United Nations, used language in campaign advertisements that echoed “replacement theory,” a white nationalist conspiracy in which often Jewish elites are flooding the country with immigrant masses to degrade the nation. Trump’s candidate to run Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., implied that COVID was designed in such a way as to spare Ashkenazi Jews. And Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s candidate for dealing with “government efficiency” has blamed the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for X’s commercial troubles, has also endorsed Germany’s far-right party (whose leaders, according to the ADL, have engaged in antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-democratic rhetoric), saying “Only the AfD can save Germany.” More recently, shortly before this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Musk told supporters at a rally held by the AfD to move beyond guilt over their past.

Clearly, Trump’s supposed determination to fight antisemitism does not extend to his own administration.

To fight antisemitism, we need coalitions, education, and solidarity, not fear and divisiveness, and not people who claim to be tackling antisemitism in one moment while boosting it in the next.

During the Obama administration, we worked, respectively, as the U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism and the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. We brought together unlikely allies who made great strides in building coalitional relationships and working toward peaceful cooperation and deeper understanding of, and respect for, those who were the victims of discrimination and hate.

The coalitions we need to build to fight antisemitism must bring together people of differing political ideologies, including those who hold profoundly different positions on other issues—but who are nevertheless allies in countering antisemitism—as indispensable in the push to preserve American democracy and celebrate America’s diversity. A vivid memory: In 2010, at an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe international conference on hate in Astana, Kazakhstan, Hannah swapped speeches with Farah Pandith, the Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Hannah condemned hatred of Muslims in the strongest terms possible, and Pandith did the same against antisemitism. We are most effective when we stand together.

Also central to fighting antisemitism is education. Education for all about the history of antisemitism and the devastating impact it has had on Jews over the centuries. Education on what antisemitism is—and what it isn’t.

Research shows that education helps reduce prejudice and bias. It is not an inoculation against hate as recent expressions of hate on our college campuses have dramatically illustrated but higher levels of education consistently correlate with lower levels of prejudice against minorities and out-groups.

There are those who, because of protests against Israel on university campuses, are already urging the Trump administration to crack down on higher education. While there are incidents of vile antisemitism on university campuses, we must stress that imposing definitions or litmus tests on academic institutions is not only counterproductive, but dangerous. Tools like the NexusCampus Guide to Identifying Antisemitism walk readers through common terms and tropes at the intersection of issues pertaining to Israel and antisemitism, acknowledging that terms can mean different things to different people and that both intent and impact matter.

This is true well before students get to university. In an age where some school districts are banning books on the Holocaust like The Diary of Anne Frank and Maus, we need to be doubling down on the importance of education. How ironic then that Trump has pledged to cut the Department of Education. This would be directly counter to the stated goal of fighting antisemitism.

Finally, American Jews must work to cultivate solidarity. We should work to create a society where public officials and other leaders speak out when Nazis march, as they recently did in Columbus, Ohio, or when swastikas areflown, as they were last November in front of a theatre in Michigan playing The Diary of Anne Frank, or when politicians say that they can’t allow Jews to represent their communities, as happened last year in Connecticut. We should push our leaders—in government, in business, and in civil society—to speak out against antisemitism, without excuses or throat clearing.

That also means that we should not limit ourselves to speaking up against antisemitism, which, as we know, is inextricably linked to other hatreds in the United States.

Fighting antisemitism demands thoughtful attention and nuanced understanding, not just broad proclamations that conflate it with criticism of Israel. In our polarized times, building coalitions and solidarity in the face of divisiveness and fear may seem different and novel. But if this isn’t the time to take antisemitism seriously, when is?

Hannah Rosenthal was U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism in the Obama administration. Rabbi David Saperstein is director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. They are members of the board of The Nexus Project.

The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.



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