Trump’s Executive Order on Anti-Semitism: A Second Response
Last Wednesday morning, I wrote to the SAJ congregational list regarding the Executive Order regarding anti-Semitism on college campuses about to be issued by the President. At the time of my writing, the language of the Executive Order was not yet released. The New York Times had reported that the E.O. would define Judaism as a nationality. Progressive Jewish community leaders like myself were panicked. As I wrote then, I strongly opposed such a move as both problematic and dangerous for the Jewish people.
A bit later, we learned that the Executive Order did not do exactly as the NYT had claimed it would. The Order reaffirms that discrimination on the basis of religion, which had been established by previous presidents, including Obama. But, the order also expands the definition of anti-Semitism, directing agencies to look to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition that expands “hatred of Jews” from individuals to their property and to communal institutions.
While I am relieved that the definition of Jews as a nationality did not manifest, I remain concerned about the content, context, and motivation of this move.
First, I worry about a potential threat to free speech that could grow out of this order. While I have deep concerns about the climate on many college campuses and while I do not personally support the strategy of BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions), this order seems to give much more license to consider any criticism of Israel, coming from a Jew or a non-Jew, a progressive Zionist or an anti-Zionist, a potential threat that could lead to both the silencing of discourse and any kind of dissent. I love Israel and am looking forward to returning this summer, with my husband who has not been to Israel since he was 16 and with my 12 year old child who has never gone. I am also a person who criticizes the Occupation and the mistreatment of minorities and women in Israel. Would my dissent be protected under this law?
This is not to underestimate how challenging it on campuses at the moment, and how much anti-Semitism is putting students in precarious situations. There are many instances of anti-Zionism masquerading as anti-Semitism and this is problematic and needs to be called out and addressed. Anti-Semitism from the professors and administration should not be tolerated. While I did not experience this on my college campus decades ago, I have also felt that sense of being “left out” of the left, my political home, for insisting that Jews have a right to live in the land of Israel, even as I advocate for an end to the Occupation.
Yet, I do not believe that all anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism (see Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ excellent piece on this). There are lines to be drawn and times when certain speech is harassment and/or hostile, we have to be able to judge case by case and not simply in sweeping parameters. Sadly, I do not trust this administration to uphold free speech, given the vicious attacks on the free press and the untruths spewed on a regular basis.
Second, I believe that this Executive Order is a way for the Trump administration to say he is addressing the concerns around anti-Semitism without taking additional and necessary measures to make Jews safe. Yes, campuses can be hard and lonely places for Jewish students who are inappropriately blamed for the entirely of Palestinian suffering and for Israel’s oppressing forces. No individual American Jew can be blamed for actions of a government that is not their own and no individual Israel can be held response for Netanyahu’s offenses just as no individual American is responsible for Trump’s actions.
At the same time, we are living amidst a resurgence of white supremacy and a legitimization of hate. This week, two Jews, one detective, and an immigrant employee were murdered in a planned attack on a kosher store in Jersey City. Since my initial email, a Jewish Persian synagogue was attacked, the torah scrolls taken out of the ark and desecrated, tallisim stamped on in an act of hate. Eleven Jewish worshippers were murdered while in prayer in Pittsburgh little more than one year ago. Graves have been desecrated in cemeteries. White supremacists marched without masks and chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville. Elected officials and candidates running for office regularly traffic in anti-Semitic tropes that legitimize and normalize this kind of hate. This is the kind of hate that gets Jews killed.
If we really want to find anti-Semitism, we need to have an understanding of where it is coming from and how its latent flames have been fanned in this moment. If we want to make Jews (and others) safe, we will address the epidemic of gun violence and the access of guns by those aligned with hate groups. If we want to solve anti-Semitism, we will have to see our government refrain from a double speak: applauding themselves for their being so great for Jews because of its support of Israel while simultaneously attacking Jewish patriots like Colonel Vindman as traitors and blaming the “globalists” (code: Jews) for the problems of society.
If we want to really address anti-Semitism, then we will to examine the ways in which anti-Semitism is being weaponized to prevent the kind of large-scale solidarity needed to topple the system itself. Last year, we hosted NPR reporter Matt Katz at SAJ and he shared how many times he and other reporters get calls about the need to report anti-Semitism on the left from those on the right who have themselves been reported to be affiliated with white nationalism. This is a purposeful “divide and conquer” strategy that we need to be wary of.
Finally, a picture speaks a thousand words. President Trump signed this order surrounded by two evangelical Christian pastors, Robert Jeffress and John Hagee. As Joshua Shanes wrote, “Jeffress has literally damned Jews to hell, while Hagee has warned of an international plot led by the Rothschilds to undermine American sovereignty, described Hitler as a ‘hunter’ sent by God to kill Jews who refused to move to Israel and described the Antichrist as a ‘half-Jew homosexual.’” In politics, optics are purposeful. For an Executive Order fighting anti-Semitism, Trump chose his photo op to be with these two Jew-hating men. This leads me and I hope all of us to ask: Who is this Executive Order for? Which base is he aimed at? Whose security is he trying to seek?
Looking at that picture, it certainly does not feel like me. Or the kids in my synagogue going off to college, or my own kids following suit in a few years.
Anti-Semitism is complex and difficult. It needs to be addressed in all its forms and priority needs to go to the efforts that will curb its most dangerous manifestations. It cannot be solved by people who do not understand that Jews are Americans, and not just an extension of Israel (see Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ piece from last week on this).
In February and March 2020, SAJ is going to be engaging in two trainings on Anti-Semitism and Racism to help us understand these two phenomena and how they work together. Our first participants are limited to SAJ, but we may extend beyond based on need. This training is intended to help us understand how to better understand anti-Semitism in its current manifestation and to help us understand how that hate is both different from and also connected to the other forms of hate in America today. This is hopefully a step in addressing the issue in its nuance and understanding what we might do in response to what is happening in our world today. Email rabbilauren@saj.nyc for more info.
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