Essays and viewpoints

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essay The Working Definition of Antisemitism Needs No Rewrite

Since 2005, government and nonprofit professionals tasked with combating antisemitism have championed the widespread recognition of the International Holocaust Remembrance

Ira N. Alliance (IHRA)

Forman Times of Working Israel Definition of Antisemitism. Prior to 2017, the IHRA Working Definition was largely uncontroversial in the United States except among simply not true. Indeed, the leadership role in supporting pro-Palestinian activists and a document never even uses the a modified version — what is few voices on the extreme left. word “Zionism.” Secretary of now the IHRA definition — in However, during President State Mike Pompeo was wide- 2010. Donald Trump’s term in ly criticized for abusing IHRA office, the definition became by attempting to use it as a more of a target for criticism. justification for designating In the last few weeks, two three human rights organizaalternative definitions have tions that have criticized Israel been proposed that seek to as antisemitic. modify or replace IHRA. However, it is important to

Both of these new definition recall that the IHRA definiprojects — the Nexus Task tion was not a creation of the Force out of the University Trump administration. The of Southern California and original text of what became the Jerusalem Declaration on the “Working Definition” Antisemitism (JDA) — appear was drafted back in 2005 for to have been motivated by the European Union’s Centre how the Trump adminis- on Racism and Xenophobia. tration, as well as far-right It was designed to respond organizations and individuals, to an emerging form of employed IHRA. On a num- antisemitism, an antisemitism ber of occasions, the Trump that utilized old anti-Jewish administration misrepresent- memes but substituted the ed the Working Definition. word “Israel” or “Zionist” for Jared Kushner, for instance, the word “Jew.” (This form published an op-ed in the of antisemitism was notably New York Times claiming present at the 2001 Durbin that the Working Definition Conference.) Indeed, it was makes clear that “anti-Zion- the Obama administration’s ism is antisemitism.” This is State Department that took a

ANSWERING THE CRITICS

Some of today’s critics of the IHRA definition believe that any definition of antisemitism should focus on right-wing nationalist antisemitism, believing that this is the only consequential form of hatred of Jews. However, such a position misreads the nature of contemporary antisemitism. Those who study the problem note that countries can have multiple forms of antisemitism that come from different ideological sources, and the predominant form can shift very quickly. The IHRA definition covers examples of antisemitism arising out of multiple sources — from the antisemitism that emanates from right-wing nationalist movements to that which comes from the extreme left. Some opponents of IHRA protest that the definition equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Such a claim, however, amounts to a misunderstanding of the document. While the definition lists a number of examples when criticism of Israel may be construed as antisemitic in nature, it clearly states that in all cases the context of the activity needs to be carefully considered. The Working Definition was not developed to be a blunt tool to curb criticism of Israel but rather to be a set of guidelines to help understand where speech or actions cross a line and can be construed as antisemitic.

Furthermore, IHRA does not endorse the banning of speech, even speech that is critical or hostile to the State of Israel or Zionism. Nor do its main proponents in the United States — such as the major Jewish community organizations — advocate the abridgment of the First Amendment right to free speech, even for antisemitic speech.

The JDA describes the IHRA definition as “unclear” and “widely open to different interpretations.” Yet one of the virtues of the Working Definition is that, precisely because it is open to some degree of interpretation (particularly interpretations based on careful consideration of context), it has been able to garner support from Jewish community organizations, governments, as well as a huge range of civil society insti-

essay Writing Poetry Helps Me Process the Unspeakable Evils of the Holocaust

Not long after the grue- absolute evil that sparked and some reality of the perpetrated the genocide of Holocaust had burst European Jewry, requiring us onto the world’s consciousness, to absorb and try to come to the philosopher and social terms with the unprecedented, theorist Theodor the unfathomable and, above Adorno famous- all, the inexplicable. ly observed Perhaps the most cogent in 1949 that context for this inexorable writing poetry immersion into the unknown after Auschwitz was given by my late teacher

Menachem Z. Rosensaft was barbaric — “nach Auschwitz and mentor Elie Wiesel, who explained in his essay “A Plea

Times of Israel ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barfor the Dead” that “Auschwitz signifies not only the failure barisch.” than a “relapse into barbarism.” thing written or said about the of two thousand years of

Less well known but equally Adorno understood that the Holocaust, whether in poetry Christian civilization, but also insightful was Adorno’s sub- Shoah’s calculated, systematic or prose, must first and fore- the defeat of the intellect that sequent conclusion, expressed savagery was an absolute devi- most encapsulate and reflect wants to find a Meaning — in a 1966 radio address in ation from the fundamental its barbaric essence. Aesthetic with a capital M — in history. Germany, that Auschwitz, norms of civilization and civi- sensitivities and considerations What Auschwitz embodied had itself, constituted nothing less lized behavior. To be valid, any- must yield to the undeniable none.”

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guest column Let’s Heal the JewishArab Rift in Israel

Sheik Jamal tends to the author’s accidental injury in Rahat, Israel, north of Beersheba.

Healing occurs only the groups and from each side’s when we look at the criticism of the other. Still, if other face-to-face. we wait for perfection, for the — The Zohar. problems and complexities to

Do we Jews in Israel truly disappear, we will find ourselves wish for coexistence and mutual waiting forever. respect among all Let us start instead from the of Israel’s varied opposite direction: “Connection communities? If before correction.” This apt we do, we would expression, which I learned do well to craft in an interfaith convention in an appropriate Jordan, teaches that change can

Yakov Nagen response to MK come about when we emphasize

Times of Mansour Abbas’ connection and communicaIsrael groundbreaking tion. April 1 speech.

As head of the Islamic Movement’s Ra’am Party, Abbas reached out to the Jewish majority and called for partnership, tolerance and careful listening between the groups. Without wading into complex political questions, there is a need for Jewish leaders to reach out to the Arab community in Israel with warmth and openness and welcome them to participate fully in building a society that works for everyone.

Such overtures can be difficult, stemming from profound differences in opinion between

REJECT CYNICISM

That said, many Jews distrust conciliatory speeches given by Arab leaders, suspecting that they are merely paying lip service to cooperation and masking their true intentions in order to achieve their political aims. It is easy to be cynical and wonder if their message in Arabic matches their friendly words in Hebrew or English. For many of us, it does not feel as though the other side is a genuine and sincere “partner.” But from years of personal experience with the Arab community, I can attest to their warmth and desire for connection with the Jewish community. Here are three pertinent examples, taken from my visits to Arab schools in Israel.

Kafr Qasim is the birthplace of the Islamic Movement and remains a stronghold of the organization today. I visited the comprehensive high school there recently, at a recognition ceremony for students who participated in volunteer activities to help during the COVID-19 period. The students were touched that a rabbi had come, and every student awarded a certificate also had their picture taken with me.

While there, I discussed the problem of religious violence with my friend Sheik Iyad Ammar, who is both the principal of the school and the Imam of Kafr Qasim. He shared with me that when he delivered a sermon after the murder of Esther Horgan [the mother of six who was slain by a terrorist while hiking in a West Bank forest], he vigorously denounced the murder and declared to those assembled at the mosque that such a heinous act could never be Allah’s will. His speech followed in the footsteps of his teacher, Sheik Abdullah Namir Darwish, who founded the Islamic Movement in Israel and publicly condemned terror attacks.

A second example, from the city of Rahat, whose comprehensive high school is the largest Arab school in the south, with over 1,000 students: Before the COVID-19 outbreak, my friend Sheik Jamal al-Ubara initiated a “Tolerance Day” there and invited me to participate along with representatives of

TIMES OF ISRAEL

ANTISEMITISM continued from page 4 tutions in Europe and in the United States.

The two new definitions raise issues worthy of consideration. But the guidelines they recommend represent the views of a smaller, mostly academic, constituency. Neither text provides a serious alternative to the IHRA definition, which, among its virtues, is also a succinct 580 words, making it easily digested and utilized as a practical guide by law enforcement and other security officials. For those who have for years battled the scourge of antisemitism, IHRA has proven to be an essential tool. It has already been adopted by nearly 30 countries and hundreds of public and private institutions, such as universities, local governments and law enforcement agencies, and enjoys a degree of consensus that would be difficult or impossible for another instrument to achieve. There is no doubt that false and reckless charges of antisemitism are a hindrance to the battle against antisemitism. But rather than campaign for an alternative tool, those involved in the fight should support the continued use of the IHRA Definition according to the manner in which it was originally drafted and adopted.

continued on page 10

Ira N. Forman served as the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism from 2013-2017. He is a former executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.

PURELY COMMENTARY

WRITING POETRY continued from page 6

JTA

“Psalm 121 on Fire” by Menachem Rosensaft GIVING VOICE TO THE DEAD

And yet, despite all these flashing yellow lights, I, the son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen who was born three years after the end of World War II in the displaced persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, long ago turned to expressing myself in poetry.

Over the decades, I have tried to give voice to the dead in my poems, to comfort ghosts and to provide a memorial to the millions who have none. A collection of these writings, Poems Born in BergenBelsen, is being published this month by Kelsay Books to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the Jewish day of remembrance for Holocaust victims on April 8, and the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945.

For me, conceptualizing my poems is often simultaneously a refuge and an escape. An escape from the realm of conventional human experience into a parallel internal reality. And a refuge where amorphous phantasmagoric thoughts and images emerge sufficiently from their nebulous twilight to allow me to express them, however inadequately, in words.

THE NEED FOR POETRY

We need poems, songs and parables. We need a Kafkaesque, morbid language of dreams and nightmares to be able to penetrate the nocturnal universe of Auschwitz and Birkenau, of Treblinka, Majdanek and BergenBelsen, of Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Terezin, of the Warsaw Ghetto, Transnistria and Babi Yar.

A sparse inscription on a Birkenau barrack wall forces us to identify with its author without knowing anything else about him: “Andreas Rapaport — lived sixteen years.” Aware that he was about to die, a Jewish teenager tried to leave a sign, a memory of his existence on Earth. Without pathos, without selfpity, Andreas Rapaport was the author of his own eulogy, his own Kaddish:

“Andreas Rapaport— lived sixteen years. Andreas Rapaport— abandoned, alone, afraid. Andreas Rapaport—hungry, in pain. Andreas Rapaport — gasfilled lungs. Andreas Rapaport—incinerated, black smoke, ashes.”

In “Under Your White stars,” Avraham Sutzkever, the Yiddish poet of the Vilna Ghetto, wrote, “stretch out to me Your white hand. My words are tears that want to rest in Your hand.”

It is the beginning of a monologue addressed to God that never turns into a dialogue because there is no response. Against a “murderous calm” that permeated the precarious existence of the ghetto’s inhabitants, the narrator writes: “I run higher, over rooftops, and I search: Where are You? Where?”

The poems written by Sutzkever and other poets in the ghettos and even in the Nazi death and concentration camps were their way of refusing to become dehumanized, of defying their

LET’S HEAL continued from page 8

the other three Abrahamic religions: Muslims, Christians and Druze.

We visited every classroom and spoke out against violence, in the name of our faiths. We also led discussions with the students about mutual respect among the religions. The principal met with the 12th graders and shared with them his opinion that what is important to God is not primarily which religion you belong to, but how you choose to behave and live.

At the end of the event, we planted a giant olive tree at the entrance to the campus, and I was given the honor of putting up the sign next to the tree. Unfortunately, when I got up, I bumped my head on a branch and was slightly injured. Sheik Jamal quipped, “Uh oh, when people see you, they’ll say, ‘Look what happens when you go to an Arab city!’”

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

On another visit, this time to an Arab school in the Galilean village of Kafr Rama, I asked the children if they could answer a question that has bothered me for some time: Israel is so small that its name doesn’t fit on maps of the Middle East. Its land is geographically insignificant. And while the number of people killed and injured due to the Arab-Israeli conflict looms large here, it is negligible compared to conflicts in other regions.

If so, why is the whole world focused on this tiny area of the globe? The children answered simply, “Everyone knows that everything started here.”

Indeed, the Abrahamic religions, which are all inspired by events that took place here, in the Land of Israel, more than 3,000 years ago, account for the majority of the world’s population. The children of Kafr Rama spoke about the past, but we can complete their thought: In the very place where it all started, we must look for a way to

oppressors and remaining sane in a world gone mad.

Upon arrival at AuschwitzBirkenau on the night of Aug. 3-4, 1943, a little boy named Benjamin was separated from his mother and sent directly into a gas chamber with his father and grandparents.

Benjamin was my half-brother. Even though my mother rarely spoke about him, I know that she thought of him every day of her life. Since her death in 1997, Benjamin has continued to exist within me. I see his face in my mind, try to imagine his voice, his fear as the gas chamber doors slammed shut, his final tears. If I were to forget him, he would disappear.

And I write about him so that my grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren in turn, will remember Benjamin as well. My poems are my legacy to them.

Menachem Z. Rosensaft is associate executive vice president and general counsel of the World Jewish Congress and teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities. He is the author of Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen.

tackle today’s challenges.

I believe that among both Jews and Arabs, “partners” do exist, people who believe that despite our differences and our disagreements we can forge a path to coexistence and mutual respect.

But we need more such people, many more. Join us!

Yakov Nagen is director of Ohr Torah Stone’s Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity.

EDUCATE. INCLUDE. EMPOWER.