Antisemitism from the left and right

By Joel Pittelman, Jewish Community Relations Council Chair

An email I received from Sheri Zvi, the Florida Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, included the following message:

During last week's presidential debate, President Trump was asked by moderator Chris Wallace: “Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down…” Rather than condemn white supremacists, President Trump repeatedly dodged the question and responded: “Proud Boys should stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The president’s response regarding the Proud Boys was astonishing and dangerous. Below are ADL resources that you can read and share. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see resources as they become available.

I want to emphasize that this is not a political issue. Rather, it addresses a serious point of discussion when the focus is antisemitism. The question could be stated, “Does the real threat to Jews emanate from antisemitism of radical leftists or from ultranationalist rightists?”

Scholarly literature and empirical evidence have yielded different answers to this question. Certainly, I am unable to answer the question here in this brief article. I will, however, urge you to open your minds to all sources of information, so that your thinking does not become polarized.

To view the question from a single perspective, such as our strong support for Israel or which party or candidate we support, will leave one with a biased perspective that won’t permit a broad understanding, both of the sources of antisemitism and the actions we should take to mitigate the effects of discrimination against our community.

Further, as I reflect on articles I have read and letters I have received following my previously published statements in support of racial justice, there is a racial component to some individuals’ positions. They suggest that we must be cautious in embracing racial justice, because antisemitic statements have been made by a few spokespeople of that movement or that violent acts have been perpetrated upon Jews by people of color. We can no more blame a whole movement or race for the actions of one, or a few, individuals than we would want every Jewish investment advisor, stockbroker or banker to be condemned for the sins perpetrated by Bernie Madoff.

When it comes to hating Jews, the far left and far right stand on common ground. The far right spins conspiracy theories about a worldwide Zionist government that controls U.S. foreign policy, while the far left paints AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, as a uniquely malignant force.

In her latest book, “Antisemitism: Here and Now,” Emory University’s renowned historian, Deborah Lipstadt, observes this absence of a dividing line between left and right when it comes to antisemitism. If the abhorrent history of antisemitism teaches anything, it is that the oldest hatred can take any shape and adapt to any ideology. Nazis or Communists, Christians or Muslims, Trump backers or Trump foes, white extremists or Black extremists — hostility to Jews grows in any soil. And if you condemn antisemitism only when it comes from the team you oppose, your condemnation is incomplete.