Persona: Community Members

By Rich Tenorio

When academic and author Walter Russell Mead gave lectures as a guest speaker for the State Department to audiences around the world, he was surprised by recurring misperceptions about American Jews, the U.S. government and Israel. 

“People were constantly arguing that somehow American policy toward Israel was radically different than policies toward other countries and the only possible explanation was that the American Jewish community—maybe with some help from the evangelical Christians—was influencing the American policy discussion,” Mead said. “It just did not make sense to me, I have to say.” 

Mead has written a new book in response—“The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.” At over 600 pages, the book is a comprehensive examination of American policy toward Israel and Zionism, as well as a rebuttal of antisemitic beliefs about the perceived influence of the American Jewish community. 

A professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Mead wrote the book over the course of a decade, changing focus midway through the project. 

Along the way, he helped shatter some myths. Politically, Israel and America have not always been closely aligned, and when they have drawn closer, it was often through presidents who were unpopular among American Jews, such as the trio of Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, who acted more out of what they saw as the national interest and less about how they perceived American Jews would respond. When the American Jewish community did call upon the government to intervene on behalf of coreligionists abroad, they got nowhere—most infamously during the Holocaust. Conversely, some of Israel’s most important supporters throughout history were neither Jewish nor evangelical. In the 1940s, Israel got crucial backing from pro-U.N. progressives such as Eleanor Roosevelt, while today, Republicans who embrace the philosophy of Andrew Jackson represent an equally important constituency. 

“Over 50% of Americans are supportive of Israel,” Mead said, noting that this far exceeds the number of evangelicals and Jews in the country, while the idea that “one or both of these groups is driving the whole train struck me as just very improbable.” 

One creative motif that characterizes the book is the author’s references to Planet Vulcan—not Mr. Spock’s birthplace, but rather a purported scientific discovery from the 19th century. The French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier claimed he had found a new planet around Mercury. This “discovery” was accepted by many before it was disproved by Albert Einstein several decades later. Le Verrier’s belief in a planet that didn’t actually exist, the author posits, is similar to the way people across the world view U.S. policy on Israel. 

“I had talks with cabinet ministers and policymakers in countries around the world,” Mead reflected. “I heard them coming up with conspiracy theories that were almost something you’d expect from ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’ This was not simply popular prejudice rooted in ignorance. These were actually intelligent, well-informed people, generally speaking, who just could not see something clearly.” 

Noting that even Thomas Edison claimed he could see Planet Vulcan, Mead said, “People following logic and reason, as they understood it, were seeing something that wasn’t there, for 30 years. I think it’s a useful analogy for people coming to the conclusion that Jews are responsible for America’s Israel policy.” 

To help readers understand the real sources of U.S. support for Israel, the author explores the history of American attitudes toward Jews and Israel, which he describes as overall friendlier than in Europe and warmly disposed toward a particular Protestant reading of the Bible. 

“American Protestants have been teaching since before the American Revolution, going back to the 1600s in New England,” he said, “about the ritual prophecies in Isaiah and other places [in the Bible] as well, about the return of the Jews to the land of the Bible.” 

According to Mead, starting early on in American history, “we see the idea of supporting a restoration of the Jews to their historic homeland.” 

The nation’s second president, John Adams of Massachusetts, once wrote to a Jewish friend, “I hope someday to see you at the head of an army returning to the land of your faith.” America’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, traveled to Ottoman Palestine as a young boy with his parents. In 1917, following his two terms as chief executive, he embraced the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain’s statement of support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. 

Mead acknowledged that America has hardly been free of antisemitism during its history, and that in addition to philo-semitism and geopolitics, American Zionists have also included antisemites who wanted to get Jews out of the U.S. 

He added, “A critical mass of non-Jewish support was available for the Zionist project. It was not available for other things Jews wanted to do.” 

Poignantly, he said, “If you look at the record of Jewish lobbying in America in the 1930s, what the Jews wanted was two things: Tell Hitler and other countries in Europe to stop persecuting Jews, and allow greater numbers of Jews to come to America from where they were being persecuted. They got nowhere; they got nothing.” He further noted that following World War II and President Harry S. Truman’s recognition of Israel in 1948, “Immediately afterward, Dwight Eisenhower came to power. Eisenhower actually sided with Egypt against Israel at the time of the Suez Crisis. 

“The idea that somehow Jews are in control, Jews are telling everybody what to do, explains our Israel policy, to me it’s a crazy idea with no serious foundation in history or logic,” Mead said. 

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

By Rich Tenorio

At a hotel in the White Mountains, a man arrives to check in for his honeymoon stay. When he identifies as Jewish and asks if there is a policy against Jewish guests, he is told there is suddenly no vacancy, recommended to go to another hotel and ushered out the door. This is a scene from “Gentleman’s Agreement,” a 1947 Gregory Peck feature film about antisemitism that marks its 75th anniversary this year. It’s also one of 10 films spotlighted by experts as among the most significant to address antisemitism. Here’s the list—watch one, or more!

“Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947)

This film won the Academy Award for best picture. Peck stars as Schuyler Green, a journalist whose first assignment for a magazine is to write an exposé on antisemitism. Green, who is Christian, makes a daring decision: He will assume the identity of a Jew. Peck’s character makes a series of shattering discoveries about antisemitism in America—including “gentleman’s agreements” prohibiting Jews at hotels.

“[The film] reinforces the idea that antisemitism is un-American—good Americans, real Americans, nice people are not meant to have that sort of [antisemitic] viewpoint,” said Samantha Pickette, assistant director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who received her Ph.D. from Boston University. 

Overall, “‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ really reflects this moment in American culture in the immediate post-war years,” she said. “This kind of reckoning with the fact that antisemitism had been and was still rampant within the U.S. There was a cognitive dissonance around the fact that the antisemitism that existed in American society was essentially the same kind of antisemitism at the root of what had just happened in Nazi Germany. It was difficult for post-war Americans to accept that they could be anything like Nazis.” 

“Crossfire” (1947)

Centering on a murder case with antisemitism as a motive, this film features Robert Young and Robert Mitchum. Like “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Crossfire” marks its 75th anniversary this year. Pickette describes both as “probably the most well-known” films about antisemitism. 

“When you look back at films that have come out either addressing antisemitism or at least including scenes related to antisemitism, they should be included,” she said. 

“School Ties” (1992)

Set in a fictitious, upper-crust New England prep school during the 1950s, this film stars Brendan Fraser as David, a working-class Jewish student-athlete who conceals his faith. He excels on the football team and dates a debutante, but things worsen dramatically after his identity is revealed. 

Noted Pickette: “There’s a bit of a triumph in encouraging audiences to put themselves in the shoes of somebody who’s Jewish and experiencing these things. It sort of encourages audiences to be a little bit more empathic.” 

The actors portraying David’s tormentors include two men from Cambridge who went on to Hollywood stardom—Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. CJP president Rabbi Marc Baker had a bit role, and last year appeared on a panel when the Boston Jewish Film Festival screened it. Joey Katz, director of special programming for Boston Jewish Film, said they discussed how the film, specifically antisemitism in schools, is still relevant today. 

“Denial” (2016)

Rachel Weisz stars as Deborah Lipstadt, current U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism. The film centers on an earlier moment from Lipstadt’s career—the 1996 trial that ensued when Holocaust denier David Irving sued her for libel in the U.K. 

John Michalczyk, director of the film studies program at Boston College and a documentarian with extensive experience in making films about the Holocaust, described “Denial” as “a very popular film, very well-acted.” 

“Mr. Skeffington” (1944) 

Leslie Epstein, former head of the creative writing program at Boston University, has a family connection to this film: Its co-writers and co-producers were Philip and Julius Epstein—his father and uncle, respectively. (Bostonians celebrate another member of the family—her son Theo, who in 2004 was the general manager of the Red Sox when they won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.) 

Back in 1942, Philip and Julius Epstein won the Academy Award for best screenplay for “Casablanca.” Two years later, they courageously made a film that addressed antisemitism, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains. According to Leslie Epstein, his father and uncle not only tackled the issue at a time when Hollywood was reluctant to do so, they actually used the word “Jewish” in the film—a rarity during those years. “There was tremendous cowardice in the American and Jewish film community shown all through World War II, before and after—‘Don’t make waves, don’t make it a Jewish war.’”  

Asked how his father and uncle were able to defy this, he replied: “They were able to do ‘Mr. Skeffington’ because they were the producers. They were not just schmucks with typewriters, and because they were the producers, they had some leeway.” 

“Jojo Rabbit” (2019)

Taika Waititi not only directed this film, he won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay and appeared as Adolf Hitler. Waititi’s Hitler is the imaginary friend of a young boy named Jojo growing up in Nazi Germany. Initially a proud member of the Hitler Youth, Jojo becomes more sensitive to the plight of the Jews—first through his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), and then from Elsa, the Jewish girl Rosie hides in their home. 

At Boston College, Michalczyk includes “Jojo Rabbit” in a course he teaches on film and art in the Third Reich.  

“Chariots of Fire” (1981)

Known for its stirring instrumental theme, this British film won the Oscar for best picture, best screenplay, best costume design and best original score. It dramatizes the real-life friendship between two U.K. track and field stars—Harold Abrahams, a Jew, and Eric Liddell, a Protestant missionary—and their memorable performances in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Played by Ben Cross, Abrahams is a student at Cambridge University, where his faith is the subject of some questionable comments from administrators. Overall, Michalczyk finds the film both powerful and positive. 

“Isaac” (2019)

This Lithuanian film addresses the massacres of Jews in World War II in what was then a Soviet socialist republic—and to what extent the local population was involved. Katz, of Boston Jewish Film, said “Isaac” has “kind of a different angle on antisemitism.” 

“Basically, it’s about this person who took part in a pogrom in Lithuania in the early 1940s, and then it’s kind of him coming to terms with what he’s done. He becomes a film director in the Soviet Union and guilt starts to take over. He incorporates it into his films and he writes his films about it.”  

“Witness Theater” (2018)

This documentary by Oren Rudavsky takes its name from a program in which Holocaust survivors create dramatic productions about their lives, in partnership with high school students. 

“I think it’s a fantastic documentary,” Katz said, noting that the survivors are “telling the stories of antisemitism, their experiences [and] making those connections to students, informing them.” 

“American History X” (1998)

Edward Norton and Edward Furlong take top billing as a pair of neo-Nazi, white-supremacist skinhead brothers from Los Angeles. 

“It’s a very disturbing film,” Pickette said. “Also, it’s an important film to watch. It really makes you uncomfortable. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. It confronts the fact that this kind of bigotry exists in our society. It’s the same thing in today’s day and age, when antisemitism is on the rise with all sorts of different kinds of bigotry and racism.”  

Other films about antisemitism to add to your watch list:

• “The City Without Jews” (1924) 
• “The Jazz Singer” (1927) 
• “Abie’s Irish Rose” (1928) 
• “The Rules of the Game” (1939)
• “The Stranger” (1946) 
• “Rope” (1948) 
• “Jules and Jim” (1962) 
• “The Pawnbroker” (1964) 
• “Betrayed” (1988)
• “Music Box” (1989) 
• “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) 
• “The Believer” (2001) 
• “Amen” (2002) 
• “Constantine’s Sword” (2007)
• “BlacKkKlansman” (2018) 
• “Masel Tov Cocktail” (short film, 2020)

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

By Judy Bolton-Fasman 

By the late 1980s, historical antisemitism seemed to be fading. The domestic far-right at the time mainly consisted of a ragtag group of cranky white supremacists whose dog whistles were essentially mute, and the far-left’s stridency had been tamped down. The founding of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), true to its name in promoting boycotting, divesting and imposing economic sanctions on Israel, was almost 20 years away from its 2005 founding. This is not to say that antisemitism was not lurking, but it was more confined to dark corners. However, its new and worrisome resurgence inspires the question of whether the old antisemitism was waiting to resurface, or had it come roaring back attaching itself to new life forms? 

The well-written, carefully researched essays in “Looking for an Enemy: Eight Essays on Antisemitism,” edited by Jo Glanville, ask those questions and address them in the context of history, analysis and insightful observations. Six essays deal with antisemitism in Europe, including tracking its virulency in Poland, France and Germany. 

The first essay in the book is by Mikołaj Grynberg, a photographer and writer whose work addresses the fraught history of 20th-century Polish Jewry. His work is often personal: Most of his family survived Auschwitz, and his essay “Family Stories,” lucidly translated by Sean Gasper, is a collage-like rendering of his life in Poland told through the antisemitism he has experienced. 

At 56, Grynberg is old enough to remember the 1968 pogroms in Poland set off by Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Grynberg comments that Polish communists jumpstarted a concerted effort to erase the country’s Holocaust history and its Jewish victims. In 2018, Poland’s authoritarian government passed what is popularly known as the “Polish Holocaust Amendment,” which outlaws any mention of Polish participation in the Holocaust. He writes, “The Polish version of ‘Make America Great Again’ is ‘Poland Rising From Its Knees.’ In reality, it was Polish antisemitism that rose from its knees.” 

Glanville, the book’s editor and a British journalist, writes in her introduction to the book that antisemitism is “in the DNA of western culture.” Glanville contributes an essay identifying one of antisemitism’s more enduring canards, the “blood libel.” She contends that antisemitism became embedded in Europe’s cultural life with the first blood libel accusation in the 12th century. A forester found a young boy’s body in the woods and Jews were allegedly accused of murdering the child as part of a ritual “blood sacrifice.” The murder was evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy to undermine Christendom and has since been an enduring antisemitic falsehood. 

Daniel Trilling is a London-based journalist, and his essay gives this collection its evocative title. In his piece, Trilling explores how “far-right politics is structurally incapable of cutting its links with antisemitism.” He further asserts that “across a turbulent world today, the far-right is once again looking for an enemy to name…and antisemitic theory provides it.” 

Philip Spencer, a British academic who has taught Holocaust history and genocide studies, brings to light an antisemitic trope popular with the British left that sees Jews as an obstacle to progress. The malicious lie asserts that Jews self-segregate, and their unwavering support of Israel causes them to associate with an occupation perpetuated by capitalism. Spencer’s essay begs the question explicitly addressed by Rabbi Jill Jacobs and Tom Segev of whether anti-Zionism is also antisemitism. 

Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes rabbis and cantors to advance human rights in North America, Israel and the Palestinian territories, addresses separating antisemitism from legitimate criticism of Israel and its supporters. Her essay, “License to Hate,” tracks the rise of the spate of American anti-Jewish prejudice that prominently drove the Trump presidency’s agenda. Trump-endorsed far-right groups include evangelicals who support Israel’s far-right politicians while simultaneously working toward the mass conversion of Jews. She shows how the evangelical agenda is linked to the conspiratorial group QAnon. In this pandemic age, the alliance lends itself to describing this version of antisemitism as a new variant. 

Additionally, traditional political barriers have been irrevocably penetrated. “It is no coincidence,” writes Jacobs, “that antisemitic incidents, including violent ones, rose during Trump’s term in office…Trump’s campaign advertisement [implying that Jews pull the levers of power in Washington] has its roots in longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories depicting Jews as a secret global power structure attempting to undermine the world.” Think of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” recycled for the 21st century. 

Segev, an Israeli historian and journalist, presents anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, a contention he notes with which not everyone agrees. In his astute essay, “Living with the Holocaust,” Segev writes: “Some racists have in fact chosen to disguise their antisemitism as criticism of Israel and Zionism…[The BDS movement is] an amalgamation of groups with varying agendas, sizes, and means of operation…Unlike the anti-Israel boycott in the 1950s, organizations such as BDS have been incapable of causing real harm to the country. Still, [former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu greatly inflated the organization’s potential danger and ordered a grandiose counter-offensive.” 

Boston recently encountered the BDS movement through its targeted promotion of the “Mapping Project.” The innocuous-sounding project lists Massachusetts Jewish communal groups that BDS says are “responsible for the colonization of Palestine or other harms such as policing, U.S. imperialism and displacement.” Almost every Jewish communal organization in Massachusetts and its leadership are listed on the interactive map. 

A joint statement from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, CJP and ADL New England reads, in part: “The underlying messages are clear: Jews are responsible for the ills of our community, and if you maintain your relationship with Jewish organizations, you will share that responsibility…At a time when antisemitism, including antisemitic attacks on the legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel intensify, we in Boston will stand together and continue our work building bridges, supporting our allies and each other, and confronting antisemitism where we see it and when we experience it—as we do today.” 

Although a slim book, “Looking for an Enemy” is a tour de force. However, a minor criticism is the absence of an expansive analysis of Jeremy Corbyn’s role in perpetuating antisemitism. Accusations of antisemitism marred Corbyn’s term as England’s liberal Labour Party leader. A human rights watchdog group found the Labour Party responsible for “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during Corbyn’s four-and-a-half-year tenure. 

Nevertheless, taken as a whole, these essays present a comprehensive assessment of antisemitism’s history—past and present. Their storytelling components create a portrait of antisemitism underscored with intelligence and wit. “Looking for an Enemy” is an important entry among books on antisemitism. However, as this collection makes clear, eradicating the noxious, ongoing presence of this age-old hatred will not happen anytime soon. 

Judy Bolton-Fasman is the arts and culture writer for JewishBoston.com. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Forward, Tablet Magazine, Cognoscenti and other venues. Her memoir, “Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets,” is out now. Email her at judy@jewishboston.com. 

By JewishBoston.com

Antisemitism: What’s new with the oldest hatred? It’s a difficult question to ask, but we did it anyway. Dr. Rachel Fish, a nationally recognized expert on how to confront Jew hate, joins The Vibe of the Tribe as Greater Boston and the rest of the country have experienced a surge in anti-Israel actions and hate crimes against Jews.

Dr. Fish discusses tips for students of all ages returning to school amid the ongoing rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist sentiment, navigating hate on social media, how to channel anger into productive action, the cyclical nature of hatred toward Jews and why “antisemitism” should be retired as a term. Join us for this can’t-miss conversation. 

Watch this episode as a video below.

By Rich Tenorio

Experts in Greater Boston and the North Shore are concerned about increasingly widespread instances of antisemitism such as swastikas painted on sidewalks, or hateful messages over highway overpasses. Yet they largely hesitate to use the word “normalization” to describe the phenomenon. 

“I think there’s a difference between ‘widespread’ and ‘normalization,’” said Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. “‘Normalization’ would imply that public civic leaders, leaders of the institutions, are accepting it or ignoring it.” Instead, he noted, in the wake of antisemitic messages in ​Lawrence​, ​Dover ​​and New Hampshire​ in February 2023​, “My impression is that local school districts, local magistrates and school officials are speaking out and condemning it​​​​.”

​​​Such condemnation occurred following the incident at Lawrence’s Valley Forum Ice Arena. After the North Andover High School boys’ hockey team played a game at the rink, a swastika was reportedly found etched into a locker room that the team had used. The North Andover High School principal and district superintendent criticized “[words] and symbols of intolerance and hate” and invited a Holocaust survivor to address the high school on March 22, 2023.​​ 

Burton qualified his remarks by adding: “Not to say there’s no problem of normalization in our society. There is. Part of the challenge is that many people in our society seek to be provocative, seek to agitate, seek to cause fear. There definitely is normalization of antisemitism in our society. For example, somebody in public life says or does an antisemitic thing [and] treats antisemitism as if they’re doing nothing wrong. When you have an active neo-Nazi being invited to dinner with a former president of the United States, it’s one example of normalization.” 

However, he said, “I’m not sure a swastika in the schools counts for normalization. It does not make it any less tolerable. It’s becoming widespread as antisemites are inspiring each other to stoke our fears.” 

“I don’t like the word ‘normalization,’” said Debbie Coltin, executive director of the Beverly-based Lappin Foundation. “It makes it sound normal. There is nothing normal [about it].” 

She and fellow community leaders on the North Shore are disturbed by numerous instances of antisemitic messages and images in the area. ​In the fall of 2022​, in the wake of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, antisemitic and racist messages were displayed on highway overpasses in Danvers and Saugus—including a message blaming Jews for 9/11. More recently, in January 2023, a swastika was painted on a Swampscott sidewalk near the town center. 

“I think there’s a normalization in a sense that it’s happening more,” said Rabbi Alison Adler of Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly. 

She added, “I think people understand when it’s antisemitic—when it’s a swastika, it’s obvious.” However, she said that some antisemitic messages are subtler for the larger community to detect, and that there is “a need to be educating and having more conversations.” 

Both Adler and Coltin played key roles in community gatherings in the wake of the hateful messages last fall. In Beverly, the town Human Rights Committee created an educational program on antisemitism that Temple B’nai Abraham agreed to host, with the event attended by both Jews and non-Jews. Adler and Coltin were also instrumental in an event in Danvers where town residents and members of the surrounding area came together to protest hate speech. 

“I said, ‘Why don’t we take back the bridge?’” Coltin recalled. “Let us have the last word; don’t let the white supremacists have the last word.” 

The result was a march of people from Danvers and neighboring municipalities, with a goal of reclaiming the bridge for tolerance. 

“There were signs protesting against the antisemitism,” Coltin said, with other signs bearing “messages of love and unity, all kinds of things.” 

Although this represented a positive step, a swastika was reportedly painted on a sidewalk in nearby Swampscott just a few months later. Once again, a community came together to protest, in this case with a rally later that month. 

“It was very well-attended,” said Rabbi Michael Ragozin of Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore, noting “support from the local political officials,” including Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker and State Rep. Jenny Armini. 

Representatives of local fire and police departments attended as well, which Ragozin noted in making a distinction between the United States of today and a previous ominous moment in history. 

“Kristallnacht in 1938 [occurred with] full police protection,” he said, whereas today, “the police have got our back. We’ve got a great relationship with the Swampscott Police Department, above and beyond what’s to be expected. I think they do a phenomenal job.” 

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

By Rich Tenorio

When Israelis criticize the policy proposals of their own government, to what extent does it threaten to encourage antisemitic incidents in the United States? That’s the question posed to experts in the Jewish community and campus spheres in the Boston area. 

Since January 2023, protesters in Israel have demonstrated against the Benjamin Netanyahu government for such reasons as its calls for change in the country’s judiciary. These protests have continued in Israel, with additional demonstrations taking place in Boston. Meanwhile, other protests in the area have demonstrated against Israel for additional reasons, including the charge that it is an apartheid state that pursues deadly policies against Palestinians in the West Bank. These latter demonstrations include a Feb. 8 gathering at Brandeis University—a college associated with Judaism and named after former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, an American supporter of Zionism. 

Brandeis professor Jonathan Sarna, who directs the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and teaches American Jewish history, draws a clear distinction between protests against Israeli government policies and protests calling Israel an apartheid regime. 

“Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are demonstrating against the proposed legislation about the Supreme Court,” Sarna said. “None of those Israelis are saying or justifying, ‘Let’s dismantle the State of Israel and send all of the Jews into exile, whatever their fate may be,’” Sarna said. “That’s unthinkable.” 

Miriam Berkowitz Blue, executive director of the Hillel Council of New England, has not heard of any recent antisemitic incidents at the colleges her council is affiliated with—Bentley University, Boston College, Curry College, Emerson College, Lesley University, Simmons University and Suffolk University. 

She considers firsthand experience with Israel to be valuable in educating college students about the current situation in the country—experiences such as alternative spring break, a service trip that sends local undergraduates to Israel, with support from CJP. 

Jewish students on this trip, Blue said, “have a lot of questions. They look forward to being on the ground, experiencing [things] firsthand, having a much better understanding by talking to Israeli citizens living here and experiencing this every day, and going back to their respective campuses, explaining the situation and offering perspectives that they share with colleagues, friends and classmates.” 

Several sources remember previous occasions when Israelis or American Jews participated in large-scale protests against Israeli government policies. Blue recalls the November 1995 peace rally in Tel Aviv at which Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli. Sarna notes that Jewish students at Brandeis have urged Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank and withdraw behind the Green Line, pre-1967 border. 

“There is a thin line, but a clear line, between disagreeing with various policies and protesting, and using language that really promotes murder, terrorism and the undermining of the state as a whole,” Sarna said. 

Not only do the current protests in Israel show no sign of stopping, but they are attracting significant numbers, including an estimated half-million people recently, according to CNN. 

Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, sees protest against governmental policy as a healthy expression of democracy, whether in Israel or the U.S. 

“Israel has the right and responsibility to have a civil democratic discourse, including protests against their own government,” Burton said. “Americans turn out to protest their own government. Nobody calls such situations anti-American.” 

He added: “A forming of the question says, ‘We should be so afraid of having a discourse about democracy that we should not even have it.’ I don’t think that’s right.” Regarding fears of protests in Israel “because they might inspire people who are delegitimizing Israel,” he said that the latter “don’t need further inspiration to do this. We should not be afraid to have a conversation about Israel because of that.” 

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com.