By JewishBoston.com
When it comes to antisemitism, the internet is full of inaccurate and dangerous misinformation. It can be hard to find trusted voices and resources, so we compiled this list of Twitter accounts that are sharing news, context and a diversity of thoughtful perspectives on rising antisemitism in America and around the world.
By Rabbi Danny Burkeman
My dad’s mother was born in Berlin in 1923 and was one of the lucky ones who escaped before World War II began and the borders were closed. But she still lived through the introduction of a variety of anti-Jewish laws and was there when her synagogue was attacked on Kristallnacht. She experienced one of the darkest moments in Jewish history and rebuilt her life and family in England.
For me, two generations later, growing up in England, her experiences were completely foreign to what I encountered. But there was a sense of vulnerability in the Jewish community. I don’t remember ever going to a Jewish event without security outside the building, both paid professionals and volunteers from the community. There, a requirement of synagogue membership for each family was to be on security for at least one or two Shabbat services every year.
The American Jewish experience has been markedly different; it’s a community that has generally felt settled, accepted and safe. But any study of Jewish history is a reminder that antisemitism has always been there, often lurking in the background. And in the past few years, we have unfortunately borne witness as it has emerged from the shadows and become far more prevalent than at any time in recent history.
Despite this reality, fundamentally, the Jewish people are at our core the people of tikva—hope. We always believe that things can and will get better. We are the people who recognize that we are on a never-ending journey toward a Promised Land, even though at times our progress might seem slow. And we are the people whose memories stretch back through countless generations, and we therefore know that the forces of hate are temporary, while the power of good is eternal.
But it isn’t always easy to maintain tikva (hope) when the world appears dark. In many ways, this is the light that we are called to bring for the world, but it is also a light that we need to share with each other.
I maintain tikva because I know that in the face of antisemitism, I have a network of colleagues and friends from outside of the Jewish community that I can call on for help and support. In the aftermath of the terrible attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, I was able to reach out to my clergy colleagues in the Wayland Interfaith Leaders Association to let them know that the Jewish community was hurting and in need of support. They all responded to let me know that they were ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us and help us in any way we needed.
I am filled with tikva because we are not alone in the fight against hate and prejudice. While white supremacists and other hateful groups might seek to drive wedges between the various communities they target and attack, we remain united and will always stand together in support and solidarity of one another. In Framingham, when we wanted to mark Indigenous Peoples Day with a celebration of love conquering hate, it was a predominantly Black church (the Greater Framingham Community Church) and a synagogue (Temple Shir Tikva) that led the way. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-in-arm, in responding to antisemitism, racism and prejudice.
And I am bursting with tikva because I have the privilege of working with amazing Jewish teenagers who are finding a way to define and nurture their Jewish identity in new and inspiring ways, despite the antisemitism we may be experiencing. It’s easy to focus on the negative, but in our synagogue, I get to witness these teenagers nurturing Jewish community, standing up for what they believe in and building a bright Jewish future. They are so secure in their identity as Jews and Americans, and as they assume leadership roles in the Jewish community and in society in general, I am certain they will defeat the forces of hate and ensure a brighter future for us all.
Rabbi Danny Burkeman is the senior rabbi at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland. He is committed to making Judaism relevant in the modern world and always looking for new ways to engage people with Jewish community. He has a weekly podcast, “Two Minutes of Torah,” and was a member of the UJA Federation of New York’s inaugural Rabbinic Fellowship for Visionary Leaders.
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.
By Kara Baskin
Community sustains us during times of stress and trauma—it’s pretty great during other times, too!—but it’s a crucial way to feel less alone when the world feels scary. A sense of togetherness and shared experience feels even more important now. As such, I asked Boston’s Jewish community to share their favorite gathering places and spaces. The responses were uplifting and overwhelming. Read on for ideas.
Outdoorsy types love Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope in Wayland. Many of their services are outdoors, including on High Holidays, no matter what the weather (bundle up). They also host Shabbat morning walks and moonlit strolls, as well as outdoor learning opportunities for kids. Everyone’s welcome. For something more informal, head to Priscilla Playground (also known as Joyce Playground) in Brighton (80 Union St.) every Shabbat during warm weather—a popular hangout spot for the Allston, Brighton and Brookline Orthodox community. There are even splash pads!
The Boston Workers Circle sponsors an 80-person chorus specializing in Yiddish music, plus a vibrant mutual aid network and robust social justice programming: There’s an antiracism study group, a Jewish Muslim solidarity committee and a teen group focusing on social change for kids in eighth grade and up.
Hadassah Boston also offers plenty of volunteer and educational opportunities, plus comedy nights, cooking classes and discussions on essential topics such as antisemitism.
Speaking of cooking: Lehrhaus is now open in Inman Square. It’s partially a restaurant, serving food of the Jewish diaspora, with inspiration drawn from Ethiopia, Scandinavia and the Lower East Side. But it’s also a learning community. Co-founder Charlie Schwartz recently left a job at Hillel International to focus on the project. He hopes that this space will be a non-rarified, welcoming, friendly headquarters for a “renaissance of Jewish learning in America,” he told me before opening.
Lehrhaus is named after the innovative Jewish learning center founded by Franz Rosenzwieg more than 100 years ago in Germany. Their version is a modern bar and beit midrash (house of study), with food and drink, programming, Jewish texts and community events. Lehrhaus partnered with Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, Hadar and Hebrew College for content. It’s open now, with longer hours slated after Passover, with workshops ranging from introductions to Judaism to high-level Talmudic study.
Coordinated pals far and wide come together every year for Yad Beyad Boston, an annual Israeli folk dance camp, kicking off in 2023 on Thursday, April 27, through Sunday, April 30. There are dance workshops, dance parties and Shabbat lunches and dinners. (Bonus: Food is from Galit’s Treats, Blacker’s Bakeshop, Rosenfeld’s Bagels and J.P. Licks!). If you want to rock out more regularly, check out MonDance – Boston Area Israeli Folk Dance, which happens every Monday night at locations in Greater Boston.
“Most of the folk dancers support Israel, and most of the dancers have been to Israel at one time or another, or multiple times. I’d say around 40% of the dancers are native Israelis. We don’t worry about anti-Israel sentiment and definitely not antisemitism, though the community encompasses people with different political perspectives. There is comfort in that,” even though it might not be why people first seek out the troupes, says dancer Holly Boker.
Chabad North Shore also draws fans for its plentiful programming and welcoming vibe. “They provide opportunities for connection starting with Mommy & Me programs and for everyone 2 to 92 and beyond, whether you want a creative Hebrew school program for your preschooler or grade school programs, or a ladies’ lunch and learn, tefillin club or Torah classes … and obviously Shabbat dinners, holiday meals, seders, et cetera. There’s something for everyone,” says Lynnfield’s Molly Butter, a former Hebrew school teacher. “Even years I haven’t taught, they’re our go-to when we need clergy or connection.”
This sense of community is especially important to her as a mom as times change. Being Jewish feels different than it did when she was growing up, she says.
“I have adolescent children. When and where I was growing up at their age, I lived in a largely populated Jewish area, all our holidays were days off from public school and homework was excused. Peace in the Middle East was a real possibility, and according to my parents, it ‘was so much easier to be Jewish and proud’ without feeling like we were a minority and different,” she says. “I took it for granted that being Jewish was ‘easy.’ My children do not have the same experience, and so creating a Jewish community that stabilizes and normalizes being Jewish and proud is an intentional choice. Our closest friends are all people I met through a Chabad connection—we are a varied bunch, some day school kids, some public school, some go to Jewish summer camp and have or make connections to Israel. Making sure we surround ourselves with Jewish friends who make being Jewish look easy and normal is very important to the Jewish future of my family in particular and the Jewish people in a more broad sense.”
For a not-so-lazy Sunday morning, check out the Boston-Area Jewish Education Program (known as BJEP), wherein friendly Brandeis University undergrads lead kids in kindergarten through seventh grade about the key concepts of tikkun olam, prayer, Hebrew, Torah and more. There’s also a Seedlings program for littler kids and their parents, also on Sunday mornings, which is a welcoming way to make friends while dancing, acting and telling stories.
But my personal favorite recommendation has to be from Maynard’s Juliana Marcus, which isn’t so much a place as an awesome routine: “Wherever we are on a Friday night, whatever we might be doing or getting ready for, we try to bring tealights and matches, and we light candles when we’re ready for Shabbat to start. [It] doesn’t matter if it’s a few hours later than the technical start time. We try to make it happen, and we invite any friends and family nearby to join. We’ve done this at hotels, while camping, when getting ready to go to a concert, in the middle of a music festival and while watching the sunset on a beach. It’s our own special connection to Shabbat and to marking the end of the week,” she says.
And that’s just it: Connection matters, now more than ever, and we need to find it where we can. To find local communities and organizations near you, visit the directory on JewishBoston.com.
“My children have now experienced passive antisemitism in ways that I thought only my parents had felt. We’re a minority that can blend in, so to speak, so my hope is that having a strong foundation in community will lay the building blocks for not feeling intimidated to be exactly who we are, and that being Jewish is something to be proud of and never to hide,” Butters says.
Kara Baskin is the parenting writer for JewishBoston.com. She is also a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and a contributing editor at Boston Magazine. She has worked for New York Magazine and The New Republic, and helped to launch the now-defunct Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Email her at kara@jewishboston.com.
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