Tag Archives: antisemitism

This was democracy in action.

Roomful of Jews

“Jewish Voices Critique the Antisemitism Commission”.

That was the title of the meeting at the Watertown Library on May 21. It tells you things could have gotten ugly. Thanks to careful planning and skilled moderation, even though the event was tense, it mostly remained civil.

The topic was urgent and divisive. In December, 2025, the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism released its policy recommendations. Many are sensible, but others threaten to stifle free speech, and perhaps even create more antisemitism, if put into practice.

Seven community groups co-sponsored the event, led by the Palestine Committee of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment. Around 75 people attended, filling the room. Some progressives wore kaffiyehs, the black and white scarf that signals pro-Palestinian viewpoints, or watermelon yarmulkas. Large Stars of David and one MAGA tee shirt probably represented pro-Israel, or Zionist, points of view. Most attendees and all the panelists were Jewish.

Painting by Steve Block

The main point of contention was that the state Commission adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism. In other words, criticism of Israel is equated with hatred of Jews. Since many American Jews like myself are highly critical of Israel’s war on Gaza – and elsewhere, including Lebanon – this defines all of us as being anti-Jewish.

The Commission report proposed that people could anonymously report to the state any criticism of Israel in public or in schools. If the state turned over such unproven allegations to the federal government, any critic of Israel or of US policies in the region might be in danger of prison or deportation. The Trump administration considers people who protest its policies to be terrorists, and is not shy about acting on this belief.

Even if the Commission’s report is not enacted into public policy, it has a chilling effect. People become afraid of discussing Israel/Palestine. Teachers won’t include it in the curriculum; students will avoid raising the issue, no matter how much they care about it. This is not how people learn, and it’s certainly not how the public comes to understand a complicated and important subject.

The Watertown meeting demonstrated the right way to approach a difficult subject. The moderator explained how civil discourse works. You don’t interrupt speakers or call out. You can ask your questions after the panel has spoken. You don’t get personal. You don’t get physical. You just listen, and speak politely when you get your chance.

A few of the Zionists did call out and interrupt the panelists. One woman in front of me laughed loudly whenever a speaker said something she disagreed with. The moderator patiently reminded the audience that we had all agreed to confine ourselves to civil discourse.

Passions ran high. Zionists believe that a militarized and aggressive State of Israel is the only hope for Jewish survival in a world that hates us. Anti-Zionists believe that the way Israel has segregated Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is akin to apartheid, and that its brutal revenge on Gaza for the horrible October 7, 2023, Hamas attack is a form of genocide. Zionists think that even using such words in discussion is antisemitic.

There was only one overtly hostile act at this event. A woman handed a leaflet to the greeter at the door. The greeter told her it was inappropriate, whereupon the woman slapped the paper out of the greeter’s hands. Immediately, the two were surrounded by orange-vested citizen peacekeepers, who are trained to de-escalate tense situations, as well as library staff and two city policemen.

I couldn’t hear who said what. But the woman with the leaflet was allowed to stay in the audience. Whether she learned anything from the deeply-researched and well-reasoned presentations is doubtful, though most of the rest of us did. Maybe few minds were changed. But we aired our differences, and most of us managed to show some respect for those with whom we disagreed.

I left the meeting feeling energized and hopeful. This could have been a disaster. Instead, in its small way, this event maintained the founding principles of our country. What we all experienced was democracy in action.

This is the America I love.

But is it good for the Jews?

To quote Robert Burns: “O, wad some Power the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as others see us!”

Growing up in my argumentative Jewish family, I remember most political and cultural issues were subjected, at some point, to the question: but is it good for the Jews? This question was also the punchline of many jokes. I was born three years after the Holocaust, when my relatives remaining in Poland were massacred. I read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I was 12. So I knew about a lot of events, places, and people that had not been good for the Jews. Not all members of my family believed in God. But every one of us believed that no matter where we lived, how thoroughly we acculturated, or how outwardly successful we became, our environment might at any moment become not good for the Jews. We assumed antisemitism was everywhere, perhaps well-hidden, but endemic. 

Israel was our hope. Every other country might reject or turn against us, but Israel would always let us in and protect us. Zionism was our strategy for long-term survival. The country was surrounded by enemies, its allies were self-serving and unreliable, but Israel was backed by God (and American military aid) and would prevail, like David against Goliath. 

What many American Jews are only now realizing is that over the past 75 years, Israel has become Goliath and the Palestinians have become David. All the military might is on Israel’s side. Arab countries have paid lip service to the cause of Palestinians without offering them much actual help. They are just pawns in the great game. World sympathy, which might have been a major factor in Israel’s favor after the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, has turned to anger because of Netanyahu’s brutal response. He has bombed most of Gaza to rubble and killed around 25,000 people, mostly women and children. Many more are sure to die of bombs, famine, thirst, and disease.

Now “my” people, only 80 years after being subject to genocide, are accused of committing genocide ourselves. Many Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora (the whole world outside Israel) respond indignantly that Hamas wants to wipe out all Jews in Israel, so Netanyahu is trying to wipe out Hamas instead. And besides, they say, Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields, so it’s impossible to kill Hamas militants without killing innocent people. It’s not our fault. We have no choice. It’s either them or us. If Israel is no longer safe for the Jews, nowhere is safe. So this carnage is good for the Jews around the world.

But the massive rise in antisemitism worldwide proves that the opposite is true. Seventy-five years of Israel’s terrible treatment of Palestinians – forcing Palestinians off their land, herding them into open-air prisons like Gaza in a virtual apartheid regime, depriving them of full citizenship in Israel, making a separate homeland all but impossible, meeting thrown rocks with bullets, finally telling two million Gazan residents to crowd into southern Gaza and then bombing southern Gaza – have had their predictable result. Nonviolent resistance has failed, with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement dismissed as antisemitic. Israel has left Palestinians with few options besides violent resistance, ie., Hamas. The many Palestinians who hate Hamas are afraid to say so in public. The thugs would torture and kill them and their families. Meanwhile, every innocent killed by Israeli bombs or siege conditions creates more recruits for Hamas. Hamas is not, as Israeli leaders keep calling it, a snake. It is a Hydra. Cut off one head, and more will grow in its place.

The hideous ambitions of Netanyahu give credence to South Africa’s claim of genocide. Meanwhile, the People of the Book have forgotten the words of one of our greatest teachers, Rabbi Hillel. When challenged by some joker to teach him the Torah while he stood on one foot, Hillel responded: “Do not do to others what you don’t want done to you. The rest is commentary.”

American Jews have pushed our government to support Israel no matter what it does. We should remember that we are Jewish before we are Zionist. What Israel is doing to Gazans goes against everything Judaism has always stood for. It is beyond horrible for Palestinians. It’s time more of us realized that it is also very bad for the Jews.