Defining Antisemitism

A sermon delivered at Shabbat evening services on May 3rd, 2024 and Sunday morning May 5th, 2024 at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rutland


Defining Antisemitism – Rabbi Ellie Shemtov
About six weeks ago, British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson was offered the role as the new James Bond—although at this point, it is unclear if he has accepted the role. But, whether Aaron Taylor-Johnson becomes the new James Bond, is secondary to the reaction this news received on social media. Fans of this blockbuster movie franchise threatened to boycott the next James Bond movie if Taylor-Johnson is indeed chosen to play the role. Why, you ask? Well, it’s simple – because he is Jewish. Along with the hashtag #BoycottJamesBond spreading all over social media, came comments like: “Really bad timing with Israel committing genocide in Gaza. Shame on you. I hope your company collapses.”

Besides the fact that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, Taylor-Johnson’s detractors were not basing this potential boycott on the fact that the actor was let’s say an ex IDF soldier; or a friend of Benjamin Netanyahu; or a member of the Israeli government. It was simply because he is Jewish.  James Bond, who typically plays the hero also known as 007, has suddenly become the villain.

Back in November, Tom McKone wrote an op-ed piece in the Rutland Herald entitled Questioning Israel is not Antisemitic.  At face value, this is a true statement that, as I noted in my response to Mr. McKone— is one with which both I and more notably, the Anti-Defamation League agree.  In fact, right now most American Jews supportive of Israel, and most Israelis are quite critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu. But, as I also wrote in my response, there are times when questioning Israel is indeed antisemitic.   

Over the past twenty years there have been a variety of documents produced that define antisemitism, often called the world’s oldest hatred. The best-known of these was created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016. In 2021, the Nexus Document, contributed to by a broad coalition of academics, community leaders, activists, and clergy; and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, made up of scholars in Antisemitism and related fields, also weighed in. [1]

All three organizations share the view that antisemitism is essentially “discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).” They agree that attributing malevolent qualities to Jews as a group, depicting Jews as disloyal or treacherous, and caricatures of Jews as grotesque are all antisemitic.[2]

While the three documents differ when it comes to antisemitism and criticism of Israel, all three present certain criticisms of Israel as clearly antisemitic. Placing Israel at the heart of conspiracy theories, presenting Israel as solely responsible for global crises, attributing Israel’s actions to Jews worldwide, and any form of harm, intimidation, or abuse of a Jew because of an alleged or real connection to Israel constitute antisemitism under these definitions. All three groups agree that denying Jews the rights to self-determination, safety, security, and equality in the state of Israel is antisemitic. All agree that Jews have every right to a homeland.[3]

In general, antisemitism can be hard to spot since it works slightly differently than other forms of bigotry, which see their victims as “inferior.” Antisemitism, on the other hand, sometimes see Jews as “inferior” but at other times, as “superior” -- all-powerful, capable of causing every calamity from wars to natural disasters to diseases to controlling the weather. This makes Jews the perfect scapegoat. [4]

For instance, in Communist nations, such as the Soviet Union, Jews were persecuted for being “capitalists.” In capitalist nations, like Nazi Germany and even the United States during the McCarthy era, Jews were persecuted for being “communists.” [5]

As Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School recently wrote: In the calculus of an antisemite, Jews are both subhuman and superhuman – vermin who control the world. Common antisemitic rhetoric places Jews at the center of conspiracies, secretly controlling anything and everything: America, the banks, the Middle East, a vast colonialist enterprise, immigration, the Federal Reserve, NATO, and even Taylor Swift’s concert tour schedule.

People hate Jews because they are communists, capitalists, foreigners, residents, immigrants, elitists, have strange ways, are unassimilated, too assimilated, bankroll the left (like George Soros) or bankroll the right (like Sheldon Adelson). People hate Jews because they are weak and stateless, or because they are Zionists and defend Israel.[6]

When societies change, antisemitism typically mutates to survive. As I said, though criticism of Israel is not in and of itself antisemitic, projecting antisemitic tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies onto the world’s only Jewish state is antisemitic. Holding the world’s only Jewish state to double standards is antisemitic. [7]

For instance, when ISIS bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, in 2017, killing 22 people, UN Secretary General Guterres immediately “strongly condemned” the attack, and the Security Council released a statement, condemning “in the strongest terms the barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack” and extending its solidarity to the United Kingdom.

That’s exactly what should have happened and post October 7th, Guterres did make statements such as these. Unfortunately, he then added that this massacre (my word not his) did not happen in a vacuum. In other words, Israel should take responsibility for their role in their citizens being raped and massacred.

According to Rabbi Wolpe: Israel is the only country in the world that is routinely and widely targeted for eradication.  Have you ever heard of activists angry with China targeting Chinese restaurants in Paris? I haven’t. But, when Hamas terrorists were recently arrested in Europe with plans to blow up Jewish institutions, they were not targeting Israel, they were targeting Jews. If someone is angry at Israel, they target Jewish synagogues, businesses, and restaurants — anything associated with Jews, anywhere in the world — no matter their relationship to Israel.

Last week, in discussing the student protests happening on campuses all around the country, comedian Bill Maher pondered: Maybe the question today’s protesters need to ask themselves more than any other is: Why do I care so much about this particular cause? North Korea starves its people. China puts them in concentration camps. Myanmar brutalizes the Rohingya. Boka Haram kidnaps whole villages of women. The president of Burundi says gays should be stoned to death because they deserve it.  Nothing? Ukraine? …..[8]  

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the civil war in Syria has resulted in over 600,000 dead Syrians. 7 out of 10 Syrians require humanitarian assistance and according to the UN around 6.9 million people have been displaced.  Where are the protests and accusations of genocide?

Accusing Israel of committing genocide is antisemitic because it singles out Israel or holds Israel to a double standard. As Bill Maher also noted: Genocide by the way, is when you want to wipe out an entire people. That’s the stated goal of Hamas. That’s what: From the River to the Sea, means. Hamas would do that to Israel but can’t. Israel could do that to them but doesn’t.  I would add, not only haven’t they, but over the years the Palestinian population has grown—a lot. If the Israelis are committing genocide over the Palestinian people, they are pretty bad at it.  [9]

​One could also ask, what would happen if other groups were targeted instead of Jews. NYU professor Scott Galloway made the observation that if he went into the NYU square with a white hood and said: “lynch the Blacks” or “burn the gays,” his ID would be shut off by that night—and he would never work in academia again. As Dr. Galloway noted: There would be no need for the words, “context” or “nuance.” I wouldn’t be protected by terms like “First Amendment” or “free speech.” It seems that we have a double standard when it comes to hate speech as long as it is against Jews……I think what a lot of Jews are concerned with is that free speech is never freer when it is directed at Jews. [10]

Ever since October 7, many have warned that anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism and that being draped in the Palestinian flag’s colors is likened to and the 2024 version of, a 1930s brown shirt.  
A few weeks ago, the University of Southern California cancelled the speech that was to be given by this year’s valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a first generation South Asian-American Muslim. The reason given had to do with security concerns. Tabassum also had a link on her social media to a site that called for the “complete abolishment” of Israel and which described Zionism as “a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land.” The university has faced a tremendous amount of pushback from that decision.
Meanwhile, producing not quite the same firestorm -- a theater in Philadelphia cancelled the screening of an Israeli documentary that had nothing to do with Israeli politics. The reason given: fear of violent demonstrations, and the charge that showing the movie would make the theater complicit in Israel’s crimes. A judge ordered the theater to screen the film.
Last month the Playhouse Cinema in Hamilton, Ontario, called off the annual Hamilton Jewish Film Festival due to safety concerns. Some of the concerns stemmed from complaints that Israeli films were included in this year’s roundup. One of those films The Boy, is about life on the Israel-Gaza border. It was made by an Israeli filmmaker who was murdered on Oct. 7th. 
Wanting to avoid a politically charged event, the Brooklyn Monarch music venue canceled a performance by the Israeli hard rock band, HaYehudim. The band was told that there was a problem with the political nature of their name. HaYehudim is Hebrew for “the Jews.”[11] Jewish and Israeli businesses and restaurants have been targeted in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the United Kingdom, half the publishing industry is now refusing to market the writings of identifiably Jewish authors. [12]
Haviva Ner-David, a graduate of Columbia University and now living in Israel, describes herself as a pro-Palestinian activist calling for a mutual ceasefire and a return of all the hostages. Ner-David wrote an open letter to the Columbia University Gaza war protestors. Here is an excerpt:
If I were studying at Columbia today, I would ask myself: Should I join your protests? After all, I, too, am pro-Palestinian. But I am also pro-Jew. And when you chant, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” and “From the Sea to the River, Palestine will live forever!” you are not calling, as I and my Palestinian-Israeli friends are, for peace, justice and equality for all humans within those borders. You are calling for the violent destruction of the country where we live, and the murder of its citizens — including the Palestinian ones…….  
And when you call out, “Say it loud and say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here!” you are fomenting violence against and silencing other Columbia students. You may disagree with them, but does that mean they have no right to inhabit your shared campus — or even live? Do you think I, an activist in the struggle for peace and equality for all in Israel-Palestine, have a right to live?
While I protest many of my government’s policies now and in the past, I do not think Jews have a moral obligation to commit suicide rather than enter sometimes tragic gray areas that are part of defending a country. Turning the other cheek is not expected of anyone anywhere. Why expect it only of Jews?
While you in the United States demand that we be sacrificial lambs, you inhabit and benefit from a country unequivocally acquired through colonialism and grown through slavery. This is not the case with Jews in Israel …, even if agenda-driven pseudo-historians try to convince ignorant students that it is.
And so, if I were at Columbia today, I would not join your protests. Because now I know I do not have to choose sides. I do not even have to buy into the idea of “sides.” This is a battle between those who support violence and an all-or-nothing approach to this conflict, and those who want to find a way for us to all win out by sharing this land. It saddens me deeply that you are choosing — perhaps out of latent Jew-hatred — the way of violence and hate instead of cooperation and mutual understanding.[13]
So, I’d like to end this morning with a quote from the Israeli novelist Amos Oz who once said: When my father was a boy in Poland, the streets of Europe were covered with graffiti, "Jews, go back to Palestine." When my father revisited Europe 50 years later, the walls had new graffiti, "Jews, get out of Palestine."
Thank you.


[1] https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/29/penslar-define-antisemitism/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/are-you-antisemitic

[5] Ibid.

[6] https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/29/wolpe-hatred-jews/

[7] https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/institutional-antisemitism

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltQQKL8HRWg

[9] ibid

[10] https://nypost.com/2024/04/24/us-news/jewish-nyu-professor-lashes-out-at-hypocritical-anti-israel-protesters/

[11] https://forward.com/culture/601645/the-jews-band-brooklyn-monarch-cancellation/

[12] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/03/half-of-british-publishers-wont-take-jewish-authors/

[13] https://www.jta.org/2024/04/26/ideas/an-open-letter-to-the-columbia-university-gaza-war-protesters-from-a-pro-palestinian-activist-in-israel