In opinion columns, in her latest book “How to Fight Anti-Semitism” and while promoting the book on The Brian Lehrer Show on the radio, New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss makes false equivalencies as she argues that waves of anti-Semitism are sweeping through the United States and Western Europe. For Weiss, everything from neo-Nazi marches, to boycotts by opponents of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, to street crimes against religious Jews, to hurtful comments by college students are evidence that Jews are under attack.
While a student at Columbia University in 2004, Weiss co-founded a group called Columbians for Academic Freedom that charged professors who were intimidating students in their classes who made pro-Israel comments. The New York Civil Liberties Union investigated the charges and concluded that it was Weiss’ group, not university faculty members, that were the threat to academic freedom.
In response to a Monday, Sept. 8, 2019, New York Times column “To Fight Anti-Semitism, Be a Proud Jew,” I submitted a response that the Times chose not to print:
Like Bari Weiss, I consider myself a proud Jew who recognizes the need to combat anti-Semitism. However, I think she makes a serious mistake by conflating two different phenomena. Right-wing white nationalism abetted by the Trump administration is a grave threat to Jews and to democracy in the United States and must be vigorously challenged. Urban tension in gentrifying communities where racial and ethnic minorities are being displaced by gentrification and in Brooklyn, New York, by an expanding orthodox religious group has led to anti-Semitic slurs and physical assaults on religious Jews, but they are not an attack on Judaism as a religion and on the Jewish people as a whole. This behavior can best be addressed by building an inclusive community.
Source: The Hofstra Chronicle
