Hey — don’t actually have your email address. Shoot me a line?
I’m sorry that you went through all that. For me antisemitism was a matter of history (which older family members experienced), not personal, & I think that makes it very different. At the same time, I had many experiences of personal violence that were not related to antisemitism. The result is that I see hate as hate, & antisemitism as (a real) and single aspect of a difficult human and social predilection. But I also agree that sometimes Anti-Israel sentiments get used by people as a proxy for antisemitism, which isn’t as overtly acceptable anymore. That makes the whole thing messy, because, I agree, it should be possible to criticize Israel without it being construed as either antisemitism (if someone isn’t Jewish) or self-hatred. And yet there it is, a mess. Thank you and the others who have written on Alas, a Blog, for taking the time to write so cogently about it.
Hey — don’t actually have your email address. Shoot me a line?
I’m sorry that you went through all that. For me antisemitism was a matter of history (which older family members experienced), not personal, & I think that makes it very different. At the same time, I had many experiences of personal violence that were not related to antisemitism. The result is that I see hate as hate, & antisemitism as (a real) and single aspect of a difficult human and social predilection. But I also agree that sometimes Anti-Israel sentiments get used by people as a proxy for antisemitism, which isn’t as overtly acceptable anymore. That makes the whole thing messy, because, I agree, it should be possible to criticize Israel without it being construed as either antisemitism (if someone isn’t Jewish) or self-hatred. And yet there it is, a mess. Thank you and the others who have written on Alas, a Blog, for taking the time to write so cogently about it.