There is much debate about whether there is an unprecedented rise in antisemitism or whether it’s just criticism of Israel which we all know the mantra, or indeed whether Israel is so intensely evil that this explains antisemitism (an argument fwiw I see antizionist Jews making). And here’s the thing: I do think there is what I think the sociological measurement is a shit-ton of antisemitism about. I don’t think this is a myth, or based on misinterpreted figures or false flags. I’m also, somehow, not that worried about it, on an emotional level. It’s bad, and I don’t like it, but somehow?
Some of this is simply practical. There’s always something medical going on, some car veering onto the sidewalk in that Toronto way. Are my children in bigger danger that someone will see them on pjs day in their Hanukkah pyjamas, or that I will bring the stroller into the road to get around a stalled delivery truck whose driver indicated we should do this, but of course neither kid is actually in the stroller because that would be too sensible, so I’m sort of shepherding them around it and hoping for the best.
Yes, someone could discover the deep dark secret that I’m Jewish (I’m literally on the masthead of The Canadian Jewish News) and come by and murder me for this, under the impression that I control the Israeli government. (I do get non-threatening email from people who think Senior Editor means Editor in Chief, which fwiw it does not). But it’s more likely that one day I think yes today’s the day I take my bike out and that goes as well as it would.
But it’s also that everything is just in such flux. There genuinely are a lot of Jews, though not as many as sometimes claimed, on Team Antizionist, as well as a lot of characters of all kinds, as well as normies (I have still only skimmed that to which I have linked), who aren’t Jewish and never gave Jews or Israel any thought but figure that Queers for Palestine is woke and associate it with purple hair and Covid masks and want to sign up for whatever is the opposite of that. I don’t necessarily think it is good for Jews to now be frat-boy-coded, but the way culture wars shake out, there’s a certain degree of protection when one side has to defend you in order to distinguish itself from the other one.
It’s also that I’m inured to online hate, I guess the way the teenage boys of today are blasé about very explicit other sorts of materials, from overexposure. I remember the Twitter Nazis of 2017. This all feels a bit same-old. Yes it’s confusing the way it’s mixed in with people who are not Nazis but just want to see a war end, but there it is.
And it’s also not that I’m immune to catastrophic thinking. I do sometimes wonder if all the global mess will lead to nuclear war and whether Canada will be too boring to be implicated or so close to the US that this doesn’t matter. I guess I have trouble picturing this specific horribleness leading to precisely the same horribleness of other times.
“I guess I have trouble picturing this specific horribleness leading to precisely the same horribleness of other times.”
I agree. I think many agree too, in a sense, but are just not thinking it through.
I consistently think this through and come to the conclusion that we are heading into unnerving uncertainty, which isn’t a thing that makes sense to fear the same way you’d fear, say, Putin actually doing a Holocaust Revival.
It seems like many people, especially those who are very into the news and into being Jews just feel that original feeling of “omg this has parallels to holocaust,” and the thinking ends.
Idk, it seems healthy to be pretty into the news and pretty into being Jewish, as opposed to holding those things so close to my chest that I get stuck on "the news is negative about jews, help!" But at the same time that it feels healthy, it seems socially abnormal.
Thanks for sharing this with us and good to know that you're holding up.
While we live in a time and world where it's easy to spread bad ideas and making unholy alliances, it's also easy to share good vibes and empathy and support. Maybe that what help us getting through.
Have a pleasant weekend.