Antisemitism Tw - Tumblr Posts
Jew here with a friendly reminder that:
Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic
Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic
Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic
BUT ALSO
A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict
Palestinian Jews exist
Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)
Calling out ACTUAL antisemitism ≠ supporting Isreal
Jew: we have active shooter drills in our synagogue because the threat of antisemitic violence is real and constant. I wish people took antisemitism seriously.
Jew: I got called a kike as a kid and classmates threw pennies at me. I wish non-Jews would realize that this is an ongoing problem.
Jew: a guy on my street got beat up because he was dressed as an Orthodox Jew. I wish news of this ever spread beyond Jewish communities.
Jew: someone on my college campus is handing out recruitment flyers for the American Nazi Party, and I got messages in my inbox of graphic Holocaust imagery. I wish people listened when we told them this was happening.
Jew: my synagogue hired an armed guard for my children’s Hebrew school after a terrorist murdered a bunch of Jews at a baby-naming. I wish people treated this as more than just a one-time occurrence, because it’s not an outlier.
Jew: my Polish grandfather’s grave was smashed and graffitied with political slogans that have nothing to do with him. I was kicked out of an LGBT space for displaying a symbol of my religion and culture because projecting a straw-man political identity onto me is an effective way of ridding yourself of Jews while pretending you aren’t racist. This goes on constantly and I never feel safe in any non-Jewish space.
Non-Jew: umm sweaty actually nazis hate all of us :))) you probably didn’t know that tho :) asking us to lift a finger to help is literally identical to the oppression you complain about :) even the fairly performative act of simply spreading Jewish voices by reblogging a Jewish post is like, basically asking us to walk into Auschwitz :))) I’m sure you understand :) I hate nazis tho
“We Christians are standing up and pushing out Zionism that’s what we’re doing. Zionism brought the slaughter of 65 million babies to America and we’re going to end it and we are going to impose Christian rule in this country. Why are you imposing Judaism on me? Because that’s exactly what’s been done in America since 1973 with Roe v Wade. Judaism was imposed on me imposed on my christian nation and we became a jewish nation that kills babies.”
I see blood liable is alive and well on the Christian Right. Truly awe inspiring thagt these people will try to claim Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are anti-semites with guys like this in their ranks.
it’s funny that this post has 68 notes while y’all carry on about “punch Nazis uwu” ….you just transparently don’t care when the targets of organized Nazi demonstrations are Jews
I just think it’s really interesting that once I became more visibly Jewish- wearing a tichel or kippah on a daily basis, wearing my hamsa, learning Yiddish- I was immediately faced with (misdirected) transmisogyny- being called transmisogynistic specific slurs, being followed and harrassed off buses, being followed and watched in women’s bathrooms, etc.
It goes to show that transmisogynists and terfs base their ideas on what womanhood is on a white, European, racist, antisemetic, patriarchal caricature of womanhood, and not actual womanhood, which is intrisic to each women, normal or cis.
Honestly, this shit with Hogwarts Legacy is just like what happened with Chick-fil-A like ten or fifteen years ago. Some of y'all might be too young to remember it, but it went almost exactly like this shit today, only the target was technically gay people (not like we aren't all lumped together when push comes to shove, but gay was the political scapegoat in US politics at the time, as trans people were still on the fringes of social awareness).
It came out that the people who own Chick-fil-A were donating to organizations in other countries that were actively working to get gay people there killed, and were also very monetarily invested in stripping gay people of any legal rights they'd amassed in the US. So a lot of queer folks were asking for allies to boycott Chick-fil-A to show solidarity.
And it turned into a giant fuckin circus for bigots to rally around. There was even a support Chick-fil-A day, I remember it because I was a server at the time and our restaurant was empty most the day - while the line for Chick-fil-A down the road was like a mile long consistently.
But while that was obviously annoying, that wasn't what hit people the hardest. Cuz we expect clowns to wear the shoes, right, it's not shocking.
What disappointed people, or really demoralized a lot of young queers at the time especially, was the allies who would still go there. Because they like the sandwiches or fries or whatever. The people who'd march with them in the parade or be supportive of marriage equality, who would then turn right around and give their money to people who were trying to actively harm their friends.
Because the chicken was good.
I remember a friend of mine being really just absolutely broken up over that, trying to understand some of her friends reasoning and at the time I couldn't give her an answer. I could now, though.
And it's this:
Talk is cheap.
It costs nothing to say things. A person can say whatever the hell they want, any feel good flowery thing, and it doesn't really cost them.
But when they are asked to actually give something up - or put their money where their mouth is and just....can't do it. Well then there isn't much else for them to say, is there? At least nothing that's worth anything.
Some people had to find out the hard way that the choice between a chicken sandwich and funding people who did not believe in their dignity as a human being was, in the eyes of certain allies, apparently really hard. Too hard, in fact.
These allies would march in the colorful parades and go to the bars for drinks, but in the end, you couldn't actually depend on them to inconvenience themselves. They were fair weather allies, and they were there for the party and that's about it . They wanted entertainment, and it didn't matter if that came from having fun gay friends or a tasty sandwich.
This is the same thing, really, or pretty close to it.
These types of people just wanna have fun. Either you, their friend or whatever, are fun or the game is fun, and if you stop being fun by incidentally making them feel a little guilty about where they spend their money , then they might just choose the thing that doesn't make them currently uncomfortable.
And I'm not saying these people who say trans rights online but who also really, really want to play wizard game and already have are horrible people or anything - they're just not very good. They have no real character. And unfortunately there's not much you can do to change that, other than investing time and energy in people who do.
Jew here with a friendly reminder that:
Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic
Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic
Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic
BUT ALSO
A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict
Palestinian Jews exist
Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)
Calling out ACTUAL antisemitism ≠ supporting Isreal
Jew here with a friendly reminder that:
Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic
Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic
Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic
BUT ALSO
A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict
Palestinian Jews exist
Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)
Calling out ACTUAL antisemitism ≠ supporting Isreal
“SeLf HaTiNg JeW” this needs to be 100% acknowledged as well. Imagine attacking someone who shares a different opinion from you 🤦🏾♀️ people like this are so unhinged.
Jew here with a friendly reminder that:
Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic
Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic
Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic
BUT ALSO
A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict
Palestinian Jews exist
Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)
Calling out ACTUAL antisemitism ≠ supporting Isreal
I am respectfully asking goyim to stop saying “well what about this innocent explanation?” when they ask me to explain an antisemitic dogwhistle.
Yes, that person COULD have been born in 1988.
Yes, that person COULD be saying that it was specifically corrupt “religious people” who crucified Jesus.
Yes, that person COULD be honestly confused about how dual citizenship works.
Yes, that person COULD think that (((these brackets))) are just another silly internet joke.
You aren’t the first to bring it up, and you won’t be the last. But “I can’t hear anything” doesn’t mean the dogwhistle isn’t making any sound. It just means you’re not a dog.
No it isn’t “girlboss” or feminist to say that you don’t care about the rape of Israeli women because of what’s happening in Palestine
No it isn’t “girlboss” or feminist to say that you don’t care about the rape of Israeli women because of what’s happening in Palestine
As a gentile,
I will happily, happily absorb antisemitism to prevent it from reaching/getting to Jewish people. Happily 😊
I hope this is allyship. Really, I do.
Someone sent me an ask about how to avoid antisemitism when talking about what's happening in Palestine, but Tumblr ate it. This is a really important question, because we don't want to fight one oppression while enabling another; we don't want to accidentally foment the conditions that lead to antisemitic violence, and we also don't want to shy away from speaking about Gaza for fear that we're doing so.
Here are my thoughts.
There are a lot of unconscious antisemitic beliefs that people hold, that they may not be consciously aware of. They may have learned these from parents, peers, or society at large. Like any bigotry, a huge part of not being harmful in bigoted ways comes down to learning what unconscious bigotry looks like within you and learning how it is expressed.
Antisemitism is very old, and there are a lot of tropes and beliefs that have developed through the years. Many of these are alive and well, though they may be subtle enough that people don't realize they're carrying them. However, they show up in the way that people speak, especially about Israel and Palestine. Here are some:
1. Jews are overwhelmingly wealthy
2. Jews control the world
3. Jews control a given country (eg the US)
4. Jews are not oppressed
5. Jews are some of the most privileged people in society; more than non-Jewish white people. Jews are white people but even more so.
6. Jews are whiny and complain about their nonexistent oppression too much
7. Jews are sneaky, deceptive, and untrustworthy. They don't speak sincerely or plainly; they have an ulterior motive and are trying to get one over on you.
8. Jews are greedy
9. Jews are really powerful
10. Jews undermine and destabilize movements and countries. (This one connects to 3, 7, and 8).
11. Jews are inherently guilty; a good Jew needs to apologize for being Jewish
12. Jews are bloodthirsty and desire violence against non-Jews
13. A Jew is from somewhere else, and does not belong in the place that they are.
How do these get expressed in the movement? Here are some examples (these are paraphrases and combinations of various things I've seen):
Example A:
"American Jews are complaining about oppression while living in their NYC apartments and taking Ubers. It's ridiculous, so much privilege and entitlement." This one's got 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
1: Assumes wealth. Plenty of us can't afford NYC apartments or Ubers!
4, 5, and 6: self-explanatory.
7: Belief that on some level, fear of antisemitism can't really be sincere; we must be talking about it for some other purpose, eg to distract from "real" issues.
Example B:
"The US is funding this genocide because of the influence of Israel and Israel's interests, and the Jewish lobbyists." Employs 3 and 9.
3: The US is doing this because of its own interests; if anything, the US wants to be able to use Israel as a pawn.
9: Imagines Jewish lobbyists as powerful enough to drive US policy. Also forgets how dramatically the US dwarfs Israel in size, money, and power; imagines it's the other way around.
Example C:
"These Israeli first responders are lying about finding mutilated and sexually abused bodies after October 7th. This Israeli girl who was held hostage is lying about having talked to fellow hostages who were sexually assaulted. This Israeli first responder is lying about children having been killed on October 7th."
This is 4, 6, and mainly 7.
7 because it assumes that these people are telling these lies for some nefarious purpose: to garner false sympathy, or worse, to manufacture support for genocide. It cannot be because they are actually telling the truth.
Example D:
"It's suspect if someone talks too much about antisemitism. Or if they correct my misinformation. They are probably a crypto-Zionist. In fact, all of these Jewish tumblr bloggers are crypto-Zionists."
(The first part of this I haven't heard said; but rather it's the unspoken attitude I'm frequently presented with.)
This one has 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10. Mostly 7 and 10.
Beliefs that our goal is to derail pro-Palestine organizing by sewing Zionist beliefs in the movement. That we would be capable of such (9). That it's impossible that we're sincere and we're concerned both about what's happening in Gaza and the everpresent, intangible potent threat of imminent antisemitic violence.
Example E:
"What everpresent threat of imminent antisemitic violence? You're either delusional, too privileged to understand how oppressed you aren't, or lying to some sinister purpose."
The first two (delusional and too privileged) often comes from other Jews, who, yes, can be antisemitic too.
This one has: 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9.
Example F:
"As a Jew I know I am responsible for what's happening in Gaza, and I need to call in my people who deny our privilege and who think they're unsafe."
1, 4, 5, 6, 11. Shades of 10.
Example G:
"Israel is invading Gaza for oil."
8. Also this isn't true.
Example H:
"No Israeli is a civilian. All settlers are guilty, and need to leave."
Technically, it is possible for someone to hold this belief consistently for all settlers worldwide due to stringent decolonial beliefs. However, it frequently is applied only to Israelis. In such an iteration, I think it contains 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Which leads to my next point: Double standards. If something doesn't invoke a particular trope, but views Jewish or Israeli actions more harshly than we'd view the equivalent in any other place or people, to me that's suspect.
For example, relating to the above, if we believe that Truth and Reconciliation is the answer in the US and Canada, but in Israel the answer would be forced displacement of the Jewish population, that would be antisemitic.
Also, if we're able to hold nuance around the idea of refugees to the US and Canada, and understand that they're simultaneously taking part in colonialism while also arriving under duress because they need a place to live, we can extend the same nuance to the idea of Jewish refugees (Holocaust survivors, SWANA Jews, Ethiopian Jews, etc) who have come to Israel.
And, going back to example A, is there any other marginalized group we would say is not actually oppressed because members of it live in NYC and take Ubers? No? Then, it's antisemitic when you say it about Jews.
I also think misinformation about Jewish history and identity is antisemitic. For example, lines of thought that deny our ancestral, historical, cultural, and liturgical connections to the land of Israel/Palestine. One false belief I see a lot is Khazar Theory, popularized by the quack Shlomo Sand. This states that Ashkenazi Jews do not have ancestral origins in what's now Israel/Palestine, but rather descend from a mass conversion of Turkic peoples in the Kingdom of Kazaria. It is not, in fact, true.
Something else along these lines is back-defining origins and land-connection through current events. For example, a white gentile ex-friend of mine shared a post stating that because the IDF, as well as settler extremists, destroy Palestinian olive trees (an egregious act, in my opinion, as well as against Jewish law), this means we are not native to the land. While I understand the term native is complex and this might have been an attempt to denote our positionality as colonizer in a colonizer-indigenous dynamic, the framing of the post led me to believe that, actually, the post was using these actions to prove that we do not actually originate from the land.
Destroying Palestinian olive trees is an act of great violence against the land, against the Palestinian people, and against our own history, culture, and religious traditions. However, it does not change the historical fact of our origins or ancestry, nor the fact the our religious traditions are deeply intertwined with the seasons, climate, and agriculture of Israel-Palestine, even when that puts them out of sync with the seasons and climate of wherever we live in Diaspora.
I hope this is helpful. This is a really hard time for so many of us, and I know it can feel like derailing to focus on antisemitism right now, and to focus on the potential of future violence when the people of Gaza are experiencing actual extreme levels of violence right now. But if we truly believe that none of us are free until all of us are free, then fighting antisemitism has to be part of our collective liberation. We cannot and should not fight genocide by engaging in oppression. Speaking up for Gaza and Palestine does not have to mean fomenting conditions that put Jews in danger of bigotry and violence. The world we're building is one where seeing your trees destroyed, or your family killed, or your home receding into the distance as you are forced to leave is but a distant memory. For Palestinians, and for Jews, and for everybody on this Earth.
i've seen so many antisemitic posts and tweets where the person is careful to say "jewish people" instead of "jews" as though all you need to do is switch out your language. i guess this is the legacy of the 2015-era obsession with correct language as social justice, now people think they just need to avoid certain words and not actually unlearn bigotry. anyway it's way more insulting when people do this
For a friend who wanted links to some posts I made about antisemitism, allyship, and how to support Palestine without being antisemitic—which is both possible and easy to do!
How do you know if you’re antisemitic?
How to be a good ally for Jewish people. I responded to a wonderful ask from @faggotry-enjoyer about how to be a better ally and to discuss Israel/Palestine with people who are inclined to distrust Jews due to unexamined antisemitism.
Important post about the dangers faced by Jews as an extreme minority. There are good examples in the reblogs and replies and tags—both of great ways for non-Jews to provide support as well as if antisemites denying their own antisemitism. Therese even one example of ways Jews can and do disagree with each other while remaining respectful without delving into antisemitism OR Islamophobia OR denying the rights and dignity of Palestinians. Jews can do this and so can non-Jews. But that can’t happen if people hate us too much to listen to anything we have to say.
The emotional toll of antisemitism on Jewish people.
Example of the death threats we get that are designed to make us look like bad guys.
If Jews can learn about the Holocaust in detail before we even reach the age of ten, you can and should too.
Don’t trust people who rely on bad sources. People do make genuine mistakes. Here’s an example of bad faith link sharing. Especially when Reblogging things. Even I don’t have time to always check every source in a post. Also, it’s possible that a link seemed legitimate when it was originally posted but the source is either no longer trustworthy or the OP got better at assessing sources. If an error in their original sourcing is pointed out, they should correct it publicly. If they are sharing a link as an OP they should always take time to be as responsible as possible.
There are plenty more posts under my #leftist antisemitism tag to look into about a variety of ways that antisemitism manifests in left wing circles.
Allies, please reblog with any posts you think relevant for a someone new to dismantling their antisemitism.
"there are many jews involved in the columbia encampment, and there was even a kabbalat shabbat service and a seder" and "antisemitic things have been chanted at the columbia protests and there's a serious unaddressed (and dismissed) antisemitism problem in the movement" can both be true
like. portraying this as "a group of people who hate jews and want to intimidate and block them" isn't correct, but neither is "it's all a smear and nothing we've ever said or done could ever be antisemitic."
ugh. i just. its so frustrating bc on the one hand you've got people lobbing around the word antisemitism like a club to be used on political opponents, and on the other hand you have people who respond to that be closing their ears to any and every attempt to be called in for antisemitism. and then you get labeled a zionist and not-worth-listening-to for attempting that call-in, so the people who are trying to address it get pushed out
and the jews who remain often feel that as allies it's their duty to squash any internal sense that someone in the movement is antisemitic, believing that it's really their white/jewish fragility or their zionist brainwashing coming up.
the upshot of which is that the antisemitism problem doesn't get resolved when oh my god, it would be so easy. just listen to folks calling you in and learn about antisemitism and how it functions just like allies do for any oppression. empower jews in your space to speak up, with love and firmness. stop assuming every call-in is a threat by bad actors.
like there really are ways to move forward. why can't we take them?
Major Owl House/Gravity Falls fanartist (@/postingjustwhatever) with 10k+ notes on their posts is actually an antisemite who believes that Judaism is fundamentally racist and pedophilic was not on my 2022 bingo card
Anyway, this would be a great time for people in The Owl House/Gravity Falls fandom to educate yourself about antisemitism and blood libel, and how it perpetuates itself in the modern day through conspiracy theories and comments like these.
Agam Goldstein-Almog lives in Shefayim, Israel.
Growing up in Kibbutz Kfar Aza next to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip meant a childhood that could be interrupted at any moment by sirens warning of a Hamas rocket attack. Sibling fights or quiet nights were instantly turned into a scramble for the nearest safe room. Hamas took control of Gaza a few months before I was born in 2007, so living in its shadow is all I have ever known.
Having 15 seconds to run to safety might not be a common theme in childhood nostalgia, but I convinced myself that it had made me stronger than kids from the comfortable Tel Aviv bubble.
Then came Oct. 7. Hamas terrorists charged into our home, shooting my father, Nadav, and sister, Yam, in a furious ecstasy of hate. I was dragged out of the house together with my mother and two younger brothers and forced into a car to Gaza. I see my father’s fading eyes when I close mine at night.
Arriving in Gaza, the car was surrounded by a mob, mostly people who appeared to be about my own age, 17, or younger. They smiled and laughed as I wept.
In Judaism, there is a tradition that baseless hatred — hatred divorced from all reason — is what led to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70. I now know what it means to be hated baselessly — for all that I am and all I am not.
My Hamas guards hated me for being Jewish, so I was coerced into reciting Islamic prayers and made to wear a hijab. I was forbidden from mourning my father and sister, and often ordered to look down at the ground. Six female hostages I met in a tunnel told me about men with guns who came into their shower rooms and touched their bodies.
Hearing about these young women’s fear of sexual abuse was agonizing. When one of my guards told me that he would find me a “husband” in Gaza, and that I would live the rest of my life as a chained slave-wife, my mother interrupted, deflecting his advances. I was fortunate to be released, along with my family members, in a prisoner exchange after 51 days. But those six young women are still in captivity, held for more than 300 days, without their mothers. They all should have come home a long time ago.
Baseless hatred can lead a person to awful places, but when that hatred is shared by a group, it is terrifying to witness. One morning, my family was moved from our safe house to a school hall, filled largely with Gazan women and children. Strangers asked if I wanted anything to sit on, or if I was thirsty — a rare moment of human connection.
But then, in an instant, the low buzz of conversation was drowned out by Hamas launching rockets, just meters away from us, from inside the school compound. The hall erupted in joy, and as the Gazans celebrated, I realized that Hamas had moved us there to serve as human shields.
Shortly before my family and I were released at the end of November, a guard made a point of telling us that, in the next war, Hamas would return to kill us. There would be no hostage-taking, no more dealmaking.
When we were transferred to a Red Cross vehicle for our ride out of Gaza, a mob formed, just as when we arrived. But weeks of Israel’s intense bombing had changed the mood. Instead of laughing and taking photos, the Gazans banged on the windows and screamed at us: Die, die, die. The word is almost the same in Arabic as in Hebrew — but, then again, hatred sounds the same in every language.
In captivity, I had often filled the long, silent hours by fantasizing, trying to keep the dread and terrible memories at bay. One of my fantasies was that we would be freed and the world would embrace us.
But the world I came back to was deeply divided and seething with anger. The hatred that I thought I had left behind in Gaza was waiting for me online.
My social media feeds were flooded with trolls, falsehoods and conspiracy theories, all with seemingly one objective: driving hate. The comment sections of news articles mentioning my name were battlefields, as hatred from one side was met with hatred from the other.
I have watched as the movement in the West for a Gaza cease-fire sometimes devolves into full-throated support for Hamas and the hounding of Jews in public spaces. I’m sure my kidnappers still hate me, but when American students call for “intifada” or chant in praise of Hamas terrorists “Al-Qassam, you make us proud,” I’m reminded that many other people do, too.
Now a dangerous escalation in the war that began on Oct. 7 may loom, involving an Iranian regime that has long promised to wipe Israel off the map. Theirs is the same hatred that killed my father and sister. The same hatred that poisons too many campuses and too much of social media.
On Tuesday, news arrived that Israeli forces in Gaza had recovered the bodies of six hostages. It is unclear how many of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas remain alive. Negotiations for their release continue. I pray for their freedom, but I have no illusions about the world to which they’ll return.