Impossible to fight anti-Semitism if Hinduphobia is ignored

Newspapers used to routinely write after a terrorist attack, a few years ago, that people belonging to a particular community had “rushed to donate blood for the victims.”

These days, such courtesies are not even considered necessary, following the most horrific mass murder of Israelis in recent memory. In order to silence the victims’ voices, a wall of noise has burst onto college campuses, social media, and real life. Thousands of zombie propagandists have taken to the streets, screaming for Israel’s destruction and the extinction of the Jewish people, from Australia to England.

Many young Americans believe that Israel is merely a “White” country engaged in unredeemable imperialism, deserving of total condemnation. It seems as though thousands of enraged “Woke” youth view Israel as the victim of all the transgressions committed by European White people in the past, including African slavery, “Islamophobia,” and the colonisation of the Americas and the genocide of Native Americans.

Is there some resurgent anti-Semitism among Christians and Muslims? Or, as some liberal Jews insist, is it just a valid criticism of “Zionism” and “Western settler colonialism”? And why are so many Jews afraid if the US “Jewish lobby” is as powerful as people think it is?

Lastly, from this sad circumstance, what lessons can Indians in general and Hindus in particular in the diaspora learn? Hindus are evidently the only non-Jewish community that appears to have as much sympathy for Jews right now. However, is the Jewish diaspora aware of or receptive to this sympathy? Why not, if not? And who will be the victim of that?

Two Views of Anti-Semitism

There are, in my opinion, two competing theories regarding the evolution of anti-Semitic sentiment in history. The prevalent one employs a practical, selective frame and was developed in academia and normalised in the media over the previous few decades. Anti-Semitism is acknowledged to exist, but only insofar as it emanates from the “Right Wing,” “White Supremacists,” or people who support Trump in the West.

According to this perspective, progressive white people, Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians stand up against bigotry because they believe it is only represented by White Supremacists, Zionists, and Hindu Nationalists in the modern world.

Many progressive Jews may also hold this opinion, despite the fact that some of them have recently been “mugged by reality.” The organisations that support this viewpoint, of course, do not think that anti-Semitism can exist among Muslims, Arabs, or members of the Left. It is only “anti-Zionism,” not anti-Semitism or prejudice against Jews, in everything they say or do. That’s what they think.

The second viewpoint, which was once widespread among Jews but appears to have grown a little more complex with generational shifts, is focused on their ancestors’ protracted, unrelenting religious persecution. Hatred towards Jews was propagated generation after generation by the Romans, the early Christians, the Catholic church in Spain and Italy, Martin Luther, and the Protestant revolution in Germany.

Racism and eugenics in the early 20th century allowed the religious bias to permeate ostensibly secular and (pseudo) scientific discourse; this culminated in the Nazis’ horrific industrial-scale propaganda, dehumanisation, and genocide. It is evident that the Catholic church was aware of the intersection of religious and contemporary elements in anti-Semitic prejudice, as it is frequently criticised for its silence and inability to assist Jews.

Although Jews and other people are familiar with this portion of history, over the past few decades, there appears to have been a shift in the understanding of the growing propaganda against Jewish Americans in universities, particularly among younger Jewish Americans who identify as progressives.

How to combat Anti-Semitism

Bari Weiss, the founder of The Free Press and a former New York Times writer, has written a thoughtful book on this subject titled How to Fight Anti-Semitism. Her book is an excellent resource for understanding how liberal Jews are starting to make sense of the Left’s anti-Semitic sentiments, but it also highlights some gaps in the (progressive) Jewish understanding of the threats to their civilization that exist today, as opposed to how Hindus, who have been unapologetically supporting Jews, see these threats.

Weiss accurately notes that anti-Semitism in the US originates from both the Left and the Right. Concerning the latter, she says that progressive Jews in particular “are being asked to erase more and more of themselves to remain inside the fold (and) some don’t even know they are making this choice, having grown up with little Jewish education or understanding of Jewish history.” So she is concerned about the effects of the latter.

However, as pro-Israel Hindus may have observed, there is a persistent aspect to Jewish criticism of anti-Semitic propaganda on the Left, and Jewish criticism of the same may be ineffective (effective in only tactical ways, such as securing the dismissal of anti-Semites or cutting funding), but less effective in other areas.

I’m not sure how many of the 18–24-year-olds surveyed in the Harvard CAPS Harris survey who stated that the Hamas attacks were justified by Palestinian grievances have changed their minds in light of the horrors of October 7 and the valiant efforts of many writers and activists (an alarming 51 percent of them and 48 percent of 25–34 year olds, compared to much smaller fractions among older Americans say Hamas was justified). From school to college to the job, young people worldwide are indoctrinated into a dominant worldview that is based on a straightforward dichotomy of good and bad people. Victims include good people, such as Blacks, Muslims, and transgender people. The oppressors and colonisers are the bad people: Whites, Jews, “Zionists,” Hindus, “Hindutva/Sanatana Dharmis,” and “Terfs.”

The reasons behind this blatantly biassed and intentionally destructive worldview are beginning to be recognised. According to a recent report released by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), for instance, US colleges have received billions of dollars in donations from nations like Qatar, and anti-Semitism has been observed to be on the rise on campuses that have accepted a significant amount of these funds.

Therefore, is the pushback against the prevailing narrative of today destined to stay fragmented and at a disadvantage, or is an awareness of these causes contributing to a collective narrative of bias against, say, Hindus, Jews, and others?