I’m Jewish, and I’m here to tell you that antisemitism exists on the left.
I get it. Israel has a lot of power and influence, and antisemitism was used against Corbyn as a smear. That doesn’t mean that antisemitism on the left isn’t also a real thing, and I’m tired of being regarded with suspicion as a Zionist stooge every time I bring it up.
I’m sick of being grilled by strangers about Palestine as soon as they find out I’m Jewish. You wouldn’t get in a Sunni’s face about the ongoing Saudi genocide in Yemen, so why do I have to answer for a whole country I’m not from? Why am I a “suspect” until I can prove my credentials?
I’m sick of being regarded as just a (((white person from Brooklyn))), as one poster on here put it. White people from Brooklyn don’t get their places of worship shot up at random, or called k*kes everywhere online, or get assaulted if dressed traditionally.
I’m sick of making friends in left spaces IRL, to later hear them regurgitate Rothschild conspiracies or tell racist jokes about the Hasidic communities nearby. Big noses! Love of money! We have sex through a hole in a sheet! It never gets old! This shit people say about Jews would never get said about any other minority. I’ve even seen a “left” (ex)-friend from school say that “the only good jew is a dead jew” in messages (which apparently was “fine because she’s Lebanese and it’s a cultural thing and she doesn’t really mean it”).
There are many problems on the left, including racism and sexism, and it doesn’t get better if we just pretend they don’t exist. Jewish leftists are your allies, please treat us as such. We want the same goals as you. If we bring up that we feel uncomfortable, PLEASE do not just write us off. It’s heartbreaking to raise the issue of the racism that you’re experiencing in a supposedly inclusive space, just to be accused of being a shifty wrecker working for a foreign state.
This post was inspired by this one, where a random Jewish person (with “free palestine” on their page, no less) is implied to be a paid Israeli troll just for bringing up that anti-Semitism is a problem on our side too.
Edit: I’d just like to say thank you all for the overwhelmingly positive response to this post. It’s really great to know your comrades have got your back. I also appreciate how those with questions have (mostly) been open minded and engaged in good faith. It makes a difference.
As a Jew, this is my problem with the TrueAnon podcast. While they never explicitly mention The Jewish Question, they seem to uncritically reference a multitude of conspiracy theories clearly borne out of right-wing circles. I know they try to frame it as a curiosity or “just asking questions” or whatever, but functionally, they may as well just be reading excerpts from the Turner Diaries.
On the flipside, yeah, Jews, and Zionists in particular, hold way too much power and lord it over American and Middle East society. So I “get” the antisemitism. By demographics, they’re overrepresented in politics, law, entertainment, and finance, so any conspiracy corkboard is gonna be lit up with red string. And while we can talk about “white men” dominating all sectors of society, any similar discussion about Jews gets swept under the carpet.
It’s complex. What’s certain is it’s next to impossible to discuss it without everyone bringing their baggage.
Also, if you’re generally skeptical like me and think 9/11 was “allowed” to happen by the security state so the US could invade the Middle East and ram through panoptical legislation like the Patriot Act, there’s no doubt Israeli leadership/AIPAC had a seat at the table. Again, just …complex. But ascribing that bloodthirst Zionism to all Jews is really the problem. That being said, anyone defending Israeli apartheid should get the wall.