"British Jews didn’t have an establishment to take care of them or respond on our behalf." American Jews have abdicated our personal responsibility to a bureaucratic establishment that, while Jewish in name, lacks commitment to the Jewish people and its interests. They are predominately careerists who are not interested in, trained in, nor qualified to deal with Jew hatred.
I completely agree with every word in your piece. And like one of the comments, I would agree and say that Jewish leadership in this country is poorly representing our needs and our desires. Jews are too focused on social action issues which stray directly from taking care of Jews first. This is fact, this is not opinion. We have also not gone after the Jews who get headlines and do not speak for us, for example, Seth Rogan. By go after, I don't mean violently, of course. I mean directly...on twitter, on any social media we can. Your voice is critical now. It is amazing that with so much hate that we American Jews are forced to deal with every single day, that it is a young Scottish woman who has come to tell and remind us about our need to stand TALL. To not accept the unacceptable. Thank you for carrying the torch!
I fear more and more American Jews have no idea what we are in fact losing here — i immigrated here as a stateless Arabic Jew thrilled to the max to be here until my Zionism was problematic in my Queer and progressive communities
I made your exact point about the passivity of the American Jewish community vs the British Jewish community on Bari Weiss’ substack last week. American Jews are too identified with one political party and are unwilling to criticize its precepts or representatives. Goldberg’s insincerity was demonstrated by her comments on Colbert after her (intern’s) posting of the ADL drafted statement and by her reported indignation over her two week paid “suspension”.
I am currently a Florida resident and the commenter below is incorrect regarding Ron DeSantis. He most certainly did denounce the neo Nazis in Orlando. There’s video of his press conference and an article in the Orlando Sentinel.
Once again, an excellent article Eve. Yes, American Jews are spoiled and overly assimilated, like German and Austrian Jews before them before the rise of Hitler.
Whoopi was disciplined by ABC for good reason, and I personally have no issue with that. What bothers me is the misinformation circulating around’woke’ spaces. I also feel that not enough was done about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. His unwillingness to decry the recent Nazi rally in Orlando is a huge issue. The MSM keeps focusing on right wing antisemitism, when the more dangerous threat comes from quarters like Whoopi Goldberg’s’wokeism’.
Rachel wahba’s experience emphasizes the point that - IMO largely due to the progressive community’s continuing hypocritical failure to address antisemitism & AntiZionism among leftist-progressives & political allies - Jews are the only U.S. civil rights group in America routinely subjected to incitement & antisemitic AntiZionist hate speech by Democrats in the House of Representatives - and hate crimes on the streets of New York et al - whom NO ONE stands with when the chips are down. (Disclaimer: Remarks by 🇺🇸 politicians condemning amnesty international’s “official new” AntiZionist antisemitic “report” are meaningless.) Biden’s & the FBI’s initial remarks denied antisemitism as a motive in the attack on the Colleyville (Texas) Synagogue by a black Islamist. Both were incorrect and inexcusably callous, especially during a moment of crisis for America’s Jews.
In a YouTube video, author & conservative political commentator David Horowitz once challenged a female SJP protester attending one of his university lectures to publicly condemn HAMAS then and there. When the student refused to do so, Horowitz mentioned the Hizbullah leader’s hope that if all the world’s Jews gathered in Israel, it would save Hizbullah the trouble of “hunting them down” - then asked whether the student protester supported or opposed the idea. You can guess the reply: “For it.”
This is where my head’s at. How anyone chooses to live their life is their choice, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that - but when they decide it’s okay (or trendy) to step on MY toes because I worship at a synagogue, eat in public restaurant with a yarmulke on my head or a chai around my neck, or proudly show my support for the world’s only Jewish state & the ME’s only Democratic state, that’s where I draw the line. There is wisdom in Hillel the Elder’s “If I am not for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?” With those ideas in mind, I can’t help feeling that Europe is lost, and with America teetering, the question of “Is it good for The Jews?” is the ONLY one that really matters across America’s current political landscape.
I do not have expertise to state what I write below is accurate, but only my perception.
To start, let me propose that the state of American Jewry in the United States exists such that it is incredibly difficult to uniformally characterize us. The muted response from jews in America to Whoopie is disturbing, but I would argue that the reason for this response is because of the existence of the large and complex fractionalization within the American Jewish Community. This fractionalization is likely the reason for a muted response to the rise antisemitism in the U.S., as there is no consensus on whether its rise is serious or whether it needs to be addressed. In addition, some members of the Jewish Community have been caught up in the extreme partisanship of the last few years, disrupting our ability to form a meaningful unified response. Leaders of our Jewish organizations should work to form consensus amongst American Jewry so we can speak as one voice against what appears to be some ominous developments.
Remarkably incisive, Eve! Recalling the first time I personally experienced antisemitism at age 11, I grew up in the state of Michigan, where hunting is a popular pastime for non-Jews. In the mostly non-Jewish neighborhood where my family lived, a non-Jewish classmate from school - upon learning I was a “kike” (his word) - pointed his pellet gun at me point-blank, and said: “Run!” He didn’t miss, but what was most painful was the sense of betrayal I felt from someone whom I’d considered a friend. It was a lesson I never forgot, unlike too many leftist-progressive American Jews who aren’t ready to go into battle as Jews for Jews. In my mind, the unanswerable question must always be: How can they turn away?
Whoopi Goldberg’s serious misstatements about race and the Nazi Holocaust, and her resulting two-week suspension from “The View,” brought to mind two incidents from years’ past.
A serious incident of antisemitic bullying at a local middle school in Greensboro, North Carolina. The young woman who was bullied by three young boys was a member of our congregation.
When I inquired as to what happened, I was told that an assistant principal was dealing with the situation. The next day, I appeared first thing in the morning at the principal’s office.
I met with the principal and explained to him why this was something that had to be dealt with at the “highest level;” that is, by the principal himself. He understood and agreed. Instead of getting angry, I tried my best to educate him, and he responded in a very appropriate manner.
I was acquainted with a father of one of the boys and invited them to come meet with me at Temple Emanuel. We had a meeting in which I felt that, between the father and me, we succeeded in educating the young man.
In March 2021, Miami Heat basketball player Meyers Leonard made an unfortunate antisemitic slur.
He apologized the next day saying, "My ignorance about its (the slur’s) history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong."
Leonard would later meet with a rabbi, speak at a synagogue and make a contribution to Jewish life at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
The Jewish community forgave him. We tried to educate, not punish; counsel, not cancel.
Dispelling falsehood and providing guidance rather than punishment is instructive in how we can, and should, respond to Whoopi Goldberg and others like her.
Let’s start with the educational component: The Holocaust had everything to do with race.
The Nazis viewed Jews as a race, making them wear yellow stars, depriving them of their ability to work, expropriating their bank accounts, forbidding them to hold civil service jobs. They were forbidden to intermarry with Aryans out of a fear of “polluting the purity of the Aryan race.”
Ultimately these views were codified in Germany's Nuremberg Laws on Nov. 15, 1935. Jews, defined by the Nazis as a race, were deprived of all civil rights.
Goldberg’s statements came at a time when there has been a significant rise in antisemitism worldwide, including within the United States. The recent hostage incident at the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, is still fresh in our minds.
In addition, there is greater trivialization of the Holocaust on top of increased voices denying that it ever occurred.
Goldberg apologized to Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish community the next day.
While I appreciate and affirm her for acknowledging her error, I’d suggest that she also consider visiting the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum for a special tour with Greenblatt and a meeting with a survivor.
Whoopi Goldberg is not an antisemite. She was just ill-informed about a key aspect of the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews and 300,000 Roma.
As such, she is well-deserving of forgiveness from the Jewish community, and I feel confident that most of the Jewish community has already forgiven her.
Here in North Carolina, the Governor recently signed into law the “Gizella Abramson Holocaust Education Act.” This law mandates Holocaust and Genocide education for middle and high school high school students.
The main lobbying for this law came from the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, an organization of which I am proud to support.
Hopefully, the next time that Ms. Goldberg opines about the Holocaust, she will be better informed!
It is my hope that students in North Carolina will know about the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust. The students that we teach today will obviously grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow.
What teachers are doing in teaching Holocaust and Genocide studies is much more significant than merely teaching a unit in the class. Their teaching is no less than an attempt to inspire and create a generation of young activists who will fight bias, bigotry, racism, homophobia and antisemitism with all of their beings.
Truly, "Never Again" begins in the classroom.
Moreover, through "education, not punishment" and "counsel, not cancel," we can help our young people understand the terrible consequences of hate in any form.
If we can succeed in this monumental task, we can help our country and the world move towards a future of justice, compassion and peace!
I’m American and my grandmother was a very active member of Hadassah and signed me up as a lifetime member as a child. She was very proud of her Zionism, my father was ashamed of it, so I saw both sides growing up. What Whoopi Goldberg said does bother me for several reasons. Jews were regarded as an inferior race, both only by the Nazis, but by other groups as well. In Mein Kamph, Hitler classified Jews as an inferior race and he uplifts those in America who he viewed as being a part of his superior race. I currently live in Florida and it’s clear that there are still many people who still belive the words that Hitler wrote and I’ve personally been targeted by them, with proof to show. I’ve literally been spoken to in such hateful ways, wi the someone both using slurs and asserting how they were superior to me because I’m of Jewish ethnicity and a woman. It was humiliating. In addition, Hitler went so far as to degrade the human-ness of Jews by referring to them as inferior apes, however, this degrading remark didn’t first appear in Mein Kampf. The Quran was the first text that I’m aware of that tried to collective designate Jews as being less than Human by referring to us as apes. Now, there’s also the way in which Hitler used this to his advantage of while trying to gain allies in the Arabic world during world war 2, including his relationships with Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.
Edit://
As a queer person, I also feel the pressure coming from the lgbtq+ community to be vehemently against Zionism , but I really didn’t see that trend coming… at all. I really don’t understand why this trend became a trend or why support of Israel is now something that must be done in secrecy for the fear of being outcasted or worse, terrorized
"British Jews didn’t have an establishment to take care of them or respond on our behalf." American Jews have abdicated our personal responsibility to a bureaucratic establishment that, while Jewish in name, lacks commitment to the Jewish people and its interests. They are predominately careerists who are not interested in, trained in, nor qualified to deal with Jew hatred.
I completely agree with every word in your piece. And like one of the comments, I would agree and say that Jewish leadership in this country is poorly representing our needs and our desires. Jews are too focused on social action issues which stray directly from taking care of Jews first. This is fact, this is not opinion. We have also not gone after the Jews who get headlines and do not speak for us, for example, Seth Rogan. By go after, I don't mean violently, of course. I mean directly...on twitter, on any social media we can. Your voice is critical now. It is amazing that with so much hate that we American Jews are forced to deal with every single day, that it is a young Scottish woman who has come to tell and remind us about our need to stand TALL. To not accept the unacceptable. Thank you for carrying the torch!
I fear more and more American Jews have no idea what we are in fact losing here — i immigrated here as a stateless Arabic Jew thrilled to the max to be here until my Zionism was problematic in my Queer and progressive communities
I made your exact point about the passivity of the American Jewish community vs the British Jewish community on Bari Weiss’ substack last week. American Jews are too identified with one political party and are unwilling to criticize its precepts or representatives. Goldberg’s insincerity was demonstrated by her comments on Colbert after her (intern’s) posting of the ADL drafted statement and by her reported indignation over her two week paid “suspension”.
I am currently a Florida resident and the commenter below is incorrect regarding Ron DeSantis. He most certainly did denounce the neo Nazis in Orlando. There’s video of his press conference and an article in the Orlando Sentinel.
Once again, an excellent article Eve. Yes, American Jews are spoiled and overly assimilated, like German and Austrian Jews before them before the rise of Hitler.
Whoopi was disciplined by ABC for good reason, and I personally have no issue with that. What bothers me is the misinformation circulating around’woke’ spaces. I also feel that not enough was done about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. His unwillingness to decry the recent Nazi rally in Orlando is a huge issue. The MSM keeps focusing on right wing antisemitism, when the more dangerous threat comes from quarters like Whoopi Goldberg’s’wokeism’.
Rachel wahba’s experience emphasizes the point that - IMO largely due to the progressive community’s continuing hypocritical failure to address antisemitism & AntiZionism among leftist-progressives & political allies - Jews are the only U.S. civil rights group in America routinely subjected to incitement & antisemitic AntiZionist hate speech by Democrats in the House of Representatives - and hate crimes on the streets of New York et al - whom NO ONE stands with when the chips are down. (Disclaimer: Remarks by 🇺🇸 politicians condemning amnesty international’s “official new” AntiZionist antisemitic “report” are meaningless.) Biden’s & the FBI’s initial remarks denied antisemitism as a motive in the attack on the Colleyville (Texas) Synagogue by a black Islamist. Both were incorrect and inexcusably callous, especially during a moment of crisis for America’s Jews.
In a YouTube video, author & conservative political commentator David Horowitz once challenged a female SJP protester attending one of his university lectures to publicly condemn HAMAS then and there. When the student refused to do so, Horowitz mentioned the Hizbullah leader’s hope that if all the world’s Jews gathered in Israel, it would save Hizbullah the trouble of “hunting them down” - then asked whether the student protester supported or opposed the idea. You can guess the reply: “For it.”
This is where my head’s at. How anyone chooses to live their life is their choice, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that - but when they decide it’s okay (or trendy) to step on MY toes because I worship at a synagogue, eat in public restaurant with a yarmulke on my head or a chai around my neck, or proudly show my support for the world’s only Jewish state & the ME’s only Democratic state, that’s where I draw the line. There is wisdom in Hillel the Elder’s “If I am not for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?” With those ideas in mind, I can’t help feeling that Europe is lost, and with America teetering, the question of “Is it good for The Jews?” is the ONLY one that really matters across America’s current political landscape.
I do not have expertise to state what I write below is accurate, but only my perception.
To start, let me propose that the state of American Jewry in the United States exists such that it is incredibly difficult to uniformally characterize us. The muted response from jews in America to Whoopie is disturbing, but I would argue that the reason for this response is because of the existence of the large and complex fractionalization within the American Jewish Community. This fractionalization is likely the reason for a muted response to the rise antisemitism in the U.S., as there is no consensus on whether its rise is serious or whether it needs to be addressed. In addition, some members of the Jewish Community have been caught up in the extreme partisanship of the last few years, disrupting our ability to form a meaningful unified response. Leaders of our Jewish organizations should work to form consensus amongst American Jewry so we can speak as one voice against what appears to be some ominous developments.
Remarkably incisive, Eve! Recalling the first time I personally experienced antisemitism at age 11, I grew up in the state of Michigan, where hunting is a popular pastime for non-Jews. In the mostly non-Jewish neighborhood where my family lived, a non-Jewish classmate from school - upon learning I was a “kike” (his word) - pointed his pellet gun at me point-blank, and said: “Run!” He didn’t miss, but what was most painful was the sense of betrayal I felt from someone whom I’d considered a friend. It was a lesson I never forgot, unlike too many leftist-progressive American Jews who aren’t ready to go into battle as Jews for Jews. In my mind, the unanswerable question must always be: How can they turn away?
Educate, not Punish! Counsel, not Cancel!
Whoopi Goldberg’s serious misstatements about race and the Nazi Holocaust, and her resulting two-week suspension from “The View,” brought to mind two incidents from years’ past.
A serious incident of antisemitic bullying at a local middle school in Greensboro, North Carolina. The young woman who was bullied by three young boys was a member of our congregation.
When I inquired as to what happened, I was told that an assistant principal was dealing with the situation. The next day, I appeared first thing in the morning at the principal’s office.
I met with the principal and explained to him why this was something that had to be dealt with at the “highest level;” that is, by the principal himself. He understood and agreed. Instead of getting angry, I tried my best to educate him, and he responded in a very appropriate manner.
I was acquainted with a father of one of the boys and invited them to come meet with me at Temple Emanuel. We had a meeting in which I felt that, between the father and me, we succeeded in educating the young man.
In March 2021, Miami Heat basketball player Meyers Leonard made an unfortunate antisemitic slur.
He apologized the next day saying, "My ignorance about its (the slur’s) history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong."
Leonard would later meet with a rabbi, speak at a synagogue and make a contribution to Jewish life at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
The Jewish community forgave him. We tried to educate, not punish; counsel, not cancel.
Dispelling falsehood and providing guidance rather than punishment is instructive in how we can, and should, respond to Whoopi Goldberg and others like her.
Let’s start with the educational component: The Holocaust had everything to do with race.
The Nazis viewed Jews as a race, making them wear yellow stars, depriving them of their ability to work, expropriating their bank accounts, forbidding them to hold civil service jobs. They were forbidden to intermarry with Aryans out of a fear of “polluting the purity of the Aryan race.”
Ultimately these views were codified in Germany's Nuremberg Laws on Nov. 15, 1935. Jews, defined by the Nazis as a race, were deprived of all civil rights.
Goldberg’s statements came at a time when there has been a significant rise in antisemitism worldwide, including within the United States. The recent hostage incident at the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, is still fresh in our minds.
In addition, there is greater trivialization of the Holocaust on top of increased voices denying that it ever occurred.
Goldberg apologized to Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish community the next day.
While I appreciate and affirm her for acknowledging her error, I’d suggest that she also consider visiting the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum for a special tour with Greenblatt and a meeting with a survivor.
Whoopi Goldberg is not an antisemite. She was just ill-informed about a key aspect of the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews and 300,000 Roma.
As such, she is well-deserving of forgiveness from the Jewish community, and I feel confident that most of the Jewish community has already forgiven her.
Here in North Carolina, the Governor recently signed into law the “Gizella Abramson Holocaust Education Act.” This law mandates Holocaust and Genocide education for middle and high school high school students.
The main lobbying for this law came from the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, an organization of which I am proud to support.
Hopefully, the next time that Ms. Goldberg opines about the Holocaust, she will be better informed!
It is my hope that students in North Carolina will know about the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust. The students that we teach today will obviously grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow.
What teachers are doing in teaching Holocaust and Genocide studies is much more significant than merely teaching a unit in the class. Their teaching is no less than an attempt to inspire and create a generation of young activists who will fight bias, bigotry, racism, homophobia and antisemitism with all of their beings.
Truly, "Never Again" begins in the classroom.
Moreover, through "education, not punishment" and "counsel, not cancel," we can help our young people understand the terrible consequences of hate in any form.
If we can succeed in this monumental task, we can help our country and the world move towards a future of justice, compassion and peace!
I’m American and my grandmother was a very active member of Hadassah and signed me up as a lifetime member as a child. She was very proud of her Zionism, my father was ashamed of it, so I saw both sides growing up. What Whoopi Goldberg said does bother me for several reasons. Jews were regarded as an inferior race, both only by the Nazis, but by other groups as well. In Mein Kamph, Hitler classified Jews as an inferior race and he uplifts those in America who he viewed as being a part of his superior race. I currently live in Florida and it’s clear that there are still many people who still belive the words that Hitler wrote and I’ve personally been targeted by them, with proof to show. I’ve literally been spoken to in such hateful ways, wi the someone both using slurs and asserting how they were superior to me because I’m of Jewish ethnicity and a woman. It was humiliating. In addition, Hitler went so far as to degrade the human-ness of Jews by referring to them as inferior apes, however, this degrading remark didn’t first appear in Mein Kampf. The Quran was the first text that I’m aware of that tried to collective designate Jews as being less than Human by referring to us as apes. Now, there’s also the way in which Hitler used this to his advantage of while trying to gain allies in the Arabic world during world war 2, including his relationships with Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.
Edit://
As a queer person, I also feel the pressure coming from the lgbtq+ community to be vehemently against Zionism , but I really didn’t see that trend coming… at all. I really don’t understand why this trend became a trend or why support of Israel is now something that must be done in secrecy for the fear of being outcasted or worse, terrorized
Eve 👍🏽