An ancient evil resurges

Dec. 9 marked the 25th anniversary of the United Nations finally calling for “resolute action and cooperation for [the] eradication” of anti-Semitism. But as our Jewish friends celebrate Hanukkah while praying for the release of friends and family members held by Hamas terrorists, how is it that we still see growing anti-Semitism, such as on America’s university campuses? What is to be done?

The Dec. 9, 1998, resolution pointed to racial and ethno-religious prejudice in the context of the growing use of the internet for the dissemination of information, as well as vitriol and conspiracy theories, at the time. Anti-Semitism and other such hatreds are rightly labeled in UN Resolution 623 as rooted in “superiority,” “exclusivity,” and “intolerance.”

On the one hand, when one thinks back to the Holocaust and the quasi-religion of Nazi Aryan Supremacy, it is amazing that it took 50 years to publish an anti-racism statement at the United Nations that included the words “anti-Semitism.”

On the other hand, the fact that it took so long—despite persistent anti-Semitism in parts of Europe and the Middle East—testifies to the enduring problem of this evil.

The Oct. 8, 2023, response of many American college students and their neo-Marxist professors to Hamas’ grotesque attacks on people in Israel has revealed a dirty secret in higher education: Many of our universities are incubators for anti-Semitic racial and religious hatred.

We saw this first-hand in a congressional hearing where the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania found it almost impossible to take a firm stance against those on their campuses calling for genocide and the destruction of Israel. When asked about faculty and students chanting ethnic cleansing slogans, such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” the presidents lamely countered that free speech allowed for such incendiary rhetoric.

When Harvard’s president was asked about combatting anti-Semitism, her anemic response was, “Anti-Semitism is a symptom of ignorance, and the cure for ignorance is knowledge. … Harvard must model what it means to preserve free expression while combatting prejudice and preserving the security of our community.” But it is hard to imagine how “knowledge,” dispensed by faculty and staff actively participating in anti-Semitic rallies, is going to cure “ignorance” or anything else.

At the heart of all of this is the profoundly troubling framing of all of Western history into oppressor vs. oppressed. This is the fundamental thesis of the neo-Marxist framework that is at the root of militant ideologies of racial oppression, gender and sexual oppression, and class (financial) oppression. We know these so-called theories as Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and the like, and we see them expressed in movements from Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter.

The evil of anti-Semitism has been around for a long time but it has taken on a new dimension in recent years as many of the nine million inhabitants of Israel are now labeled as “colonizers,” and thus as the oppressor. In the West, we’ve seen a recent spike in anti-Semitic attitudes as well as physical attacks on synagogues and Jewish people. The worst offenders are young adults.

How can we embrace the vision of UN Resolution 623? The resolution’s language puts the lie to the “free speech” is not “inciting hatred” argument of Harvard, MIT, and Penn. The resolution rightly states: “acts of racist violence … do not comprise expressions of opinion but rather offences … [and] are among the most serious violations of human rights in the contemporary world.”

The place to start is with anti-Semitism. It is time for alumni and concerned citizens to divest themselves from educational institutions that flaunt anti-Semitism, or make a concerted effort to fire administrators, faculty, and staff who support or cater to anti-Semitism. We need a careful review of every high- and middle-school in America as well to ensure that our children are not being told the twin lies that free speech somehow protects racist incitements to violence, and that anti-Semitism is somehow the one prejudice that is allowed.

We can turn to the father of our country, George Washington, for inspiration. Although colonial America was deeply Christian, he wrote a letter to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island in 1790, saying, “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”