I am deeply concerned by the relentless — and also maybe clueless — use of antisemitic tropes that continues to pervade campus protests. This includes Thursday’s rally protesting the arrest and detainment of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil. Considering the overt use of these antisemitic elements, my presumption is that many students are no longer familiar with the history of these tropes — and not, rather, that all students who employ them are antisemites.
Here are two examples from Thursday.
First: Calls for Mr. Khalil’s release were intertwined with attacks against billionaire enemies. When you assert that “billionaires are the real enemy” of immigrants and innocent Palestinian activists, you inadvertently endorse a classic antisemitic trope that suggests Jews are money-hungry and working against the interest of the honest citizen. Even if done unwittingly, these parallels reference one of the oldest, most pernicious attacks on the Jewish community that has led to violence and prejudice against Jews throughout the world.
Second: One of the students who spoke at Thursday’s gathering addressed “the stranglehold of Zionism over our institutions.” The notion of a Jewish stranglehold over nations and global civilization has deep roots in the history of anti-Jewish hate. It is difficult to warn of the “stranglehold of Zionism” without making direct appeal to the historic antisemitic conspiracy theory that portrays Jews as all-powerful, controlling media, banks and governments with sinister intent. The Nazis were major proponents of this theory, grotesquely represented in this 1938 Nazi propaganda poster.
I did not go to rabbinical school to serve as an antisemitism watchdog. But the proliferation of this language across the American culturescape — especially at our own University, a place of thoughtfulness and kindness — has compelled me to speak up.
Friday was the Jewish holiday of Purim, commemorating an unexpected victory of the Jews in ancient Persia. In the story, Haman, the arch-antagonist, describes the Jews as “a people, scattered and dispersed … whose traditions are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws” (Esther 3:8). Haman’s solution was to murder the Jewish community.
Antagonistic paranoia and accusations against Jews have been pervasive for over 2,500 years. They have almost always ended with violence. Students should know the history of the rhetoric that they are once again using — even if it is not intentional — and how it demonizes the Jewish community.
But as the Jewish quip goes: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.
Rabbi Josh Bolton is the Executive Director of Brown RISD Hillel and the Interim Associate Chaplain of the University for the Jewish Community. He can be reached at joshua_bolton@brown.edu. Please send responses to this op-ed to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
