opinion
There’s More to Rising Antisemitism
Than Joe Rogan’s Rants
Jonathan S. Tobin
T he timing was fortuitous,
even if the news was
depressing. A week
after an episode of the Joe
Rogan Experience featured
an antisemitic exchange between the host and
fellow podcaster Krystal Ball, the American Jewish
Committee released a new poll documenting the
fact that most Americans — Jewish and non-Jewish
— think that Jew-hatred is growing.

The survey, titled “The State of Antisemitism in
America 2022,” contains some sobering results about
a perception that hatred for Jews has increased,
even if most of it is hardly surprising. What’s more,
that opinion is shared by non-Jews as well as Jews,
though there are some diff erences in the data. But
it also shows us that many Jewish respondents are
often as clueless about what constitutes antisemi-
tism as their non-Jewish neighbors.

Yet given the fact of a consensus about something
this serious, what is most dismaying about this
problem is that those Jewish groups tasked with
dealing with it aren’t focused on the most danger-
ous aspects of the challenge. Even worse, too many
of those stating their concerns are directing their
energies towards responses that are either of little
use or actually counterproductive.

This isn’t the fi rst time that Rogan has produced
a podcast that validated antisemitic arguments.

Back in the fall, he hosted Pink Floyd frontman and
anti-Israel zealot Roger Waters, giving him an unchal-
lenged platform to advocate for the antisemitic BDS
movement, as well as hateful myths about Israel and
conspiracy theories that justify Palestinian terrorism.

This time, he and Ball rose in defense of Rep. Ilhan
Omar (D-Minn.) to justify her antisemitic smears that
claimed Jews were buying congressional support for
Israel, which led the new Republican majority in the
House of Representatives to boot her off the Foreign
Relations Committee — something the Democratic
leadership would not do.

Referencing her use of the standard theme about
Jews and money, in which she said support for the
Jewish state “was all about the Benjamins,” he said
the following: “That’s not an antisemitic statement.

Benjamins are money. The idea that Jewish people
are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying
Italians aren’t into pizza.”
The idea that Jews are “into” money any more
14 FEBRUARY 23, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
than any other group is a stereotype, not a fact and
certainly not a serious argument. As many of Rogan’s
critics pointed out, Italians haven’t faced genocide
because of their connection to pizza. The issue is
not a stupid analogy. It’s the fact that the person who
hosts the most popular podcast on the Internet with
an estimated 11 million listeners for each episode is
not only willing to defend an antisemite, he is attempt-
ing to mainstream slanders of Jews and Israel.

The question to ask about this is not what should
be done about Rogan. Those who might try to cancel
or silence him over this will have the same lack of
success that others had when he previously off ended
mainstream liberal orthodoxy by hosting people who
contradicted popular, but often mistaken, beliefs about
the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines. Much like the
focus of groups like the Anti-Defamation League, who
are primarily interested in dealing with online hate by
censoring conservatives, that is a tactic that won’t work.

More importantly, as long as every Democrat in the
House of Representatives is ready to vote against
the GOP’s eff orts to do no more than slap Omar on
the wrist, the ability of such an antisemite to maintain
their mainstream status can’t be blamed on Rogan,
even if his infl uence shouldn’t be discounted.

The aftermath of Kanye (“Ye”) West’s public attacks
on Jews was similarly instructive about the futility
of concentrating fi re on celebrities who say bad
things. The willingness of former President Donald
Trump to host West at a Mar-a-Lago dinner with
other Jew-baiters like Nick Fuentes was justifi ably
condemned. Yet when others, like comedian Dave
Chappelle via his appearance as host of “SNL,”
reinforced some of the same antisemitic tropes as
West and tried to distract attention from African-
American violence against Jews, even as he mocked
the rapper/fashion mogul, it also illustrated just how
diffi cult it is to isolate and condemn sources of hate.

Nor should we fail to make the connection
between the way fashionable liberal opinion has
embraced ideas like intersectionality and critical
race theory, and the problem of growing antisemi-
tism. These concepts, which deem Jews and Israel
to be examples of “white privilege” who oppress
people of color, grant a permission slip for antisemi-
tism in academia, the media and in politics.

All of this makes it little wonder that the AJC poll
shows that Jews as well as non-Jews think antisem-
itism has not only increased but isn’t being taken as
seriously as other forms of hate and bigotry.

One can take some solace from the fact that
the number of Jews who say they have personally
encountered antisemitism either online or in person
is small. However, the mainstreaming of antisemitic
discourse explains why an ominously signifi cant
minority of Jews — 23%, almost one-quarter of an
entire people — say they sometimes seek to conceal
their Jewish identity.

Yet for all that, we know that Jewish legacy organi-
zations have, like so many other elements in our
society, become so thoroughly politicized that they
are more interested in partisan attacks on opponents
than condemning Jew hatred across the board. And
their eff orts at education against hate, particularly
with respect to the Holocaust, focus on anodyne
messages about kindness and all bigotry, rather than
seek to anathematize contemporary antisemitism in all
of its primary manifestations on the right, the left, and
among African-American and Muslim communities.

This also contributes to the confusion that some
Jews have about what constitutes antisemitism.

For example, both Jews and non-Jews overwhelm-
ingly believe that saying “Israel has no right to exist
is antisemitic.” Yet while that statement is backed by
87% of Jews and 90% of non-Jews, less than 40% of
both groups are willing to label the BDS movement
as antisemitic, as opposed to just having some
antisemitic supporters.

That’s partly a product of the ignorance the poll
demonstrates about the way anti-Zionism is merely
a thinly disguised version of antisemitism. But it’s
also a function of a political atmosphere in which
the intersectional left, which has embraced the BDS
movement, gets a pass because they are politically
aligned with Democrats or spout opinions that have
become commonplace in leading media outlets like
The New York Times.

So long as that is true — and so long as those who
purport to speak for the Jews, either in the Jewish
world or in politics — aren’t willing to draw a line
in the sand and declare that people like Omar and
other BDS supporters are beyond the pale in the
same way that West is now treated, don’t expect the
situation to improve.

Blame Joe Rogan all you like, but the real problem
about contemporary antisemitism isn’t what’s heard
on a podcast. It’s the ability of some Jew haters and
the popular ideologies they promote to be treated
as acceptable discourse. That’s the real reason for
troubling poll results that don’t tell us any more than
what we already know about 2023 America. ■
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish
News Syndicate).