O pinion
Pro-Semitism: A New Path
BY GAVRIEL KAUFMAN
IF YOU WERE SHOCKED by
the alarming growth of anti-Is-
rael sentiment after Israel’s
spring 2021 engagement in
Gaza, you haven’t been paying
close enough attention.

For years,
America’s “finest” institutions have been
promulgating an anti-Israel
agenda. Most schools seem as
committed to promoting the
notion that Israel is a colonizer
as they are to their students’
post-graduation employment
outcomes. I had the opportu-
nity to witness this firsthand as
an undergrad at the University
of Pittsburgh, where a sociology
ignored Israel’s many peace
offers and gestures of good
faith. Allow me to provide a
couple examples of these gross
distortions: In one video, its
creators opine that “Israelis
receive vaccinations ... that
Palestinians typically do not
get.” In fact, in June of this
year, the Palestinian Authority
rejected a deal in which Israel
would have provided 1 million
COVID vaccines to those
living in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The Palestinian
Authority valued optics more
than its citizenry.

Another video claims that
“between 250,000-350,000
Palestinians were expelled
from their homes by Zionist
paramilitaries” between
November 1947 and May 1948.

Although this number may
be accurate, its purpose is to
confuse, not clarify. In truth,
Israel did its best to avoid
conflict in the years before
1948; in 1937, when the Peel
Commission announced that
Israel would be provided with
likely realized that most of the
Palestinians’ problems stem
from corrupt, inept leadership.

But for most anti-Israel
activists, this realization has
not come. It never will. They
will continue to demonize
Israel and spew disinformation
about the world’s only Jewish
state. Hatred of Am Yisrael is
not new; it has been with us
for as long as our people have
existed. My intention is to not
depress or dishearten. My
intention is only to point out
that what we’ve done up until
now has not reaped the rewards
we hoped for. When we decry
the horrors of antisemitism, we
are met with only more hate,
more vitriol.

So, what’s a Yid to do?
Should we just accept that
people will always hate us and
smear us?
For many, the solution has
been to spread awareness of
antisemitism. We delude
ourselves into thinking that
if we teach our neighbors
about enough pogroms and
If we are serious about combating antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred
— which are really the same thing — we ought to launch a campaign
of pro-Semitism.

emphasis on antisemitism and
focus our attention elsewhere:
on the beautiful inheritance we
have, on the G-dly message we
have for the world.

If we are serious about
combating antisemitism and
anti-Israel hatred — which are
really the same thing — we
ought to launch a campaign
of pro-Semitism. If we wear a
Magen David around our neck,
we should replace it with one
that is twice the size; if we wear
a kippah full-time, we should
wear one that is larger and
more colorful.

If we are serious about
combating the hatred of those
who seek to distort our truths,
we must be proud and resolute.

We’ve tried for years to combat
our enemies with the reali-
ties of antisemitism and its
dangers. It has not worked.

Maybe it’s time for
something new. l
After graduating from the University
of Pittsburgh, Gavriel Kaufman
pursued Jewish studies at Mayanot
Yeshiva, a Chabad yeshiva in
Jerusalem. The Philadelphia native
is a student at Rutgers Law School.

KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Article Overlooked Local Resource
I READ WITH INTEREST your front-page article about
Yiddishists seeking community (“Yiddishists Search for
Community to Preserve Revered Language,” Jan. 6). No mention
was made of the living, vibrant resource found at Gratz College
in the person of Rita Ratner, who single-handedly founded the
Yiddish program there and, like the eternal light, keeps it alive
and growing.

My classmates and I began our Yiddish studies there and keep
going as an intermediate study group going on our fourth year.

What are we, chopped liver (gehakte leber)?
No mention was made either of the the Yiddish Book Center
in western Massachusetts where Stephen Spielberg has under-
written the digitized Stephen Spielberg Library where you can
find any existing Yiddish book online and can print it out for no
charge. l
Betty-Jeanne Korson | Hatboro
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
professor assigned a book, “The
Making of a Human Bomb,”
that justified suicide bombings,
claiming they were a rational
response to having occupiers
in your homeland.

Although I’ve heard this
rhetoric for many years, it still
hurts to hear people demonize
a country and a people that
have done so much good in
the world. Recently, much to
my disappointment, Rutgers
Law School — where I am a
student — posted 22, minute-
long videos about Palestine.

Unsurprisingly, these videos
slandered and demonized the
Jewish state. In so doing, they
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM a tiny, discontinuous piece of
land, the Jews quickly accepted
the offer. The Arabs, who
would not abide by a Jewish
state of any size, categorically
refused. Such refusals would
become a recurring theme in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In 2001, after eight years
of failed peace negotiations,
President Bill Clinton met with
Yasser Arafat, then chairman
of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization. Arafat praised
Clinton and called him a great
man; Clinton responded, “I’m
a colossal failure, and you
made me one.” After years
of disappointments, Clinton
the Holocaust, perhaps they
will start to support Israel as
staunchly as we do. Our efforts
have not worked.

After seeing the videos
posted on Rutgers Law’s
YouTube page, I contemplated
sending the creators an email,
explaining their videos were a
false portrayal of what’s going
on in Israel and Palestine. But
then I would be falling into the
trap that we always fall prey
to: Maybe, just maybe, I can
convince the person who hates
me of the truth by using facts
and logic.

Instead, it’s time that Jewish
people turn away from their
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JANUARY 13, 2022
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