opinion
American Jews Must Embrace
Their Own Identity Politics
T selimaksan / Gettyimages
By Benjamin Kerstein
he unprecedented rise of antisemi-
tism in the United States has taken
many by surprise, in particular,
because it is, for the most part, new in
American history.

For the first time, antisemitism is being
“mainstreamed.” It has emerged as a major
political and social phenomenon on the
far-right and the far-left, in the Muslim
community and certain sectors of the Black
community. American Jews appear to be
facing a perfect storm.

No one in the Jewish community seems to
know quite what to do about this, but they
know they must do something. It is possible
that the answer to this urgent question may
be found by asking what American Jews’
primary relationship with America has been
until now, since it is this relationship that has
been disturbed by the tidal wave of hatred.

For the most part, the relationship has
been defined by a single ideology, and it
is an ideology in the most literal sense, a way of
conceiving of and being in the world: assimilation.

Put simply, the Jews made an unspoken bargain
with the United States: America would accept the
Jews as free and equal citizens, and in return, Jews
would do everything possible to become Americans
as this was understood at the time.

Until quite recently, this appeared to be working.

Over time, assimilation came to be seen as a
done deal: The Jews had succeeded in becoming
Americans in every sense, even the most Orthodox
among them. They were proud of it, they embraced
it and they began to take it for granted.

But they were wrong. In the face of the new
American antisemitism (a phrase I had hoped never
to write), it is clear that assimilation has failed. It
didn’t work. To the surprise of many, American Jews
turned out to be Jews just like all other Jews. They
have discovered, or at least sense, that they are not
exceptions to history.

What, then, should American Jews do?
Some of the more fervent among us, mostly
American Jews who have moved to Israel, are urging
immediate aliyah, but this is at best unrealistic, and
American Jews have a right to attempt to continue to
be Americans.

On the other extreme, there are Jews who have
doubled down on assimilation, asserting that it
can be achieved if the Jews completely divest
themselves of any Jewish partisanship (especially
their attachment to Israel) and appease the antisem-
ites by becoming exactly like them. Needless to say,
this would be an abomination and effectively erase
the American Jewish community by making them
indistinguishable from those who hate them — the
ultimate endgame, perhaps, of assimilation.

Somewhere between these two extremes is a
large contingent that might be called Jews of indif-
ference. Children of decades of unquestioned assim-
ilation, they lack a religious connection to Judaism
and regard Israel with disinterest at best. They
feel little or no urgency about the rise of the new
antisemitism, as they are not visibly Jewish and have
only the vaguest sense of solidarity with the rest of
the community. Thus, they have largely escaped the
current upheaval unscathed and see no reason why
they will not continue to do so. To the extent that
they think about it at all, they appear to believe that
apathy will save them.

Their answer to the rise of American antisemi-
tism is, in other words, to do nothing. If anything is
certain, it is that this is not a viable option.

There is a certain model that might be adopted,
however, though it is uncomfortable for many on
both the left and right of the Jewish community
because it has often been wielded as a blunt scythe
through American society: identity politics.

Today, a great many American minori-
ties — Black Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ
people and numerous others — have made
their identity as minorities an essential part
of their way of being in the world. They
feel a strong sense of compact solidarity,
which demands an essential struggle, and
they formulate their political and social
ambitions accordingly.

Though this does present, as critics point
out, the threat of balkanization, it nonethe-
less grants these groups considerable
power, above all because it makes them
strong, militant and unafraid to express their
anger. These are delicate materials, but
they are often essential to social change.

Except, perhaps, for Asian Americans,
American Jews are the only minority group
that has not adopted this stance. Still
clinging to their old ideology, they have no
identity politics.

To overcome antisemitism, this must
change. American Jews must become
strong, militant and unafraid of express-
ing their anger, not to separate themselves from
America but to become part of it on different
terms. They should not seek diffusion into American
society but engage with it as a compact minority
that has replaced the urge to embrace conformity
with a particularist identity. An identity that must be
accepted by the majority in the same way the major-
ity has accepted, albeit after many troubles, that of
other minority groups.

There are, thankfully, some indications that
American Jews are moving in this direction. Jews are
now accepted as a “protected group” under the Civil
Rights Act. There is a small but growing contingent
of young Jewish activists who take a more militant
and uncompromising stand against antisemitism and
for their Jewish identity. And the American Jewish
leadership has succeeded in pushing antisemitism to
the top of America’s sociopolitical agenda.

We may hope that these seeds continue to grow,
however much it may disturb a century-old ideol-
ogy in which so much hope was placed only to be
frustrated by history. What American Jews require
now is a new hope. If they wish to remain Americans,
they must find a new way of being Americans. And
while it is still in a delicate infancy, this may finally be
taking shape. ■
Benjamin Kerstein is a writer and editor living in Tel Aviv.

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