opinions & letters
Beyond the ‘Day of Hate’: How to Keep
American Jews Safe Over the Long Term
Yehuda Kurtzer
M y synagogue sent out a
cautiously anxious email
last week about an event this
past Shabbat, a neo-Nazi “Day
of Hate.” The email triggered fuzzy
memories of one of the strangest
episodes that I can remember from my childhood.

Sometime around 1990, in response to local neo-Nazi
activity, some Jews from my community decided to
“fight back.” I don’t know whether they were members
of the militant Jewish Defense League, or perhaps just
sympathetic to a JDL-style approach. When our local
Jewish newspaper covered the story, it ran on its front
cover a full-page photo of a kid from my Orthodox
Jewish high school. The photo showed a teenage boy
from behind, wearing a kippah and carrying a baseball
bat that was leaning threateningly on his shoulder.

As it happens, “Danny” was not a member of the JDL;
he was a kid on his way to play baseball. Sometimes,
a baseball bat is just a baseball bat. But not for us
anxious Jews in America: We want to see ourselves as
protagonists taking control of our destiny, responding
to antisemites with agency, with power, with a plan. I’m
sorry to say that as I look around our community today,
it seems to me that we have agency, and we have
power — but we certainly don’t seem to have a plan.

The tactics that the American Jewish community uses
to fight back against antisemitism are often ineffective
on their own and do not constitute a meaningful strat-
egy in the composite. One is that American Jews join
in a partisan chorus that erodes our politics and fixates
on the antisemitism in the party they don’t vote for.

This exacerbates the partisan divide, which weakens
democratic culture, and turns the weaponizing of
antisemitism into merely a partisan electoral tactic.

Another tactic comes from a wide set of organizations
who declare themselves the referees on the subject
and take to Twitter to name and shame antisemites.

A third tactic is to pour more dollars into protecting
our institutions with robust security measures, which no
one thinks will defeat antisemitism, but at least seeks
to protect those inside those institutions from violence,
though it does little to protect Jews down the street.

A fourth tactic our communal organizations use to
fight antisemitism is to try to exact apologies or even
fines from antisemites to get them to retract their
beliefs and get in line, as the Anti-Defamation League
did with Kyrie Irving, an approach that Yair Rosenberg
has wisely argued is a no-win proposition. Yet another
tactic is the insistence by some that the best way
to fight antisemitism is to be proud Jews, which has
the perverse effect of making our commitment to
Jewishness dependent on antisemitism as a motivator.

And finally, the most perverse tactic is that some
on both the right and the left fight antisemitism by
attacking the ADL itself. Since it is so hard to defeat our
opponents, we have started beating up on those that
are trying to protect us. What could go wrong?
Steadily, like a drumbeat, these tactics fail, demon-
strating themselves to be not a strategy at all, and the
statistics continue to show a rise in antisemitism.

Instead, we would do well to recall how we responded
to a critical moment in American Jewish history in the
early 20th century. In the aftermath of the Leo Frank
lynching in 1915, Jewish leaders formed what would
become the ADL by building a relationship with law
enforcement and the American legal and political
establishment. The ADL recognized that the best
strategy to keep American Jews safe over the long
term, in ways that would transcend and withstand the
political winds of change, was to embed in the police
and criminal justice system the idea that antisemitism
was their problem to defeat. These Jewish leaders
flipped the script of previous diasporic experiences; not
only did they become “insiders,” they made antisemi-
tism anathema to America itself. (And yes, it was the
Leo Frank incident that inspired “Parade,” the forth-
coming Broadway musical that last week attracted
white supremacist protesters.)
For Jews, the high-water mark of this strategy came in
the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh.

It was the low point in many ways of the American
Jewish experience, the most violent act against Jews
on American soil, but it was followed by a mourning
process that was shared across the greater Pittsburgh
community. The words of the Kaddish appeared above
the fold of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That is incon-
ceivable at most other times of Jewish oppression and
persecution. It tells the story of when we are successful
— when antisemitism is repudiated by the public.

A strategic plan to defeat antisemitism that must be
collectively embraced by American Jews would build
on this earlier success and invest in the infrastruc-
ture of American democracy as the framework for
Jewish thriving and surviving, and continue the historic
relationship-building that changed the Jews’ position in
America. It would stop the counterproductive interne-
cine and partisan battle that is undermining the possi-
bility of Jewish collective mobilization.

It means more investment, across partisan divides, in
See Kurtzer, page 12
letters Remaining Inclusive Online
I am a founding and continuing member of
Congregation Tifereth Israel of Lower Bucks County.

I am shocked at and appalled by the closing para-
graph of Jarrad Saffren’s Feb. 16 article entitled, “Are
Area Jews Returning to Synagogues Post-COVID?”,
which misrepresents both the policy and the practice
of our congregation.

The policy of our congregation is to be as inclusive
as possible. The practice is that online attendees
can participate in, but not lead, all parts of a Shabbat
or holiday service. Weekday minyanim (hybrid or
totally Zoom) are often led by online participants.

The congregation expects to offer hybrid and Zoom
services into the future.

Blythe Hinitz, Bensalem
A Message to Democrats
Jonathan Tobin hits the nail on the head with ‘’There’s
More to Rising Antisemitism Than Joe Rogan’s Rants”
(Feb. 22).

Part of the problem we face has nothing to do
with us. Antisemitism has always existed and always
springs back to life. Part of it is due to our own
inactions. Jews are a big part of the support for the Democratic
Party. The squad composed of the Omars, Tlaibs and
AOCs, among others, are virulently anti-Israel and
veiled antisemites and should be called out for their
hate by Jewish groups set up for that purpose. The
sad fact is that these groups, with some exceptions,
have been politicized and neutered in this role by
their unflagging loyalty to the Democratic Party.

The hard reality is antisemitism exists on both
sides of the political divide, and attacking one
side while ignoring its more virulent cousin on the
other, provides the latter with a green light to push
its venom. The message to Democrats should be
simple: Fight Jew hate with us or we’ll find someone
else who will. ■
Steve Heitner, Middle Island, New York
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