Democrats and Jews

This is something I just wrote on a Democratic Substack group having to do with the Democratic Party and Jews:

____________

I am a life-long Democrat. I administer a Facebook group devoted to opposing far-right global nationalism. I have always supported civil rights, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, Medicare for All, fairer taxation, reasonable regulation of markets, and liberal democracy. I could go on and on here, but you get the point. I have actively supported Democrats over decades and worked hard for them–both through volunteering and through contributions.

But I’m also Jewish, am an historian of Judaism and have studied and taught on antisemitism. I have spent my professional life teaching and writing about both Judaism and Christianity, trying to help heal the wounds of two millennia of pain. I’m sure that I was in part motivated by the Holocaust and the horrifying experiences of many of my fellow Jews during the Holocaust, including members of my own family. Though I strongly oppose the government of Netanyahu and support a two-state solution, I also believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state (just as numerous other countries rely on ethnic and religious identities).

What I’m seeing now in the Democratic Party is disappointing to me to say the least when it comes to the Jewish community. At a time when Jews are facing a massive upsurge of hate and threats (synagogues on average are spending upwards of 14-15% of their budgets on security), I’m watching the DNC and Democratic voters enable candidates like Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed. Of course, they are just the tip of the iceberg, with numerous Democratic candidates at lower levels espousing all kinds of crazy ideas about Jews. All this is happening while the FBI reports that about 68-69% of religious hate crimes are against Jews.

For example, Platner’s infamous tattoo is not just a Nazi insignia, but a death head (TotenKopf) SS insignia of the Waffen SS–the most vicious of Nazi storm troopers who wore it on the clothes as they led Jews to the gas chambers in death camps and swooped into eastern Europe to murder Jews. They were the most vicious and vile of the the Nazi murderers. They were responsible for the murders of countless Jews in Europe, including presumably members of my own family. Yet the DNC and voters do not seem to care about that, even though Platner has never apologized for wearing it and seems likely to have known what it in fact meant. If I lived in Maine, could I really vote for someone like that? I mean he wore a tattoo that the SS used when murdering millions of Jews and members of my family. That would be for me a violation of what I owe to them and their legacy. I’m not even mentioning the misogynist and racist rants in which he engaged on Reddit.

In addition to El-Sayed’s controversial comments on the West Bloomfield synagogue attack, he has campaigned with Hasan Piker who has called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and said that he supports Hamas and Hezbollah. Piker is avowedly anti-Zionist. Effectively in a speech a few days ago, El-Sayed essentially said that for Jews to be ok, they have to reject Israel and the Jewish state. He says that’s not antisemitism. But for most Jews that is in fact antisemitism. He doesn’t get to define what antisemitism is any more than I get to define what anti-Black racism or misogyny are.

Is it possible to be anti-Zionist and not antisemitic? Theoretically, yes, as long as you condemn all nations with ethnic and religious identities in parts of their constitutions. This would include basically the entire Arab/Muslim world, many countries in Europe, and Japan, as well as other nations. If people aren’t willing to do that, then, yes, they’re espousing an antisemitic idea by supporting anti-Zionism.

These are just two examples. I’m seeing all kinds of crazy stuff about Jewish money, Jewish power, Jewish dual allegiance, and on and on. This is happening all over the place in “progressive” Democratic circles. Of course, the far right does the same thing and is just as dangerous, but somehow I was naive enough to think that liberals and Democrats wouldn’t fall prey to that. I was clearly wrong, as I’m watching a sea of hatred against not only Jews, but also against African Americans and women on the far left. I know that this site is mainstream liberal–not far-left–but the Democratic party is not pushing back very hard against this. On the other hand, I’m very impressed by the British Labor party’s efforts to eradicate antisemitism from its ranks. They have not allowed far-left antisemitism to take hold. Unfortunately that’s not yet happened in the U.S. Democratic Party.

Maybe they figure that Jewish voters are too small a number to matter, that there will be such a blue wave that they don’t need Jews. Maybe they’re right. I’m not sure. The Jewish vote has generally been about 70%-30% Democratic. If that vote goes down to let’s say 55%-60% Democratic, that will cause problems for Democrats as some point, especially in 2028. Jews vote at a much higher rate than almost any group and are key voters in many state elections. Of course, Democrats need also to ask themselves whether this is the kind of party they really want to be. Do they really want to be a party that traffics in bigotry? If they do that, what makes them different from Republicans on issues of diversity and prejudice?

For many of us in the Jewish community, this is a painful time. I intend to vote Democratic as much as I possibly can and to support Democrats where I can. Antisemitism is my red line, however. Democracy is so important to me that I might even consider making some uncomfortable choices, but not when it comes to blatant bigotry. I will not be gaslighted. I hope the Democratic ship rights itself on this. Otherwise I have no party any more and will just float around as a free agent I guess. My ideas about liberal democracy and liberal values will continue, but not necessarily my party affiliation. This is the conundrum for many Jews who aren’t sure at this point what they’re going to do.