Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism

[3] Rosenfeld described his motivation for writing the essay in an interview featured on the CampusJ blog: Over the last few years I've been focusing a lot of my research on present day anti-Semitism....

The idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now.... Its most formidable enemy is history itself," and for writing that "There is no point in blaming Hezbollah" during the summer 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War.

"[6] Rosenfeld accuses Boyarin of lacking "lucid thinking" as well as "bias" for having drawn an analogy between the Nazi Holocaust and the Israeli government's conduct toward the Palestinians.

[3] Cohen wrote that Rosenfeld's "essay comes at a time of high anxiety among many Jews, who are seeing not only a surge in attacks from familiar antagonists, but also gloves-off condemnations of Israel from one-time allies and respected figures" and goes on to note, "bitter debates over anti-Israel statements and antisemitism have entangled government officials, academics, opinion-makers and others over the past year, particularly since fervent supporters and tough critics of Israel can be found on the right and the left".

'"[3] Tony Judt described to The New York Times that he believed the real purpose of outspoken denunciations of him and others was to stifle their harsh criticism of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.

[3] "'The link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is newly created,' [Judt] said, adding that he fears 'the two will have become so conflated in the minds of the world' that references to antisemitism and the Holocaust will come to be seen as 'just a political defense of Israeli policy'.

"'Most Jews like me find this a very painful subject,' Mr. Kushner said, and are aware of the rise in vicious anti-Semitism around the world but feel 'it's morally incumbent upon us to articulate questions and reservations.

'"[3] The original article in The New York Times described the American Jewish Committee, the organization that released the essay, as a "conservative advocacy group".

"[3] Alvin Rosenfeld was highly critical of The New York Times' coverage, alleging that the article on the whole was misleading and incorrectly framed his argument,[4][9] the admitted mischaracterization of the AJC was just one example.

[4][9] In early February 2007, Stacey Palevsky observed, in a report for the j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California, "Everyone seems to be talking about it":[10] Journalists and Jews alike apparently are all trying to figure 'it' out – when does criticism of Israel evolve from legitimate to anti-Semitic?

Best-selling authors like Noam Chomsky or billionaires like George Soros ritualistically applaud their own bravery and pretend they are lonely voices when joining the trendy intellectual pile-on against Israel.

"[16] Jonathan Tobin wrote in The Jewish World Review that "Rosenfeld is careful to specify that questioning policies of Israeli governments is not the same as being anti-Israel, let alone anti-Semitic.

But he has the bad manners to point out that those who aggressively question Israel's right to have any government or to defend itself against those who seek to destroy it are, at best, unwitting allies of a growing anti-Jewish movement.... For this, Rosenfeld and his sponsors at AJC have been treated to the sort of public tar and feathering that is usually reserved only for the troglodyte denizens of the far-right.

If we want to know where we are headed, we need only look to Britain, where in intellectual and artistic circles it has gotten to the point where it may no longer be possible to identify as a Jew without also disavowing any support for Israel.

"[17] Edward Alexander wrote in the New York Post in support: "When people like NYU's Tony Judt, the most vociferous and self-righteous of Rosenfeld's critics, issue their monthly calls for politicide in Israel, which they demonize as the sole 'anachronistic' state in an otherwise progressive multicultural world, don't they sense, even subconsciously, a potential kinship with the genocidally inclined (and not-at-all progressive) president of Iran?

"[12][20] Cohen wrote that the report "has given license to the most intolerant and narrow-minded of Israel's defenders so that, as the AJC concedes in my case, any veering from orthodoxy is met with censure or, from someone like Reinharz, the most powerful of all post-Holocaust condemnations – anti-Semite – is diluted beyond recognition.

Of course, in my opinion, it is their racist and triumphalist stance that represents the antithesis of the Mosaic insights – and the greatest threat to what it was Jews have to offer the world in the first place.

), the Jewish establishment and media responds by attacking the people who raise these or any other critiques – shifting the discourse to the legitimacy of the messenger and thus avoiding the substance of the criticisms.

"[24] Lerner warns, "when this bubble of repression of dialogue explodes into open resentment at the way Jewish Political correctness has been imposed, it may really yield a 'new' anti-Semitism.

He explains: "Since I never once referred to 'liberalism', called no one a 'Jewish anti-Semite' or 'self-hating Jew', said nothing about Democrats or the Iraq war, and made no attempt to 'silence' anyone, this Kafkaesque bill of indictment makes me wonder what is at play here – illiteracy, dishonesty, or worse?

Thus, when a tiny political group calling itself "Jewish Voice for Peace" sets out to track "a growing epidemic of intimidation and harassment from fellow Jews seeking to stifle open debate over America's policy toward Israel", it can hardly be expected to be taken seriously.

Does The Washington Post's pro-Israel columnist Richard Cohen really belong to the same ideological species as those who accuse Israel of genocide?The blurriness is a shame, because Rosenfeld has a legitimate argument.

Rather, his intended target is those Jews who reject the very existence of a Jewish state, and who express their opposition in shrieks that rise to equating Israel with the Nazis.

[8]John Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote: There is a paradox that haunts these charges of anti-Semitism.