Wrestling with Antisemitism on the Left

How we move forward after the horrific murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky

The murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky this past week was horrifying and heartbreaking. The fact that they were at an event about humanitarian aid and were two idealistic young people with a track record of working towards peace adds a cruel irony to this incident. But sadly given the state of antisemitism in America, the one adjective I cannot use to describe these horrible events is “surprising.” And given the state of antisemitism on the fringes of the far left, it also is not at all surprising that the attacker screamed “free Palestine” after having committed this atrocious act, even if most leaders of the pro-Palestine movement absolutely deplore the attack.

To be clear, there is also plenty of antisemitism on the American far right, and it has a longer history of resulting in terrible violence directed at Jews – most notably the killing of eleven people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. It is also true that Donald Trump has fed these fires by legitimizing antisemitic right wing extremists. And he is likely to generate further antisemitic backlash on the left by using his supposed fight against antisemitism to launch attacks on academia that are really about his own vendetta against elite research institutions.

All of that is true, but that is not what this post is about and that is not what the events of the past week were about. This post is about the challenges that American Jews face from the left both in the form of violent and extreme antisemitism, but also much more complicated and subtle prejudice and insensitivity that we have dealt with since the October 7th attacks and the start of the war in Gaza, and what we can do about it.

Extremism and Violence

We have seen a series of obviously violent antisemitic incidents in recent months. Start with the attack on Sarah and Yaron, and we need to be clear that was not just an “anti-Israel” attack it was clearly antisemitic. The shooter went to an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC to target and kill people. The notion that this was strictly an “anti-Israel” incident, and that he could specifically pick out and discern that Yaron and Sarah were employees of the Israeli embassy, is incredibly unlikely. From all that we can tell, the man was coming to the event to kill Jews because he somehow felt this was justified because of a terrible war in Gaza. That’s antisemitism. Pretty simple. And support and glorification of this act in its aftermath, which we have seen in some social media circles is also antisemitism.

This is only the latest in a string of violent events targeting Jews. On the evening after Seder an assailant conducted an arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – arguably the highest profile Jewish politician in the United States. Shapiro’s public position on Israel and the war in Gaza, is probably more supportive of the Israeli government than mine is, but absolutely not exceptional amongst mainstream Democratic Party discourse. Why did the assailant single out Shapiro instead of many of the other politicians in this country who have expressed similar views? The answer seems obvious. It’s because he is Jewish.

How do we deal with this kind of violence and threat? I’d first commend to you the Biden Administration’s National Antisemitism Strategy, which included more than 100 actions in the areas of education, physical security, countering online hate, and putting in place legal mechanisms to counter antisemitism. The strategy was developed before October 7th and has obviously required updating and increased resources, but it still serves as a useful document even if the Trump Administration has basically shelved large chunks of it. Of particular importance is fully funding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides a significant boost in funding to defend synagogues, Jewish schools, and other Jewish facilities and after October 7th was funded at record levels. The Trump Administration temporarily froze these funds when it first came into office, and while they have started to be released it’s vital that this program continue to be fully funded and funded at higher levels if necessary.

Second, now is a moment of self reflection for leaders in the Pro-Palestine movement, the overwhelming majority of whom absolutely deplore this attack. What is happening in Gaza is horrific. I do not deny that. Raising awareness about the tragedy there and trying to stop it is just and right and I’m doing it in my work every day. But language matters. Using provocative language that implies or direct calls for armed resistance across the globe, does not help the Palestinian cause or raise awareness. It does however put Jews in danger. You need to consider how some of this language sounds to the most extreme fringes of your movement and the kind of consequences that come with it.

Finally, we have to also recognize that what happens in Israel and in Gaza does not stay in Israel and Gaza. The reality at this point is that we are 18 months into a terrible war - a war that was triggered by a horrific terrorist act by Hamas - and one in which there has been great human suffering in Gaza caused both by the Israeli government and Hamas. It is a war that at this point 70% of the Israeli public opposes. Israelis want a deal to bring the remaining hostages home and end the fighting. That deal is imminently doable. But instead, as long as the current extreme Israeli government continues to prioritize prosecuting the war, the risk of unjustified antisemitic attacks against Jews around the world will remain elevated.

Alienation, Lack of Sensitivity, Prejudice

Beyond the obvious and blatant antisemitism we saw in Washington last week, there is a second category of experiences that many American Jews have felt since October 7th that I’ve long wanted to write about. But honestly I’ve been hesitant because it is much harder to define and grapple with. It is the feeling of loneliness and lack of support that many American Jews have felt in progressive spaces since October 7th.

A few weeks ago I was on a college campus speaking to a group of J Street U students. They hold an important space in the middle on college campuses. They are supportive of the state of Israel and its importance as a Jewish and democratic state, and at the same time are critical of Israeli government policy towards the Palestinians, especially the war in Gaza. In many respects this puts them not too far away from 70% of the Israeli public and the majority of American Jews at this point. But on college campuses, this can sometimes be a lonely place to hold.

I asked them if they had experienced antisemitism since October 7th on their campus and to my surprise there was universal agreement from them that they had not. What they had experienced was loneliness due to lack of empathy and sympathy for Jewish suffering after October 7th after many of their classmates quickly pivoted to the horrors in Gaza without acknowledging the atrocities that had begun the war. They said they also experienced alienation in certain clubs and organizations focused on progressive causes such as LGBTQ rights and protecting the environment that were suddenly expressing extreme positions on the conflict that they did not agree with. I asked them if they didn’t define these experiences as maybe being based on antisemitism and if not how would you define it? Their view was that it was insensitivity, a microaggression, ignorance, but they did not call it antisemitism.

One student talked about how a year earlier during the peak of campus protests and encampments, he gave a tour to an accepted Jewish student and his family. By the end of the tour, the mother of the prospective student was so upset she wanted to call the police and file a complaint. The current student found this to be incredibly strange, as he knew some of the people at the encampment and even though he disagreed with them, he had been able to have reasonable debate and never felt threatened. Again all very hard to define and wrestle with.

Indeed, I had my own similar experience during the Presidential campaign last fall. A couple of weeks after joining the campaign in August, we began working to set up events in Jewish communities in swing states. We had the support from leaders at the campaign headquarters in Wilmington and were lining up high profile Jewish speakers, who were all excited to do this. When we first reached out to our local teams in the states, some were immediately supportive. In other cases, the initial response back was “how about a private breakfast for 10 Jewish community leaders instead of a rally for 200-300.” When we tried to probe about this posture, the response came back that there was concern about protests and that “we didn’t want to make other people mad.” To me this was infuriating. All kinds of other minority groups get to express their political support for the Democratic candidate with big Get Out the Vote events, but not Jews because “it might make people mad?”

Still, the answer to this challenge was to get on a call with the people who were expressing resistance. Once we explained to them that the purpose of this event was not to spend an hour talking about October 7th and the war in Gaza while waving Israeli flags, but instead to get American Jews, a core constituency of the Democratic base to have a positive and joyful event expressing their support for the Democratic nominee, all concerns went away. We did events all over the country and they were successful.

I don’t think the right word for what I was dealing with or what these students are dealing with is necessarily antisemitism. Putting it in the same category as the attack this past week only confuses things. Perhaps the right word is unconscious bias. Whatever we call it, it is a phenomenon that American Jews have experienced on the left since October 7th and one we have to wrestle with.

The key to overcoming this problem is for Jews to be engaging in progressive spaces, breaking down stereotypes and building bridges as we did in response to the problem on the campaign and as J Street U students are doing every day. A lot of people in these spaces don’t understand Jews and have preconceived notions about what they prioritize politically and their views on Israel. The key for me on the campaign was being able to explain to these political operatives on the ground in these states what I was trying to do. That conversation was vital.

In the age of Trump, Jews have an opportunity to rebuild some of these bridges on the left, precisely because most share such a strong common objection with progressives to Trump’s agenda. This is particularly true of the Trump administration’s use of “fighting antisemitism” as a pretext for defunding higher education and disappearing and deporting international students (even if we fundamentally disagree with these students’ positions on Israel). This moment is an opportunity to be out there loud and proud in progressive spaces opposing Trump. And there is also a danger that if we aren’t out there aligning with other organizations on the left and making clear our concerns, then many on the left might just assume we support these Trump policies. Such assumptions will only lead to further backlash and antisemitism against the Jewish community.

That’s why the work J Street has been doing in these spaces in recent months is so vital. Not only because it is the absolute right thing to do. But because now is an essential moment to prevent and fix the rift that has been growing between the Jewish community and progressives since October 7th, by reminding traditional allies on the Left that American Jews continue to share the same values and together fight the same fights.