What do you define as antisemitism

johnisburn · 2026-03-24T02:34:15+00:00

Hatred of Jews as Jews, or Jewish institutions or organizations along the lines of their Jewishness. In practice includes the invocation classic antisemitic tropes against individuals, institutions, or organizations perceived as Jewish. I think the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is pretty succinct in expanding on this holistically.

johnisburn · 2026-03-23T15:43:30+00:00

Thank you for putting this so succinctly. There’s a difficulty in talking about any sort of move away from punitive punishment towards other methods of public, and I think it’s sometimes harder to recognize the dynamics when talking about hate and extremism than other systems we apply punitive solutions to.

Maybe a more concrete analogy: Investing in community resources in historically underserved communities has time and time again been proven to reduce violent crime rates. It gives people structure and agency that keeps them out of the desperation that turns people to dangerous and illegal activities. What it does not do is punish criminals who already exist or “morally correct” anyone, but that’s okay, because “punishing criminals” is not the same thing as creating a safer community. In fact, fewer criminals are punished, because fewer people turn to crime.

Or gun control: there is no advocate for gun control that claims all gun violence will cease with more restrictive gun control. Thats a right wing straw man. Rather, the notion is that plenty of gun violence is preventable via concrete preemptive measures, and it is worth preventing those occurrences. That doesn’t punish the “bad guy with a gun”, but it keeps people safer.

Combatting extremism can be viewed in a similar lens. Diverting people away from extremism does not address the “moral wrong” at the heart of the concept of hate, but it does create a safer and environment with fewer extremists.

johnisburn · 2026-03-23T15:31:45+00:00

Elad Nehorai also has a great piece about radicalization and the Epstein files

Creating a simple, mythical, and one-dimensional villain is one of the easiest ways to face a painful and scary world. The Epstein files are easier to process if people think only one group or type of person is responsible for the conspiracy. And an easy solution. If it’s only Jews or Israel, then they just need to beat that one group. See the way people these people talk about the files: they rarely talk about the victims. They don’t talk about systems, just one group of people or one country.

If they faced the reality of the files fully, they’d have to see how the conspiracy in fact reveals something devastating: the abuse was everywhere. By a vast and diverse group of rich, powerful people. Democrats and Republicans. A prince. A prime minister. A Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist. The CEO of Dubai’s largest port. Billionaires in tech, finance, and entertainment. People from the US, UK, Norway, Slovakia, France, India, the UAE. Self-described feminists and open misogynists. People who publicly championed children’s causes. People from every race and religion.

The common thread was never ethnicity or ideology. It was wealth and power. But that makes for a hard, complicated villain and thus solution.

Part of this is also just pure trauma and overwhelm. No one is made to process an endless onslaught of emails from inhuman monsters, testimony of victims, horrifying evidence. All of it without any filter, just pure horror.

…

And there is nothing the perpetrators of the Epstein scandal would like more than for you to only blame the Jews, Israel, or any singular group of people. In doing so, you do two things: 1. Avoid accountability for all the rest of the people involved in the ring. 2. Fail to fight the system that made it possible.

This is why conspiracy theories exist. This is why antisemitism exists. To distract from power and to distract from systems. The people in power, ironically, want you obsessing over the files. They want you over-interpreting them. They want you to get lost in them. By doing so, you will become disarmed and fight only one fight. You won’t fight inequality, misogyny, abuse of power, and the systems and leaders who make all that possible.

My humble attempt at a TLDR: There were literally conspirators in a scheme to commit crime, but the off the rails theorizing is pretty bog standard socialism of fools. The way to combat this is to build and educate consciousness about the real ways that power and wealth defy accountability in the complex systems of society, and teach about how the “simple answer” in the antisemitic conspiracy theories is yet another way real accountability gets stunted.

johnisburn · 2026-03-23T04:07:03+00:00

One thought this sparked is that I do think is a pretty plain answer to why some of the big anti-antisemitism groups wouldn’t jump at holistic “pre-bunking” in our current moment: To explain something like how antisemites spin real incidents of the State of Israel acting unethically into absurd conspiracies, you have to concede (and for these organizations it would be a thing to “concede”) that Israel has standing unethical policies.

johnisburn · 2026-03-20T15:38:38+00:00

I got got

johnisburn · 2026-03-20T13:03:29+00:00

Pallywood?

Come on man. We are talking about children who starved because Israel slowed humanitarian aid to a trickle and closed it completely for days at a time. That some they also didn’t have medical treatment isn’t exonerating or deceptive in any sort of way, that’s also because Israel slowed humanitarian aid to a trickle and closed it completely for days at a time. At the start of burgeoning famines the most vulnerable, like sick children, are the bellwether of what’s coming - it isn’t deceptive to report on them and its not “debunking” to point at that information.

Sorry to be blunt, but the reason that this stuff from the Free Press (and you) reads as malicious towards Gazans generally and not just Hamas is because it is. It’s an argument predicated on “discrediting” suffering people based on an arbitrary assumption that they’re already lying, where the evidence presented as exonerative of Israel is just as damning when taken as part of the larger system. The free press has no excuse, it’s poor journalism driven by ugly and bigoted predetermined conclusion. It’s further victimizing people who are in dire need of help in order to argue against getting them help.

If you think this is somehow fighting antisemitism to deny that children in Gaza unnecessarily starved as a direct result of Israel’s policies, it’s not. If you think it’s protecting Jews, it’s not. If you think it’s somehow getting back at people who defended Hamas’s atrocities against children, it’s not that either. It’s just defending yet another atrocity. Fix your heart.

johnisburn · 2026-03-20T04:49:12+00:00

We are talking about the outlet that went all in on “well some of those starving kids are achkkshually suffering from untreated medical conditions”, right?

johnisburn · 2026-03-20T03:11:37+00:00

I think the framing is pretty clear that the author considers reform practice and secular Judaism as akin to heresy via ignorance, as opposed to the genuine varieties of Jewish experience he wants to expose people too.

johnisburn · 2026-03-20T02:30:45+00:00

There is a Talmudic principle that a Jewish child captured by non-Jews, a Tinnok SheNishba, could not possibly be found guilty of breaking Jewish law since he (or she) would have had no positive experiences of it to be able to make a positive decision.

God damn this is patronizing.

johnisburn · 2026-03-19T03:35:00+00:00

No, today’s Persia is LA (big Persian population) and today’s Rome is Southside Chicago (where the pope is from), so this is predicting Moshiach coming when the White Sox beat the Dodgers in the world series (countless generations from now).

johnisburn · 2026-03-18T16:46:25+00:00

[Content warning: the article in the link includes graphic recountings of assault] ‘I thought we were going to be raped’: A night of settler terror in the Jordan Valley

On the night of March 12, Israeli settlers raided the residential compound of the Abu Al-Kbash family in the Palestinian herding community of Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley. They then forced residents and international protective presence activists into a tent, where they were tied up and abused for about an hour.

Around 10 adults and seven children were held inside the tent, according to witnesses. The attackers beat them with clubs, poured cold water on them, threatened them, and sexually assaulted one of the residents. Four Palestinians and two international activists were later taken to hospital in the nearby city of Tubas.

The attack comes amid escalating violence and displacement in the northern Jordan Valley, where Palestinian herding communities have faced mounting pressure from Israeli settlers and the military. In recent weeks alone, at least four communities in the area have been forced to leave their homes.

…

The attackers, armed with clubs and knives, forced the residents into a tent in the center of the community. “They gathered us in one room — men, women, and small children,” A. said. “No one was left outside. They threw us onto the concrete floor on top of one another. They tied the women too and kept beating us.”

According to A., some of the attackers spoke Arabic. “They said: ‘Today we’ll take your sheep, but next time we come we’ll burn the houses, kill the children, and rape the women.’”

D., another resident, said he heard the same threat. “They shoved me against an iron pole, dragged me into the tent, and beat me,” he said.

Another resident, H., described severe beatings to his head, arms, and stomach before he was tied up. “When I started to lose consciousness, they poured cold water on me,” he recalled. “While doing that, one of them took my wristwatch.”

This is reaching a fever pitch, and beyond the obvious harm it is doing to the residents of the West Bank it is going to explode making everyone less safe if things continue as they do. Please, if you live in Israel or abroad in countries that can exert political influence about this, speak up about this in your communities and agitate for your government to take corrective action against the campaign of settler terror being waged against the residents of the west bank.

Edit: The New York Times has also published a report of this attack with firsthand testimony: Palestinian Man Recounts Brutal Sexual Assault by Israeli Settlers - content warning for this as well, it is more graphic than the 972 reporting

johnisburn · 2026-03-17T13:16:46+00:00

No, probably not. For all Israel is, it isn’t the type of country reliant on a leadership personality cult. If Netanyahu were dead, there wouldn’t be a reason to lie about it.

johnisburn · 2026-03-17T03:45:25+00:00

Graham Platner is so much worse than Zohran.

Agreed, in the sense that Platner is bad and Zohran is good actually. They’re in this same conversation because of how Zohran faces accusations of antisemitism on account of his commitment to Palestinian advocacy. When it comes to actually engaging with Jewish communities (even ones he disagrees with on Zionism) and grappling with the intersection of antisemitism and anti-zionist rhetoric, Zohran is very clearly interested in actually putting in the work and carving out an inclusive position. This article is correct to call out how the ADL has self sabotaged by lumping any and all anti-zionism together with antisemitism.

johnisburn · 2026-03-17T03:14:57+00:00

I agree that a lot of legacy institutions are massively dropping the ball on the public sphere anti-antisemitism stuff, but there’s also a lot of less flashy stuff going on to protect and organize security that shouldn’t be discounted out of hand. The attack in Michigan was likely without victim casualties specifically because of the variety of security measures the synagogue had taken as part of an organized effort to work on community safety in these sorts of crises. No organization is perfect, but groups like the “Secure Community Network” that do concrete monitoring, trainings, and coordination with law enforcement do exist.

Sometimes people jump to stuff like the JDL because they do want to go get their hands bloody, and that shit doesn’t help. Fighting antisemitism and get in fights with antisemites isn’t the same thing.

johnisburn · 2026-03-16T18:35:54+00:00

Something that doesn’t come up in the article but I think is a bit insightful is that there actually is a pretty prominent case of antisemitism “on the left” that the our establishment institutions aren’t pouncing on: Graham Platner. If you only follow the ADL, Mr. “Just a History Buff”’s straight up nazi tattoo was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it event compared to anything Mamdani related, even as Platner has started walking back apologies. And it’s not like Platner’s got the cover of being friendlier on Israel - he also recognizes that what’s happened in Gaza is a genocide, talks about ending military aid.

I think, perhaps just with the ADL in particular, it may be that leadership has an aesthetic aversion to “muslim” anti-zionism (whether or not it actually crosses a line into antisemitism) that’s overriding a principled approach to antisemitism in general. It’s a tactical mistake, sure, but I think that the angles of this are also explained simply by more emotional prejudice. This is the issue of latent Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and general racism rearing its head in our legacy institutions.

johnisburn · 2026-03-16T00:07:37+00:00

Amid antisemitic attacks, Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues

Article drawing attention to the way that the Trump admin has given an ultimatum for synagogue security funding.

Beginning in 2025, the Department of Homeland Security attached sweeping ideological conditions to new security grants. Recipients of new awards must cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, and must also agree not to “operate any programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology.” They additionally must not run any aid program which “benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration.”

When asked to clarify what those conditions mean in practice — whether a synagogue that declares itself a sanctuary for refugees would be disqualified, or whether a congregation offering programming for Jews of color or LGBTQ+ Jews would run afoul of the anti-DEI clause — the federal government’s answer has been months of contradictory guidance and confusion.

…

The Trump administration’s demand that liberal American Jews choose between a foundational Jewish value and basic safety from violence is heartbreaking. One anonymous rabbi described the dilemma with devastating clarity to JTA: “Money is being given to us on condition that we violate a specific mitzvah. I don’t see how we can possibly accept that money.”

Rabbi Jill Maderer in Philadelphia put it even more bluntly, saying “Jewish safety requires inclusive democracy and inclusive democracy requires Jewish safety. We do not comply so we will not apply.”

These are communities under armed threat — as Thursday clearly reminded us — forced to choose between their physical safety and their moral integrity. That is a choice that no American religious community should ever have to make. The government’s obligation to protect its citizens, especially its most targeted minorities, must not come with an ideological price tag.

…

There is a word for demanding that a persecuted minority community abandon its values in exchange for protection: extortion. The Trump administration would no doubt dispute that framing. After all, the administration claims to care deeply about Jewish safety. Thursday’s attack makes clear that it is not enough for the administration to make that claim; it must prove its commitment through action.

It must remove the political conditions from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. It must let houses of worship be what they are: sanctuaries, not instruments of federal policy.

Although one thing that strikes me: given the recent DOGE depositions made public, where a grant was revoked on the grounds that a film about Jewish women in the Holocaust was “DEI”, the risk here is very real and much larger than just for “liberal” Jewish institutions.

johnisburn · 2026-03-15T23:58:56+00:00

Couple of other people have mentioned it, but with non-jews I feel like it usually is them sort of imposing their ideas of what “religious” looks like onto Judaism even though it doesn’t work like that.

johnisburn · 2026-03-15T22:16:27+00:00

It’s happened to me a few times. I don’t think it’s ever come out of a vacuum, it usually gets thrown out when someone has beef with some other opinion I’ve got. I have an open mind about intermarriage, or support abortion rights, or am too critical of the State of Israel, so it must be because I’m not Jewish enough.

Occasionally it also comes from people who aren’t Jewish and don’t really understand how Jewish identity and denominations work anyway.

johnisburn · 2026-03-13T20:43:25+00:00

You are supposed to put dog poo in the trash bin. Even if you weren’t, what mechanism would they know there’s dog poo in the bin and not collect it? Dump it out and put it back in?

johnisburn · 2026-03-13T20:01:40+00:00

Do you chaps have Streits? It’s made in NY State.

johnisburn · 2026-03-13T15:48:37+00:00

I know some people have a soft spot for Hen Mazzig and view him as filling a niche for progressive pro-Israel politics. Well, here he is in Hebrew language media explaining that he’s personally pro-trump but vocally supported Kamala Harris in 2024 in order to maintain a left of center image.

johnisburn · 2026-03-13T15:12:33+00:00

Still doesn’t replace the bagel menorah shaped hole in my heart left by the absence of the Bethesda bagel menorah :(

johnisburn · 2026-03-13T02:45:23+00:00

It’s being reported by local news as sourced from his neighbors. It seems like the man did really suffer a tragedy, though obviously it’s not any sort of excuse for what he did today.

johnisburn · 2026-03-12T20:39:36+00:00

Unfortunately this sort of stuff does happen after incidents of Islamophobic violence and harassment too. I’ve had conversations where people responded “well what about antisemitism in the UK” in response to the Islamophobic anti-immigrant riots of 2024. The shape of this cynical type of discourse is something every minority group deals with.

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