Why Antisemitism Needs A New Name

Many of Trump’s cabinet members were chosen for how they look and not what they know. The installation of a makeup room for Hegseth before he appears in public is a symbol that says it all. Trump is an entertainer who acts on the last thing that he sees on TV. He needs to choose people who look like their role. The were chosen for appearance and not for understanding of their area of responsibility.

Their flaws of intelligence are matched by their misunderstanding of how groups work. First, people will respond to people who feel that they care about them. This is stuff that you see all the time in working with young people. That element of caring is missing from the Trump Administration. Students respond negatively when they are blamed for things that they are not doing. This negative response gets communicated to those around them. But what really produces anger in students is when they know that your actions have a hidden agenda for something else. This produces rage. This produces rage and antagonism particularly when a serious topic such as antisemitism is on the table as the reason for their punishment.

Students are not dumb and see this for what it is, and Jewish people aren’t dumb after receiving the hate of antisemitism over centuries. Hitler used this device of targeting a group, making Jewish people the problem.  He needed a scapegoat as a rallying cry for Nazi Germany. Donald Trump has done the same thing by using Jewish people and antisemitism as his reason for attacking colleges and universities supported by the Republican Party. The goal of antisemitism for use by others is to make the Jewish people the problem.

In his faux concern for Jews on campus he has initiated the same heinous view of Hitler regarding the Jewish people. This is not to say that antisemitism is not alive and well in our nation. It is a matter of terrible harassment of individuals and the creation of harassment environments.

This is what triggered a letter signed by more than 60 Jewish leaders who said the Trump administration’s actions “threaten the very foundations of American democracy.” They knew they were being used so Trump could control everything important about higher education and public schools such as curriculum and faculty hiring.

An Inquirer article (April 24) outlines the reasons for Trump’s focus on antisemitism: “Rabbi Beth Janus, copresident of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia, said she was disturbed that Trump is ‘touting a lot of what he is doing as a way to protect Jews or fight antisemitism. I feel as Jews, American Jews, are being weaponized. His goal is to take away rights (of universities) and to scare, harass, and deport immigrants.” That is the problem. I always told my students that they should bring me their problems along with some some possible solutions. I found a possible answer for me in the writings found in The Philadelphia Citizen by Larry Platt. (April 25) There are many who would like to retire the term antisemitism. It sounds academic and easily dismissed. They feel that it should be changed to “Jew Hate.” The Holocaust Museum has changed the label of antisemitism to anti-Jewish racism. When I taught Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), I always made the point that a Semite referred to both Arabs and Jews including the speaking of a shared semitic language. Hence, the term is vague.

What I didn’t know was that it was purposefully used by Nazi Germany not to make the Jews mainstream but to marginalize them further. It was first used by William Marr, a German Jew hater, in the late 1800s. Trump brought back the hyphen in the word against scholars’ recommendations that he ignored. Half of under 25s did not know what antisemitic means. The term Jew Hate also takes tangential issues off the table such as mental health, the War in Gaza, or the plight of the economy.

The solution to halting further attacks is modeled by Governor Josh Shapiro. He is a graduate of nearby Akiba Academy, where I have been invited to speak. After the fire in his home he talked about the importance of Passover and his lived faith but went quickly to the issue of moral clarity, as his Republican rival claimed Democrats had to tone down their voices too. Shapiro indicated that this was really about the proliferation of violence in America. He went to the town where Trump was nearly assassinated as well as to the Pittsburgh synagogue where Jewish people present were killed to address the same issue.

It is no secret that I am a fan of the Governor. I have attached an interview as he responds to this tragic situation where a person attacked his home and family. Shapiro seeks moral clarity for all political parties. Violence cannot be tolerated in a political debate.

Video of Governor Josh Shapiro