How to Not Fight Antisemitism

My latest at Jewschool– I consider movement strategy for fighting antisemitism in the Biden era.

“Throughout the four years of the Trump administration, the rising threat of right-wing antisemitism, and the broader exclusionary ethnonationalism of which it was a core part, spurred a wave of organizing and discussion across the Jewish Left- and for good reason. But what about under Biden?

The first issue of Jewish Currents– today’s hip, prominent Jewish Left magazine- to hit our doorsteps in the Biden era promised to tackle this question head-on. Provocatively displaying a glaring, juicy, Jewy nose on the front cover, this issue of Currents sought to make an intervention, at once edgy and politically relevant, in the anti-antisemitism debate.

The editors of Currents are astute, perceptive, well-admired Brooklyn literati, holding well-deserved clout in the Jewish and broader Left commentary world for their powerful work. Their Responsa, a collectively written editorial opening the magazine, was entitled ‘How Not To Fight Antisemitism’– a play on ‘How To Fight Antisemitism’, a campaign website tracking antisemitic statements and far-right connections among right-wing leaders maintained by the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc- and amounted to a sharp critique of Jewish Left organizing against antisemitism in the Trump era.

As a researcher at a progressive think tank, Political Research Associates, who monitors and trains on antisemitism and white nationalism, I was angered and saddened by how backwards and wrong-headed the thrust of the Responsa was.”