The irony of the exploitation of Jewish fear

God created the world with the words, “Let there be light.” And we Jews haven’t stopped reading, writing and talking ever since. And so, the study and creative interpretation of texts, and the serious debate over the meaning of words, have been essential to Jewish morality and behavior. The sanctity of speech and centrality of education have sustained the Jewish people through millennia of trial and tumult. And the freedoms associated with words and learning have come to define our humanity and to reflect the spark of God within us.

For the last few centuries, Jews have flourished in the acceptance and prosperity afforded by liberal democracy. And the hallmarks of that value system emerged from a vigilant defense of the rights to speak, to learn, to teach and to believe. And so, with the current rise of a new brand of American authoritarianism, unprecedented attacks on these civil liberties pose unique threats to Jews as citizens of this nation and as members of a faith community.

In the few years before Oct. 7, antisemitism was a mutating and metastasizing menace that percolated through the fissures of our culture at a time of increased tribalism and polarization. Since Oct. 7, a generation of Jews who have only known relative quiet and acceptance were shocked out of complacency into a state of hypervigilance and justified concern. But those genuine fears are being manipulated for a troubling agenda. 

The attempted deportation of student-activist Mahmoud Khalil without due process, and the embargoing of $400 million in federal funds against Columbia University for its failures, are a canary-in-the-coal mine moment for lovers of liberty. It is clear that Khalil’s activism was a noxious attack on the state of Israel that most likely crossed the line into antisemitism. And it is equally clear that among the many universities that failed to protect Jews after Oct. 7, Columbia was negligent to the point of institutional malpractice.

But the current attacks on Khalil and Columbia strike at the heart of the democratic system that has sustained American Jews for centuries. Speech and opinions alone cannot be punished without careening down the slippery slope of censorship. And a haphazard cutting off of government funding to universities will most likely eviscerate the least ideologically driven science departments — the engines of our medical research — while little affecting the crisis within the humanities.

But the bitterest irony is the way this assault on civil rights has been justified in the name of fighting antisemitism. Jewish fear is being exploited and leveraged to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. And too many Jews are willing to sacrifice systematic freedoms for a fleeting sense of momentary comfort. This cloaking of authoritarianism in the guise of religious freedom is dividing the Jewish community and alienating it from the larger society in which we live. If the abuse of accusations of racism and transphobia are the cudgels of the illiberal left in imposing its ideological purity, the same is true with the misuse of claims of antisemitism from the right.

Almost 50 years ago, the Jewish leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union was viciously denounced for supporting the rights of the Nazis to march in Skokie, Ill., a community with a substantial cohort of Holocaust survivors. Those leaders courageously argued that contempt and disgust for Nazi ideology can never supersede an unqualified defense of civil liberties. Indeed, those liberties are truly tested when we sustain them in defense of speech and ideas we abhor. 

In the primary text for Jews — the Torah — we read of the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, waiting for weeks while Moses ascended to receive this divine document. Their spirits, crushed by bondage, constrained what little faith they had in a relatively unknown God. Their fears ran wild, consuming them with doubts in Moses’ ability and God’s promise. They built a golden calf, an idol familiar to them from the gods they had seen in Egypt.  

To have allowed fear to undermine sacred ideals is one of the greatest failings of our people. To have pursued the soothing idols of immediate gratification over the courage and sacrifice required to live by higher principles reflected the limits of a primitive and immature soul. It is a lesson that all of us must take to heart in this time that tries our spirits and our bonds with one another.