Progressive 'Jews-as-oppressors' dogma could normalize antisemitism - opinion
The claim that Jews are a subset of the dominant white majority is oppressive in its own right. It must therefore be vigorously repudiated.
Harvard University president Claudine Gay resigned at the beginning of 2024, after she and other presidents of Ivy League schools were widely criticized for their congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.(photo credit: KEN CEDENO/REUTERS)ByROBERT HORENSTEINThere is an ideology that has taken hold in progressive spheres in the US, especially among members of the young generation (Gen Z). If left unchecked, this ideology could gradually lead to a deepening normalization of antisemitism on the Left and a significant decline in American support for Israel.
American progressives overwhelmingly view oppression exclusively through the lens of race. That is, if you’re white, not only are you privileged (which is true), but you’re also inseparable from the oppressive white power structure that has long persisted in this country.
When this belief is juxtaposed with the common misconception that Jews are a “white religious community,” it’s easy to disregard Jewish feelings of vulnerability and dismiss antisemitism as a serious problem. Thus, a December Harvard-Harris poll found that two-thirds of Americans aged 18-24, and 44 percent of those aged 25-34 agree that “Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors.”
This binary concept of oppression (all whites are oppressors, all non-whites are oppressed) harms Jews – and, by extension, Israel – in multiple ways. Jewish students at many universities report feeling unsafe and ostracized, having experienced a toxic climate on campus, now heightened by the Israel-Hamas war.
Yet, shamefully, few universities released any statements supporting their Jewish students who were traumatized by the October 7 massacre in Israel and the celebration it prompted from some of their peers. In fact, college diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have often failed to address rising antisemitism, even perpetuating it due to an underlying ideological framework that views Jews as oppressors.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill testifies before a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled ''Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism'' on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 5, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/KEN CEDENO/FILE PHOTO)It was hardly surprising, then, that during a December congressional hearing, the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT refused to state explicitly that calls for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct. When it comes to the murder of Jews, it depends on the context, according to these university leaders. Is there any doubt that had there been calls on campus for the lynching of Black people, it would have elicited a very different response?
The Jews-as-oppressors dogma
The Jews-as-oppressors dogma has been a key driver of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Countless examples exist of Jews who refuse to disavow Zionism as integral to their identity being excluded from progressive social justice spaces or expelled from university student government boards.
That’s because Zionism, they’re told, is “an inherently white supremacist ideology.” It wasn’t sufficiently offensive to bar Jews from the club of marginalized minorities—we also had to be portrayed as white supremacists (though I’m certain those antisemitic, Holocaust-denying folks wouldn’t want us in their club, either).
Despite our centuries-long history of persecution in Europe when we were despised as non-white “outsiders,” Jews have now been stripped of an ethnic identity indigenous to the Land of Israel. We’ve been reduced to a religious community whose adherents are of “white European” stock, ignoring the 15 percent of American Jews and majority of Israeli Jews who are people of color.
It’s no wonder so many on the Left believe the fictitious narrative of Zionism as a European “settler colonial” movement – “white Jews” having dispossessed the indigenous “brown” Palestinians of their land. From there, we get the comparison of Israel’s establishment to European colonial rule in South Africa and the false accusation of Israeli “apartheid” as a means of delegitimizing the Jewish state.
This narrative is particularly seductive to the Gen Z crowd. According to the December Harvard-Harris survey, 51 percent of those aged 18-24 believe Israel should “be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians,” while 60 percent believe that the October 7 Hamas atrocities were “justified” by Palestinian “grievances.” And these are America’s future leaders.
How can we dispel the Jews-as-oppressors worldview? It won’t be easy. The American Jewish establishment – national advocacy organizations and local Jewish community relations councils (JCRCs) – should double down on efforts to work with university and governmental DEI programs to incorporate Jewish identity and antisemitism into their frameworks.
There’s also a need to counteract the anti-Zionist echo chambers common on college campuses, especially the prestigious universities that receive substantial donations from Qatar and other Persian Gulf governments. Heavier investment in Jewish and Israel studies programs would promote more balance in the way Israel and Zionism are discussed and represented.
Lastly, the Jewish community should work with state legislators to include Jews as a historically marginalized community (along with those minorities recognized as underrepresented) in ethnic studies standards and curricula. Last year, for example, the Portland JCRC succeeded in efforts to amend an Oregon ethnic studies law that had originally omitted Jews.
Bottom line: The claim that Jews are a subset of the dominant white majority is oppressive in its own right. It must therefore be vigorously repudiated. ■
The writer is director of Community Relations and Public Affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.
