This is not clickbait. I'm not trying to make a shocking statement. It might seem like it, but please take a few minutes to mull over the fact that this is now the face of antisemitism in America:
Antisemitic incidents have been steadily on the rise in the last decade or so. 2021 was the worst year on record, and 2022 is on pace to replace it. Campuses have never been more hostile to Jews (at least since the years when they used to have quotas to prevent Jews from going to College and University in the first place.) The New York Public School system is crumbling (4% of Black students in Schenectady passed the State's math test) but the NYT and Albany's only preoccupation is to make sure that Orthodox Yeshivot provide an education just as atrocious as their public counterpart. Orthodox Jews are assaulted almost daily in NYC, but that #StopOrthodoxHate campaign somehow just can't get off the ground. Worst of all, one of the most famous stand-up comedians of all time is helping to mainstream antisemitism.
Yet, the sky isn't falling. As I wrote in my first piece on the issue, I do not believe that antisemitism is genuinely getting worse, only that antisemites are getting bolder. The most significant danger to Jews was, and remains, a widespread acceptance of the validity of antisemitism's questions in popular discourse. And Ye, Milo, Fuentes, and the newest arrival Owen Benjamin, are here to save the day. The modern Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion, led by their very own Dorothy, have come to town.
Subverting the Subverters?
Friedrich Wilhelm Marr is the man who popularized the term ' antisemitism.' He was far from a friend of the Jews. His was an attempt to create daylight between German antisemitism rooted in Lutheranism, which accepted converted Jews as full members of German society after baptism, and his distinct form of antisemitism, wholly divorced from a religious basis but instead based on 19th-century race science. A similar attempt has been transpiring with white nationalists in America. For decades now, intellectual antisemites have worked their hardest in order to disentangle their hatred from the historically charged Nazi accusation. In the alt-right circles, the people who full-on embrace the Nazis are derided as wignats and considered a significant detriment to the movement.
There is a certain obsession with “optics” on the side of the intellectuals. The idea is that for the movement to become successful, they have to infiltrate all echelons of society to put themselves in position of power so they can subvert the populace into fully embracing white nationalism. The only way they can do it is through normalcy, and eschewing any and all behaviors that will be repulsive to the population at large. The idea is become the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.
After the optics disaster that was Charlottesville, an op-ed was published on the radical Right Realist website stating that it was time to dump the alt-right:
Don't put all your eggs into the short game, into an overnight revolution. Place your bet on the long game. Activism shouldn't just be an activity you do on the weekends, it should be manifested throughout your entire life. Improve yourself for your people, raise a family for your people, gain status and wealth for your people, infiltrate or recreate entirely the institutions of power, influence, and control for your people. After all, Jews didn't gain their disproportionate influence in society by marching with torches in the streets.
Our nations will not be won through bullets and bombs. This is a cultural war, a war of propaganda. It will be won on two fronts: through gaining public approval, and through gaining control over institutions of power (technological, educational, financial, governmental, media).
If you've got a fetish for Siege and the Turner Diaries, if you think mainstream appeal is useless and that violence is the only way, I'm sure there are plenty of groups that would have you. But that isn't our message.
It is absolutely fascinating that those people who falsely believe that there is a Jewish conspiracy that subverted America simultaneously believe that they must use the very same playbook they claim Jews employ in order to subvert America for their own goals, but I digress.
Suffice it to say, for decades now, they've been bidding their time and building their base, slowly but surely trying to make their 'race realist' content something that could be discussed in polite society, carefully crafting their image to appeal to a more mainstream audience. After many set-backs over the last five years, it felt like the alt-right was spent, memories of Charlottesville becoming foggier and foggier, and between the economy and social fabric in America such a dire state, it was possible for them to come back with a vengeance.
And then, in what is a near-apocalyptic scenario for them, Ye broke through the white nationalist scene like a modern KKKool-Aid Man.
Ye’s low brick road
Here are some of Kanye’s greatest hits on Alex Jones, summed up in clips by Kassy Dillon:
“I see good things about Hitler. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."
“I like Hitler.”
“But they did good things too. We're going to stop dissing the Nazis all the time.”
About Dave Chappelle: “These are the kind of black leaders that the Zionists put in front of us”.
“I do love Hitler, I do love the Zionists, I love everyone. The Zionists cannot tell me who I can love and can not love. I do not think like that, I think like someone on the spectrum.”
“There are a lot of things I looooove about Hitler. I love alottttt of things.”
“Germans had a really cool leader at one time.”
“Hitler seems like a cool guy. And he didn't kill 6 million Jews, that's like factually incorrect.”
“Obama was not the first black president, he was another Jewish president.”
Now, this seems to be a self-evident statement, but it somehow eludes a specific segment of the racist far-right: The American people do not like Hitler. They really don’t. They remember how their own parents, grand-parents and great-grand-parents fought and died in WWII trying to stop his murderous European invasion. In fact, one of the very worst things you can do in public in America is what Ye and his cohorts did.
The groypers and so-called dissident right think this is a victory for them, are entirely on the Ye train, and are spreading those clips far and wide. They are utterly oblivious as to how the average American will react to them and how they are engaged in pure self-sabotage. They have managed to destroy any potential inroad with anyone who didn’t fully agree with them in the first place as a result.
On the other side of the far-right spectrum, where the white nationalist intellectuals and those who care about optics reside, their dismay is on full display. These are the same people who generally cringe at Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists for how it makes them look. They are the same people who want nothing to do with Fuentes anymore and have long cut all communication with Milo. They desperately want to be accepted as mainstream, and it's an absolute disaster for them to be lumped in with Ye & the wignats.
Identitarian intellectuals like Steve Sailor simply posted the famous Norm MacDonald quote, "You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him." Jared Taylor has decided to stay away from the entire debacle so far while E. Michael Jones declared that "Kanye just blew one of the greatest political opportunities in American history." and then threw Milo under the bus. It must hurt considering Milo's love and adoration for the man.
Others who used to care about optics, like Richard Spencer or Jason Kessler, seem to have given up. While they are not fully onboard, they seem to have been struck by a kind of resignation that makes them go along with Ye’s antics to a certain degree. Paul Ramsay made multiple tweets about this, alternating between embracing the grotesque interview for its surreality or lamenting that it was just another step in the slow demise of America.
Between Twitter, Gab, Parler, and various white nationalist hangs, conversations devolve into full-on trolling wars between people embracing and rejecting Ye in an ever-widening circle of people accusing each other of glowing.
Whoever ends up winning this mini-civil war, one thing is clear: The damage is done. When your claims and allies are so off-the-wall that Alex Jones is the sanest man in the room, trying to wrangle you from the brink of destruction, you can forget about appealing to anyone who doesn't already agree with you.
And from now on, and for a long time, anyone who brings up questions about Jews in Hollywood or in Banking will de facto be associated in popular consciousness with Kanye West.
No Stupid Questions, Only Irrelevant Ones
Do not say something that should never be heard, because ultimately it will be heard - Hillel, Pirke Avot 4:2
It doesn't matter that there are self-evident reasons why there are so many Jews in Hollywood. The people "asking" those questions are not interested in those answers. No amount of "This was one of the few industries that did not have quotas against Jews; therefore, they were able to build up businesses for themselves" will convince anyone. It's pointless to mention how Hollywood grew out of the Yiddish theatre, which was in itself created because Jews were unable to get fair treatment or jobs in regular theatre. That California and specifically Hollywood were chosen because while American movies originated on the East Coast (the first movie studios and film projects were filmed in New Jersey) Jews were also de facto blacklisted there, so they moved across the entire country to be able to start their own studios.
The same applies to banking. European Jews went into money lending because it was one of the few professions they were allowed to get into, as guilds otherwise barred them from their trades, and they were prohibited from owning land and making a living off it. Or that showbiz and banking are both professions that rely heavily upon networking, and it's common for people to hire people from the in-group as they feel a higher level of trust and mutual understanding than those of the out-group.
Suppose these people were genuinely worried about a group of tightly knit people who wield incredible financial power and disproportionately influence America. Why is it that they never focus on Catholics? Seven out of nine Supreme Court Justices are Catholics. 30% of Congress members are Catholic, yet represent only 20% of American adults. The Catholic Church is widely regarded as the most significant financial power on earth, and it's impossible to get an accurate account of its wealth. They routinely receive tax exemptions and federal funds to the tune of billions of dollars.
The reason is that these people care neither about the answers as to why Jews made it in those industries. There is no point having those discussions in the public space anymore than we need to have a national conversation about why there are so many African-Americans NBA players, Canadian NHL players or Asian Americans in Harvard. Some reasons are cultural, others environmental, and none of them have to do with any sordid conspiracies.
Our Sages state in Sanhedrin that if you “Always keep a low profile and [you will] prosper”. There is no reason to needlessly boast about Jewish success, especially when that success has nothing to do with Jewishness, but is rather Jews who were successful. There’s no reason to be ashamed of it either. There’s just no reason to discuss it, really. The real answers for those who genuinely want to know are out there. Those who ask out of hatred, there’s no answer that will satisfy them save for their own prejudices. As it says in Yevamot (65b) Just as you are obligated to speak when your words will be heeded, you must remain silent when you know your words will be ignored.
Thanks to Kanye, the air has been sucked out of the room for that public discussion for a very long time now.
One Goose Step Forward, Ten Steps Back
There are two other silver linings to the whole Ye debacle, aside from its future effect on the discourse about antisemitism. It will lay to rest the idea that 1) antizionism is not antisemitism and 2) end the silence around the current state of Jewish and African-Americans relations, especially in New York.
One of the oft-repeated allegations that Kanye has been making is that "Zionists" made his wife unfaithful, that "somehow our country has been taken over by, you know, maybe about 300 Zionists", that "Zionists" control the banks, so on and so forth. Now, as Jews we had no illusions on the matter and understood exactly what it’s code for. And it wasn’t just us, either:
We might have known this was the case, but we’ve now witnessed the most high-profile instance in history that when people say 'Zionists,' they mean 'Jews.'
Thanks to an assist from Kyrie, Kanye also brought another topic that had been taboo until now but simply can't be ignored anymore: the rise of antisemitism in the African-American community. White nationalists might think it humorous, but this is one of the most needed conversations in America right now, at least as far as African-Americans and Jews are concerned.
The biggest physical threat to Jews in America in 2022 on a day-to-day basis is from Black Hebrew Israelites and the Nation of Islam, as well as those influenced by their ideology. Believers in their ideology committed the 2019 Jersey City kosher supermarket massacre, but their target was the school next door. They had planned to slaughter the dozens of children inside, but they were foiled by a door they couldn't open. They have committed many more assaults, stabbings, shootings, and murders than just this one. Yet, they have been ignored by the media and intelligentsia. In 2018, the New York Times admitted that since it couldn't find a single instance of right-wing violence amongst thousands of assaults against Orthodox Jews, it was just not convenient to write about it.
African-Americans represent 23% of NYC's citizens but routinely make up anywhere between 33-40% of those arrested for assaults on Orthodox Jews. Many more would be charged if Jews had given up complaining about petty assaults like knocking hats off or pushing or even punching, as they know their attackers will be back on the street in less than a few hours thanks to cashless bail and are unlikely to face any repercussions. Less than 24 hours ago, a group of Black Hebrew Israelites was standing outside Barclays in Brooklyn and harassing pedestrians. Along with their insults, they mentioned that they supported Hitler for what he did to Jews because he knew that they are the real Jews, so the European Jews who were killed were the seed of the devil and deserved it. "Did the Holocaust happen?" one asked. "Yes, and we're glad that it happened!"
They did not learn it from Kanye. In fact, it's far more likely that Kanye learned it from them. Their open support for Hitler is something that has been going on for decades at this point.
Mending Fences and Moving Forward
That is not to say, obviously, that all African-Americans are antisemitic or even the majority. Quite the opposite. Some of the greatest allies Jews have in New York City involve the likes of Ritchie Torres, who are true friends of the Jewish people, and tireless advocates such as Pastor Dumisani Washington of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. They are people who fight against hatred inside their community and try to build and repair bridges between theirs and ours.
This situation has been allowed to fester for almost a decade partly because of the discourse on race in America became such a hot-button issue that scant few dared to address it in public, afraid of the potential fallout. That's why I was very skeptical initially that there would be any fallout from the Death Con 3 tweet and instead expected things to follow the same old routine we had all settled into.
There is simply no denying that this is happening anymore. The abscess has been exposed for all to see, and now all that's left is to drain it. It's not gonna be a fun process for either side. As Jews, we will have to confront our prejudices, and African-Americans will have to face theirs. The fact that antisemitism is so endemic to rap music will need to be handled, the place of the Farrakhans, Sharptons, and Jacksons in polite society to be addressed, and the false claims of supersessionism too.
We were allies in the past; we marched hand-in-hand during the segregation era, and we both suffered from systemic discrimination in America. Our stories are not the same, our suffering is not the same, and it's neither a question of comparison nor competition. We are both created in the image of G-d, we both have our G-dly purpose to fulfill in this world, and we have much more to gain through solidarity than tensions or hatred. As the Rebbe of Lubavitch succinctly stated to then NYC Mayor David Dinkins: "We are one side. We are one people, living in one city, under one administration and under one G-d."
While it's true that I genuinely believe that, if appropriately seized, this is a moment that can and will be used to reverse the course of many negative trends in America, there will come a time when memories of Ye batting a net and singsonging about the Clintons will going to fade from popular memory. Those same old questions, that same old hatred might rise up again to be taken seriously once more. If Mashiach has not yet come ch" vs, we might find ourselves on the defensive once again (and truth be told, we're not entirely out of the wood yet, there's still much more to do).
Yes, some managed to hurt us badly in the past, and they still manage to harm us today, though to a far lesser extent. True, every punch still hurts, and every drop of blood spilled is a tragedy, but look at the positive: we are also living in the most physically comfortable and safest era of Jewish existence since at least the heydays of Shlomo HaMelech. We are also seeing a spiritual revival of the Jewish people like we haven't seen since the destruction of the Second Temple. And in Shlomo HaMelech's days, they had more riches than we do today, but would you really trade indoor plumbing, refrigeration, wifi, and uber for all that silver and gold?
As far as our enemies go, we can always rely on the words of wisdom from the wisest man who ever lived:
Mishlei 24:11 As a dog returns to his vomit, so does a fool repeat his folly.
Whatever fool rises up to attack us next, he will repeat the same follies as those before him and ultimately reveal to the world how empty and evil he, his colleagues, and their ideology truly are.
I have the concentration of a hummingbird so forgive me if I misinterpreted your article.
Immediately before reading your article I read an Algemeiner article about anti-Semitism at Harvard. A more leftist institution would be hard to find. Yet it appears you devote a lot of your attention towards right-wing anti-Semitism. It is my opinion the far bigger problem is anti-Semitism from the Left. Be it from Obama and his administration, Biden and his, the MSM, the liberal NGOs, Europe, universities, you name it, it is the Left that has set the stage, that lies about us and Israel, that creates the false memes and the narratives. The right is a pittance by comparison.
Apologies if I misunderstood your message.
I used to follow you on Twitter but I uninstalled it as it wasn't good for my mental health. Looking forward to following you on substack. 🤓