Jews Shouldn’t Be Excluded From Ethnic Studies

Thousands of Jews are members of Facebook groups on everything from “A Place For Liberal Jews” to “Persian Jews” to “Orthodox Jews Against Discrimination and Racism” to even “the jews are tired™.” 

And then there’s the group that calls itself “sounds like your intersectionality doesn’t include Jews but ok.” Now in its second iteration, the 802 member group was formed “to discuss how Jews fit into current social justice movements …The core issue here is the frequent blanket categorization of Jews as Europeans and/or not a marginalized group, and thus their experiences being discounted in intersectional theory.”

In a nutshell, this is a community that addresses how it is excluded from modern-day movements, and how anti-Semitism is either ignored or displayed by activists engaged in fighting societal persecution.

Jews have been ostracized from the sociological conversation on oppression.

Commentators in Slate, The New York Times, National Review and The New York Post have argued that Jews have been ostracized from the sociological conversation on oppression. “Although Jewish feminists have attempted to place Jews into this dialogue the discourse on and about ‘race, class, and gender’ has limited this possibility,” Jessica Greenebaum wrote in the Journal of Race, Gender & Class. “This ‘marginalizing discourse,’ which excludes Jews, is partially due to the way we construct the notions of oppression and anti-Semitism as well as categories of race, ethnicity, and class.”

In August, this discourse dilemma manifested when California’s Department of Education was criticized by the American Jewish Committee for releasing a draft ethnic studies curriculum that did not include Jews. Anti-Semitism was only mentioned in the curriculum in passing. It didn’t even make the glossary. The Anti-Defamation League, which rallied for the curriculum to be redrawn, said the classwork employed negative stereotypes about Jewish people. Amidst the backlash, the Department agreed to revise the curriculum in September.  

However, some still argue that Jews should be excluded from courses where children are taught about culture and tolerance. “Frankly, the allegations of exclusion and erasure seem to be bad-faith arguments designed to tear down this program, rather than engage productively and build something sustainable,” Mark Tseng-Putterman, a Ph.D. student Brown University told Jewish Currents. This week, in the magazine’s analysis of the curriculum controversy, scholars said Judaism is “outside of the scope of ethnic studies.” 

This argument is offensive and absurd. It is not only politically correct to include information about Jews and anti-Semitism in ethnic studies – it is crucial that we do so. The first reason is obvious: it’s necessary to teach tolerance toward all targeted minorities. 

It is not only politically correct to include information about Jews and anti-Semitism in ethnic studies – it is crucial that we do so.

The second is that anti-Semitism requires teaching. Prejudice is not one-size-fits-all. The bigotry faced by Latin American immigrants might overlap in some ways with what Jews experience, but each ethnic and religious group battles unique stereotypes. You need to know the history behind anti-Semitic tropes to understand them. And like any minority, it requires literacy in Jewish heritage and customs to live beside and advocate for us. 

If you aren’t aware of the Holocaust, how can you understand how offensive it is to make an “oven” joke about a Jew, let alone identify the bias against underrepresented groups like Iraqi Jews, who survived the Farhud? Sephardic and Mizrahi groups have been particularly vocal about their displeasure with their erasure in California’s ethnic studies blueprint. Six congregations and five of its major advocacy groups penned a letter rebuking it.

Anti-Semitism is rooted in conspiracy theories about wealth, control, manipulation and bloodthirst, which are confusing even for Jews. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these tropes are mutating to be more complex and threatening than ever. White supremacists are claiming that Jews designed the virus in Chinese labs. In France, a conspiracy theory that the nation’s Jewish former health minister personally caused the pandemic has gained steam.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in accusations that Jews, as individuals and as a collective, are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it,” Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress told Reuters in April. “The language and imagery used clearly identifies a revival of the medieval ‘blood libels’ when Jews were accused of spreading disease, poisoning wells or controlling economies.”

When you teach children they need to fight racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia but completely ignore that Jews exist, it frames the fight against anti-Semitism as an opposing rather than a parallel cause.

The erasure of Jews from ethnic studies doesn’t just breed ignorance. When you teach children they need to fight racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia but completely ignore that Jews exist, it frames the fight against anti-Semitism as an opposing rather than a parallel cause. It’s no wonder that Dyke Marches, SlutWalks and the Women’s March have been accused of engaging in anti-Semitism. 

When you exclude Jews from ethnic studies, children graduate into the world thinking that fighting anti-Semitism is unworthy and unrelated to social justice. Is it really a safe space if Jews are not allowed inside?