The Divide and Conquer Strategy of Far Left Antisemitism

Whether deemed communists or capitalists, foreigners or gentrifiers, Jews often seem to serve as scapegoats for societal ills. As a result, the age-old question of how to fight antisemitism must continually adapt to recognize antisemitism in its current form. Often disguised as the pursuit of moral justice via causes such as pro-Israel censorship for the sake of Palestinian rights, the idea of the “white supremacist Jewish elite” as the true logic driving antisemitism extends far beyond the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Given the far left’s distrust of power, the age-old trope of the “powerful Jew” has emerged stronger than ever in the framing of Ashkenazi Jews as a hyper-privileged Jewish subset, perhaps even a catalyst for what some might view as deserved Judeophobia. But due to the left’s reputation for supporting social justice on topics like the Israel-Palestine conflict, far left anti-Israel sentiment that spills over into suspicion of overall Jewish power often goes unnoticed or ignored. In the case of a Google executive who tweeted about Jews having an “insatiable appetite for war”—not Israelis, but Jews—14 years passed before the employee faced any consequences. This incident is an example of the left’s preference for Muslim and non-Jewish Middle Eastern groups over Jewish groups, who are seen as connected to whiteness and power. And given the rising anti-colonial sentiment throughout the world, it’s no surprise that Jews, perceived as white colonizers in progressive circles, have become a target.

This connection of Ashkenazi Jews with Eurocentrism and whiteness invalidates their minority status in the view of many progressives, thus paving the way for antisemites to claim they don’t hate all Jews, only those “privileged white Jews” who control funding of American schools and disenfranchise minorities of color while occupying the non-white underdog in the Middle East via Israel. Indeed, the belief that Ashkenazi Jews have always been white has also increased, with social media influencers claiming an alleged prioritization of the Shoah due to the “whiteness” of Jewish victims. Such a claim conveniently ignores Nazi ideology, which viewed Jews as a distinct and inferior race as well as the historical classification of Jews in Europe as both Palestinian and Oriental.

Moreover, this simplistic “white oppressor versus non-white oppressed” binary fails to define whether a ‘”white Jew” refers to a member of the Ashkenazi majority in the United States, having the ability to visibly present as European, or having recent diaspora sojourn in Central and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, this murky classification of whiteness has also caught on within the Jewish community thanks to some Jews feeling marginalized by both Ashkenormativity and white presenting Jews.

The idea that European lineage grants automatic privileged status above those who came from elsewhere in the world is being capitalized on by groups such as Arabs. Whereas Arabs and other non-Jewish MENA groups eventually achieved “white” status on the United States census, many are now fighting to reverse this label once again in order to maintain a minority status, given their non-European origins, pride as a unique ethnic group, and anti-Arab/Muslim discrimination in the West.

Despite the American emphasis on race, ethnicity also matters. Whether for Arabs or Jews, identifying as a non-white ethnic group does not mean that members of these groups who pass as white do not also enjoy privilege. Given both Middle Eastern origins (no matter how long ago for Ashkenazim) and the fact that Jews experience some of the highest hate crime rates of any group in the United States despite our relatively small population size, Jews should also insist on a non-white ethnic minority status.

We can hardly expect to succeed in thwarting antisemitism when our own community struggles with diaspora infighting. Healing the rift begins with uniting the Jewish community as an ethnoreligious rather than purely religious group. We can and should respect diaspora history without letting such discrepancies define our unique, shared identity as Jews. Only when we come together to recognize antisemitic divide and conquer strategies can we address anti-Jewish bigotry in all its forms.

Sarah Katz is an author, UC Berkeley alumna in Middle Eastern Studies, and cyber security analyst.