Gertrude Stein’s Anti-Jewish Positions Are Greeted Warmly by a New Generation of Jews

We are living in a Twilight Zone today that is dominated by groups of people advocating against their own interests and values. The best example of this perplexing phenomenon is the so-called progressive Jewish camp, which has come out in full support of goals being advanced by Hamas against Jews in Israel and around the world. 

While many in the mainstream are critical of Generation Z for being attracted to political ideas that contradict the values they profess to uphold, they are not the first generation of activists to live in hypocrisy.

The “Lost Generation,” born between 1883 and 1900, perhaps best represents this enigma. These were the unfortunate souls who fought in World War I, lived through the Depression and sent their kids off to fight in World War II. They too had strong voices that were in conflict with their professed agendas.

One of the more famous members of the “Lost Generation” was Gertrude Stein from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She left the U.S. at the age of 27 and, flush with family wealth, eventually positioned herself in Paris at the center of a very lively avant-garde arts and culture scene that included several luminaries of the day. Her famous “salons” were featured in Woody Allen’s beguiling 2011 movie “Midnight in Paris.” Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound and Henri Matisse were all regulars at one of the most intriguing inflection points in history, hatched in Stein’s own living room.

In many ways, Stein was similar to today’s “wokesters.” On the one hand, her open, unapologetic, same-sex partnership with Alice B. Toklas, as well as her support for modernist artists, would seem to put her squarely in the “progressive” camp. On the other hand, though Jewish herself, Stein had no compunction about advocating for Adolf Hitler’s nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1938.

To be clear, by 1938 the Anschluss of Austria, the “Nuremberg Laws,” the arrest of over 30,000 Jews and the horrific destruction and violence known as “Kristallnacht” (The Night of Broken Glass) had all just occurred and painted such a crystal clear picture of what was to come that only a naïve person or hypocrite could ignore.

As the world continued to unravel, Stein held fast to her ideological stance. Given the Nazis’ opinions on homosexuality, the Jews, and even the modern art movement, which Hitler classified as “degenerate,” one would think that Stein would have changed her tune about the changing situation on the ground, particularly after the Nazis conquered France. 

Alas, Stein only doubled down on her stance including lending immense support to the Vichy Government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain who would eventually be convicted of war crimes for his role in WWII. Stein was a huge fan of Petain until the bitter end, the hypocrisy of which seemingly eluded her until her death in 1946.

Seventy-seven years after Stein’s passing, a new generation of activists is rising in America and the western world. Like its forebears, this generation is also making choices that are in direct conflict with their professed goals.

Seventy-seven years after Stein’s passing, a new generation of activists is rising in America and the western world. Like its forebears, this generation is also making choices that are in direct conflict with their professed goals. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary,  the left wing of the Democratic Party supports Hamas’s objectives through daily calls for another ceasefire even as Hamas continues to reject offers of a ceasefire.

Leftwing Jewish groups, including “Jewish Voice for Peace,” “Bend The Arc” and “If Not Now,” have taken positions that line up neatly with Hamas’s positions while remaining largely silent about both the massacres on Oct. 7th and the ongoing holding of hostages by Hamas. In the face of overwhelming evidence, including Hamas’s own video testimonies detailing the atrocities of Oct. 7th, these lemmings hold fast to positions as oxymoronic as “Queers for Palestine.” Indeed, like the Nazis, Hamas detests homosexuals and puts them to death.

As a former Hillel CEO with more than 20 years of experience on U.S. college campuses, it is admittedly jolting to see Jewish students standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the enemies of the Jewish people chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as if this phrase is somehow not an actual call for genocide against the Jews. A generation of activists has risen that does not know Gertrude Stein and yet is blithely goose-stepping with her support for authoritarians and mass murderers.

Last month we celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. We commemorated the victory of hope over hate, light over darkness and nonconformity over conformity. What we don’t generally do at Hanukkah is recall the Hellenists, those Jews who so closely aligned themselves with the dominant Greek culture that they actually fought against the Maccabees.

The Steins of today have set themselves apart from and in direct opposition to a Jewish community that is more unified than it has been since WWII.

Like Stein before them, today’s “anti-Jewish” Jewish marchers are not just on the wrong side of Jewish history; they are on the wrong side of history.

Just as the Hellenists and Stein aligned themselves against their fellow Jews, today’s Jewish outliers will also likely be written off the history page. Like Stein before them, today’s “anti-Jewish” Jewish marchers are not just on the wrong side of Jewish history; they are on the wrong side of history.

Aaron Weil is a former Hillel Executive Director and CEO. He resides in Ra’anana, Israel.