When I saw the shocking news that the Jew-hating American Muslim Linda Sarsour was to appear on a panel debating anti-Semitism at a US college, at first I thought that it was a joke. I wondered if April Fools Day had arrived early, or the Jewish festival of Purim, where people play practical jokes on one another and sometimes get drunk. After all, you probably couldn’t get a worst Muslim to debate anti-Semitism unless you invited the reanimated corpse of Osama Bin Laden to take part.
I wondered at the gross stupidity and the impropriety of inviting Sarsour, an odious woman who has claimed that feminism and Zionism are incompatible, that conservative pro-Trump women deserved to have their vaginas removed and is someone who has praised racist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. My answer as to how this could have happened came when I found out that this event, that has on its panel no recognised expert on anti-Semitism, was put together by a coalition of ‘progressive’ organisations. In an even greater ironic twist, this event is being held at a higher education institution that once sheltered and educated American Jews, at a time when Jewish people were being excluded from some parts of American society. This institution, the New School in New York City, is hosting this event that involves the disgraceful ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ group, an entity that seems to have little problem consorting with Islamic Jew-haters.
If Sarsour was being invited in order to challenge her views or to provide some sort of viewpoint diversity on a panel then maybe, just maybe, I could see a reason why she would be there. But, going by the nature of the far left groups behind this event, I doubt that will be the case and Sarsour will be probably be fawned over and treated like an honoured guest.
The Jewish magazine the Tablet (h/t ROP) is carrying the worrying story of left wing groups ‘jumping the shark’ when it comes to bad judgement and I have reproduced an excerpt from it below. After outlining the history of the New School, its record for educating Jews excluded from other institutions and their brilliant past alumni such as Hannah Arendt, The Tablet noted that things are very different now at The New School.
The Tablet said:
How things change: Later this month, the university will co-sponsor a panel on anti-Semitism that will feature, among others, Linda Sarsour, who opined that “nothing is creepier than Zionism,” praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and believes one cannot support the right of Jews to a homeland of their own and still be a feminist. Alongside Sarsour will be Rebecca Vilkomerson, who heads the odious Jewish Voice for Peace. The group, as an ADL report aptly put it, “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and to provide the movement with a veneer of legitimacy.” Among JVP’s recent achievements are the enthusiastic support of Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian terrorist convicted of a bombing attack on a Jerusalem supermarket that left two young students dead and who was recently deported from the United States after lying about the incident on her immigration forms. The group is also a frequent supporter, despite its allegations to the contrary, of Alison Weir, an activist robustly promoting modern-day blood libels against Jews.
It goes without saying, sadly, that the event—which is co-sponsored by prominent progressive institutions like the radical magazine Jacobin—features not a single actual scholar of anti-Semitism, nor one voice that doesn’t belong comfortably in the deep left. In supporting this pathetic farce, then, the New School betrays its mission and its heritage twice: First by inviting some of the leading purveyors of anti-Jewish prejudice to discuss anti-Semitism, and second by failing to invite to the panel anyone who might disrupt the torrent of invective with dispassionate facts and real expertise.
It sickens me to see how far the Jewish Left has managed to warp itself. Although I am Jewish myself, I despise the Jewish Left. It has become an echo chamber where the political meshuganas (crazy people) don’t just exist or are tolerated, but call the shots. The Jewish Left, although it once may have had within its ranks a few decent people who were wrong politically but motivated by good reasons for their views, has transmuted into a home for dangerous political fraggles. These fraggles pursue policies and espouse views that are a threat to both Jews and non-Jews alike.
These groups, not just the ones involved in the New School conference, are dangerous for the following reasons. Firstly their policies are wrong and the people they associate with and support hold views that are the complete opposite to the ideas of personal freedom and the rule of law, in some cases they are even supportive of the idea of genocide. The realisation of the policies of these left wing groups would be authoritarianism, chaos, poverty and death, just has happened every time socialist policies and theories have been put into practise. Secondly they are endangering Israelis, whether Jewish or not Jewish, by backing those who are avowed enemies of Israel, even though Israel is on the front line of the battle against Islamic expansionism and hatred. Thirdly they damage Western societies by seeking to promote and legitimise those with views that call for the deaths of both Jews and our non-Jewish neighbours and friends.
Finally, apart from these outliers on the Jewish Left promoting destructive politics and having association with people who want the rest of us dead, there is the issue of the message that the activities of the Jewish Left sends to the wider non-Jewish community. These leftist nutcases do not represent the wider Jewish community any more than members of Antifa represent white middle class teenagers. The problem comes when people who may be uninformed about the Jewish far Left come to believe that the views of these nutters are shared by others of the Jewish faith. This is not the case. I’d say most if not all of the high profile Jewish Left are not Jewish in any meaningful religious or ethical way. I agree with with Ben Shapiro on this when he said that the ‘Jewish Left’ is made up of ex-Jews or people who just happen to have a Jewish grandparent. The ‘Jewish Left’ Mr Shapiro said:’Have nothing to do with the Torah or the Laws of Moses or the commandments or Judaism’s ethical strictures, they are secular Leftists who use their Jewish heritage as a badge’. Mr Shapiro is right on the money here and his assessment of the situation is backed up by my own experience. The ‘Jew’ most likely to be eating a bacon sandwich or attending an anti Israel demonstration on Yom Kippur, campaigning for the entry of dangerous ‘refugees’ or hobnobbing with dangerous Islamic scumbags is probably going to either a be a secular Leftist, who by accident of birth has Jewish relatives, or someone who is dishonestly trying to hammer the square peg of Leftism into the round hole of Torah. The Torah is not a Leftist document. The Torah explicitly recognises the value of nationalism and national identity, law and order and property rights. It encourages and demands ethical behaviour, it is not pro gay marriage nor does it take a favourable view of things like abortion or transgender issues nor does the Torah promote the idea that we should make nice with people who plainly want us dead.
For too long disgraceful and unrepresentative groups like Jewish Voice for Peace have wrapped their Leftist nonsense up in a Tallit (prayer shawl) and passed it off as part of Judaism. Yes of course the desire for peace between peoples is a good thing and entirely backed up by Biblical scholarship. But, what the likes of JVP are doing is not seeking peace, instead it is feeding the enemies of civilisation whether this enemy be authoritarian secular Leftism or the Muslims who have wished Jews dead since the seventh century CE.
I personally find it both disgusting and an insult to the memories of those who set up entities like the New School, that this establishment could stoop so low as to invite people like JVP, who even the Left leaning Anti Defamation League accuse of using their ‘Jewish’ badge to promote revolting hatred and anti-Semitism. How anyone in their right minds could say that the likes of JVP and Linda Sarsour have anything positive to bring to the table when it comes to anti-Semitism is beyond me, it really is.
Cases like this show that once decent and respectable organisations have become infiltrated and then completely controlled by the Left. These incidents also show that it is now vitally important for the ordinary Jews in the pews, who do not in the main support the sort of far Leftist arse-wittery that the New School is involved with, to fight back and reclaim our communal organisations from the destructive Left. If we continue, because of laziness, lack of confidence or fear of starting an argument, to allow the Leftist activists to continue with the Chilul HaShem (desecration of G-d’s name) then we as a community will continue to be judged by others to be as bad as them. We must stand up to and if necessary remove the ‘Jewish’ Left from the positions of influence they have gained in our communal institutions. If we do not do this, then if or rather when, the political tide turns against the Left, then we as ordinary Jews who want nothing to do with Leftism, will find ourselves suffering because we foolishly tolerated among us the wreckers who cynically use the name of Judaism to promote dangerous Leftist policies.
Sadly it’s not April Fools day or Purim, this is the Left doing what it has always done which is sucking up to the very worst and most evil in the world and calling this evil ‘good’.
