A quick,bleak thought about antisemitism

I've been wanting to share this thought for a while, but it's too depressing and so I have put it off. I don't want to go down the rabbit hole that so many of today's news events sends me down. I just want to share a simple thought.

Roughly speaking, I divide anti-semites into two groups. First is the frighteningly large group that embraces anti-semitism openly. There are people like this on the far left and the far right and even some in between.

Second, there is a larger group that doesn't think of itself as anti-semitic but by virtue of the people and causes it supports, is, in my view, clearly anti-semitic. These people subject Jews and Jewish entities to a level of judgment and criticism and ultimately disdain that is so far beyond what these people subject any other group to - or support public figures who do so - that it is impossible to view their behavior and actions as anything but antisemitic. For the purposes of illustration, let us stipulate that Jews are not perfect and can behave badly like everyone else. If you had a Jewish child that you sent to a school, and that child was in a class of miscreants who misbehaved every day, and if only your child - the one Jewish child in the class - was ever disciplined, you would be justified in thinking the school was anti-semitic. And if you were one of the other parents and didn't have a problem with this, the Jewish parent would be justified in regarding your apathy or support for what was happening as anti-semitism as well. A more passive brand of anti-semitism perhaps, but anti-semitism nonetheless. That's very much what the world looks and feels like to me today.

There's a third group as well. It is comprised of Jews who seem to think along the same lines as the second group. I don't think of this group as anti-semitic, although certainly it's possible for a Jew to be anti-semitic. I think overwhelmingly these people think and act the way they do based on a complex of influences related to what it means historically to be a Jew and being Jewish in the world today. So I think of this group separately, although their thoughts and actions make me very sad.

There's so much more to say about each of these groups. And you might read this and wonder exactly what types of thoughts and what types of actions I'm referring to that I consider marks of anti-semitism. Again, I'm not going to go down that hole.

Here is my main point circa August 2026. It's been almost three years since October 7th. I feel safe concluding at this point that nothing will convince an anti-semite that he or she is wrong or has been gravely unfair in criticism and condemnation of the Jewish community and/or Israel - or, more passively, in contextualizing, accepting and supporting others who do. We have been patiently reasoning and we have been screaming at the tops of our lungs. We should continue doing and saying what we feel we must to bear witness to what is happening and protest it in the clearest terms. But what we are doing is for ourselves and for history. We will not convince anyone to change their minds or to admit they've been wrong. It just doesn't seem to work that way.

If you need any other evidence, you can simply remember that Hitler did not fail because of the Holocaust. Nor did the Holocaust provoke the opposition to him that ultimately defeated him. In fact, the Allies knew the Holocaust was going on and could have bombed the tracks that brought Jews to the camps and/or acted in other decisive ways - but didn't. The concentration camps were liberated when the war was won and not a moment sooner and not because anyone made any particular effort to stop the systematic murder of 6 million Jews - one out of every three Jews in the world. It was the most heinous thing that Hitler did, but it did not lead to his defeat or to America or any other country entering the war. In the geopolitical calculus of the time, it was a side note.

The anti-semites won't fail because their anti-semitism is repudiated. They will fail because the politics they espouse doesn't work and often ends ruinously for those caught within it. At this point of broader realization, perhaps their anti-semitism will lead to their failing more quickly, but it won't be the cause of their failure.

So, to whomever is currently speaking out, keep speaking out! Speak out for justice, speak out for history. But I believe at the most basic level we are engaged in a process of waiting this out. Speak out and wait it out. The stronger we are together, the better off we are. But we're not changing any minds. It's a bracing thought.

-Matt