January 30, 2007
By Stacey Palevsky

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30 (JTA) — A husband tells his wife he doesn’t see why
Israel should exist.

A teacher wants to know why a colleague’s presentation on Gaza is announced
in the school bulletin but doesn’t know how to speak up.

A man critical of Israel’s politics detests the label “self-hating Jew.”

These were the topics at the forefront of “Finding Our Voice,” a conference
Sunday organized by the Anti-Defamation League to help Jews in the Bay Area
and elsewhere constructively address anti-Semitism within progressive
organizations.

Participants discussed the inflammatory scenarios noted above during a
workshop titled “Let’s Talk: When There are Differing Perspectives on
Zionism and Israel.” It was one of 30 sessions offered.

Workshops ranged in topic from the history of anti-Semitism to Israel’s
social justice climate to talking to fellow Jews or non-Jews about Mideast
politics.

The small lecture hall that housed “Let’s Talk” was a hotbed of debate, role
playing and even some tears.

“This is very close to the bone for most of us wherever we stand on the
political spectrum,” said Eryn Kalish, workshop moderator and conflict
resolution specialist.

“Finding Our Voice,” held at Jewish Community High School of the Bay here,
brought together 350 people — primarily Jews — to discuss a re-emergence of
anti-Semitism locally and nationally.

This anti-Semitism, which panelists and speakers repeatedly referred to as
“the new anti-Semitism,” looks different. Instead of being aimed at Jews
individually, the new anti-Semitism targets Jews collectively in that the
sentiment is tied closely to extreme criticism of Israel.

Speakers said that in the past, most anti-Semitism came from the political
right, but now it comes from the left — a movement that prides itself on
inclusiveness and liberalism, yet increasingly allows anti-Semitic language
at events and political rallies.

“Thinking this is ‘more of the same’ has disastrous results,” said David
Hirsh, a University of London sociology professor. “These are different
phenomena, different contexts. We’re living in a different world. We
shouldn’t think of this like it’s Hungary in 1941.”

Workshop lectures and discussions often were intense and brutally honest.

During his workshop about the surfacing of contemporary anti-Semitism, Hirsh
showed his standing-room-only audience a cartoon depicting Ehud Olmert and
Uncle Sam swimming in a pool of blood shaped like the Gaza Strip, and a
poster calling for a boycott of Israeli goods featuring an orange dripping
with blood.

“Israel does kill children. That is not made up,” Hirsh said. “But to label
Israel a child-killing state … is myth created out of truth.”

He said anti-Semitism differs from racism in that the latter is often
thought of as an institutional problem embedded in a nation or city’s
psyche.

Anti-Semitism, however, is said to be “unintentional,” as the person who
said or created something anti-Semitic claims that was never the intention.
It allows for anti-Semitism to be labeled as something perceived and not
real, which is untrue, Hirsh said.

Hirsh has mapped out a comprehensive look at this new anti-Semitism on
Engage — www.engageonline.org.uk/home) — a Web journal he created.

Hirsh’s colleague, lawyer and researcher Anthony Julius, delivered the
keynote address and talked at length about the roots of anti-Semitism and
Zionism, or anti-Zionism. He said that although Israel complicates the
language of current anti-Semitism, the creation of a Jewish state also
helped bring Jews into the realm of practical politics. And the nature of
politics is to disagree, he added.

“But our failure to take anti-Semitism seriously is more of a problem than
anti-Semitism itself,” he said.

He rejected the claim that all critics of Israel are labeled as
anti-Semites.

“I’ve never heard AIPAC or Abe Foxman [national director of the ADL] say
that,” Julius said. “No one is so stupid to say that. “You only have to read
Ha’aretz every day to see that criticism is like a project within Israel and
for Jews.”

Sarah Church, 24, said she enjoyed the historical and factual context within
which Julius spoke. She found the conference interesting, she said, and
learned new ways to frame the conversation about Israel and anti-Semitism.

She was disappointed, though, that there were so few of her peers in
attendance. She couldn’t pinpoint why.

“Young people are interested and engaged with this issue,” Church said.
“They really care about Israel and are struggling to form their own
opinions, like everyone else.”

Julius concluded his speech by saying that “no bumper sticker-response will
address anti-Semitism.” He said there must be a collective, communal effort
to reason, debate and discuss a difficult topic.

Absent from the discussion Sunday were three leftist Jewish groups: Tikkun,
Jewish Voice for Peace and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for
Justice and Peace. Representatives for JVP said they were not invited by any
of the groups to co-sponsor or help plan the conference.

“It’s a real contradiction, given that the ADL was founded to combat
intolerance,” said Penny Rosenwasser, a board member for Jewish Voice for
Peace. She ended up serving on a conference panel about anti-Semitism in the
LGBT community, but was invited by another panelist, not the ADL.

“Part of Jewish tradition is having many voices at the table, a diversity of
opinions — it’s a great tradition of critical thinking,” Rosenwasser said.

Without JVP or Tikkun, she added, the conference’s scope was limited and
incomplete.

However, Jonathan Bernstein, director of the ADL, said there must have been
a misunderstanding.

“Everyone who wanted to come to the conference was there,” he said. “No one
was excluded.”

He added that the intended audience for “Finding Our Voice” was not
mainstream Jewish groups or leftist Jewish groups.

“The focus was on Jewish progressives who had been feeling ostracized and
excluded, and felt they no longer had a home because their progressive
causes were pushing them out,” Bernstein said.

He added that this conference is only a beginning. Presenters and attendants
expressed interest in planning another conference, perhaps even committing
to an annual event. Bernstein said there will be future opportunities for
more people to participate.

“Being Jewish means we don’t just kvetch — we act,” said Steve Rothman,
director of the New Israel Fund and a presenter at the conference. “It’s
part of our responsibility as Jews. We have an obligation to be involved in
social justice.”