Blogging Anti-Semitism

by Ilana Newman in Toronto for Global Jewish Voice

Yesterday my friend’s boyfriend said that Jews run the world.

Well, not quite in so many words. But the sentiment was there.

I made a brief (and perhaps ill-advised, in a non-Jewish context) joke about the mythical Zionist Occupation Government, but this guy didn’t seem to understand that it was a joke. He nodded, saying, “It’s true, there are so many Jews in positions of power- just look at Hollywood, and the banks!” An uneasy silence ensued, in which I, the only Jew in the small group gathered (ironically, at Aroma, the Israeli coffeeshop franchise), realized that I didn’t know how to call this guy out on his casual and awkward anti-Semitism.

So I didn’t say anything.

I’ve become more and more aware, in the last several months, of a burgeoning anti-Jewish sentiment in the world— there are, of course, obviously antisemitic events like hate crimes (which have, incidentally, been on the rise in the last few years), or the rise of Hungary’s über-nationalist Jobbik party (which is, tellingly, featured positively on the website of white supremacist organization Stormfront).

I am privileged to live in a country like Canada, where my rights as a member of an ethno-religious minority group are protected under the law. I remind myself every day that not everyone is so lucky, and that even my country, which can be very loud about its “salad-bowl” or “mosaic” culture (as opposed to the United States’ “melting pot” ideal) is nonetheless home to a distressing amount of Islamophobia and racism/colorism. And because of the internet and social media, we live in a world that has simultaneously become, paradoxically, ever-larger and ever-smaller. Everything is only a few keystrokes away, and that includes the darker parts of the world, the things people think they say in secret.

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