American Jews were played — now what?

[Guno צְבִי]

It is now obvious that antisemitism was never the real reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What lessons can we learn from this great exploitation?​

It is clear that many universities, in their attempt to balance free speech and safety, erred too much on the side of free expression. Detailed reports at Harvard, Columbia, and other universities have substantiated these claims. Jewish students were afraid.

It was at that moment that Republicans seized upon our legitimate fears and exploited them for political gain. So forgive us for not seeing their motives more clearly.


But those motives are abundantly clear a year and a half later.

First, Trump and his Republican allies have attacked universities for all manner of alleged sins: tolerating antisemitism, yes, but also promoting “DEI” (a term that, like “woke,” now means whatever Republicans want it to mean), failing to instill patriotic values in students, allowing trans people to compete in sports, skimming too much money off the top of grants, lacking “ideological diversity,” and not paying their fair share of taxes.

What do these allegations have in common? Not antisemitism, obviously, but the targets of Republican ire: universities, especially elite ones, which MAGA nationalists, post-liberal ideologues, and Christian theocrats all hate, albeit for different reasons.

American Jews were played — now what?

Antisemitism was never the reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What can we learn from this great exploitation?

forward.com

 

[Guno צְבִי]

There are many reasons why nationalist conservatives hate higher education — why MAGA hero Viktor Orban decimated Hungary’s once-proud universities, and why the Trump administration sued Harvard, bullied Columbia into total capitulation, and pushed out the president of the University of Virginia. Nationalist conservatives seek to create, in Robert Reich’s words, an “illiberal democracy” based on conformity to conservative-nationalist values, and universities stand in the way of that. Wrote Reich:

Behind this cultural populism lies a deeper anti-intellectual, anti-Enlightenment ideology closer to fascism than authoritarianism… [T]he greatest obstacle to dictatorship is an educated populace. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. That’s why slave owners prohibited enslaved people from learning to read, fascists burn books, and tyrants close universities.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

But whatever the reasons nationalists may have for opposing higher education, the sad fact is that American Jews have been played. At the moment of our entirely understandable trauma, fear and dread, these ideologues exploited our fears and made us into freiers.

And not only that — it is precisely the American liberal tradition, epitomized by university education, that made the American Jewish dream possible in the first place. My grandparents came here as immigrants from Russia, Lithuania and Latvia. They believed in higher education and instilled those values in my parents, who attended Columbia and Barnard. And my parents built a world for me that their previous generations could scarcely have imagined.

 

[Libhater]

But whatever the reasons nationalists may have for opposing higher education, the sad fact is that American Jews have been played. At the moment of our entirely understandable trauma, fear and dread, these ideologues exploited our fears and made us into freiers.

And not only that — it is precisely the American liberal tradition, epitomized by university education, that made the American Jewish dream possible in the first place. My grandparents came here as immigrants from Russia, Lithuania and Latvia. They believed in higher education and instilled those values in my parents, who attended Columbia and Barnard. And my parents built a world for me that their previous generations could scarcely have imagined.

Hey you racist pos, take a long nap.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

Hey you racist pos, take a long nap.

Smelly old bitter goy, we see your kind for what you are, an uneducated piece of trash , We see through you and your crocodile tears about anti semitism

 

[Sammy Jankis]

But whatever the reasons nationalists may have for opposing higher education, the sad fact is that American Jews have been played. At the moment of our entirely understandable trauma, fear and dread, these ideologues exploited our fears and made us into freiers.

And not only that — it is precisely the American liberal tradition, epitomized by university education, that made the American Jewish dream possible in the first place. My grandparents came here as immigrants from Russia, Lithuania and Latvia. They believed in higher education and instilled those values in my parents, who attended Columbia and Barnard. And my parents built a world for me that their previous generations could scarcely have imagined.

and now you spend time writing racist hate screeds all day on the internet.

go Jews.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

Even the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther,” which this publication first reported on last December and which purports to be about attacking “Hamas Support Organizations,” is actually focused on “progressive elites” who seek to “dismantle Western democracies, values and culture.” Notably, all but one of Project Esther’s architects are non-Jewish, the project blueprint engages in antisemitic conspiracy-mongering, and the Heritage Foundation lied about Jewish organizational support for it. Project Esther is about Christian Zionism and post-liberal Christian America, not protecting Jews from harassment or defamation. Indeed, far from protecting Jews, many of Project Esther’s targets are Jews.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

First, we should be deeply suspicious when outside actors suddenly style themselves as Defenders of the Jews — especially when, as in this case, the same people attacking pro-Palestine activists are mum when it comes to Trump administration officials with close ties to known antisemites, including FBI Director Kash Patel, who has appeared eight times on the podcast of Holocaust-denier and Hitler-praiser Stew Peters; Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for the rabidly antisemitic Andrew Tate; and Department of Defense spokesperson Kingsley Wilson, who has shared antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media, including references to the “great replacement theory” and the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 (“Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl,” she said in 2023).

If someone’s attention to antisemitism just so happens to track their ideological priors while ignoring the bias within their own ranks (and this is true on the left as well as the right), we should be extremely suspicious of their motivations.

 

[Trumpet]

and now you spend time writing racist hate screeds all day on the internet.

go Jews.

You need your meds for your mental illness

 

[Sammy Jankis]

You need your meds for your mental illness

no, I need your meds for my mental illness.

think really hard about them and I will feel the effects.

 

[Sammy Jankis]

the men who stare at pills.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

Third, and I say this as a rabbi and meditation teacher, there is a place for anger, and this is one such place. I am absolutely furious that Republicans have taken advantage of legitimate Jewish fears, exploited actual antisemitic incidents and conflated them with non-antisemitic ones, and used Jewish vulnerability as a pretext. Quite honestly, I find such efforts to themselves be antisemitic. I have seen their impacts firsthand, in my own community, in people who are terrified into believing conspiracy theories without basis in reality, who are sincerely afraid for the wellbeing of their loved ones.

Finally, we need to stop the assault on liberal society being perpetrated in the name of fighting antisemitism. On May 8 of this year, a group of mainstream, centrist American Jewish leaders signed a letter titled “Stand Up for Jewish Safety and Democracy.” The letter reads, in part:

A range of actors are using a purported concern about Jewish safety as a cudgel to weaken higher education, due process, checks and balances, freedom of speech and the press. Let us acknowledge that these rights, institutions and systems are the cornerstone of American Democracy and enabled American Jewry to thrive in the 20th century. American Jewry enjoyed more rights, more freedoms, more opportunities and more achievements than we have ever known in 2,500 years of Jewish life…

[W]e recognize the complexity of addressing these issues when there is division within our communities. Our message is motivated by the exigencies of this moment when democratic norms are under assault and antisemitism is metastasizing. It is imperative to join with our fellow citizens to protect and preserve our democracy.

We urge Jewish leadership to forcefully and publicly reaffirm the historic and continuing commitment of the American Jewish community to academic freedom, to the rule of law, to ensure due process to anyone accused of breaking the law, to freedom of speech and the press. And we call on Jewish leaders and institutions – national and local – to resist the exploitation of Jewish fears and publicly join with other organizations that are battling to preserve the guardrails of democracy.

The letter concluded, “The time to act is Now!”

 

[NiftyNiblick]

Trump deserves to be lethally injected for his assault on Harvard alone.
Harvard is an American treasure.
Trump is a malignant tumor on America.

His supporters are despicable monster mutants who all need to come to an excruciating and ignominious end.
I can't think of another thing of which I'm more certain.

 

[EdwinA]

It's always hilarious when ignorant racist halfwits post OPs sniveling about 'education n stuff' when it's obvious they were socially promoted themselves and never got one.

 

[TravisBickle]

It is now obvious that antisemitism was never the real reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What lessons can we learn from this great exploitation?​

It is clear that many universities, in their attempt to balance free speech and safety, erred too much on the side of free expression. Detailed reports at Harvard, Columbia, and other universities have substantiated these claims. Jewish students were afraid.

It was at that moment that Republicans seized upon our legitimate fears and exploited them for political gain. So forgive us for not seeing their motives more clearly.


But those motives are abundantly clear a year and a half later.

First, Trump and his Republican allies have attacked universities for all manner of alleged sins: tolerating antisemitism, yes, but also promoting “DEI” (a term that, like “woke,” now means whatever Republicans want it to mean), failing to instill patriotic values in students, allowing trans people to compete in sports, skimming too much money off the top of grants, lacking “ideological diversity,” and not paying their fair share of taxes.

What do these allegations have in common? Not antisemitism, obviously, but the targets of Republican ire: universities, especially elite ones, which MAGA nationalists, post-liberal ideologues, and Christian theocrats all hate, albeit for different reasons.

American Jews were played — now what?

Antisemitism was never the reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What can we learn from this great exploitation?

forward.com

You ain't no Jew. You're a leftist. That's your religion. What a fucking phony!

 

[Sammy Jankis]

Even the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther,” which this publication first reported on last December and which purports to be about attacking “Hamas Support Organizations,” is actually focused on “progressive elites” who seek to “dismantle Western democracies, values and culture.” Notably, all but one of Project Esther’s architects are non-Jewish, the project blueprint engages in antisemitic conspiracy-mongering, and the Heritage Foundation lied about Jewish organizational support for it. Project Esther is about Christian Zionism and post-liberal Christian America, not protecting Jews from harassment or defamation. Indeed, far from protecting Jews, many of Project Esther’s targets are Jews.

I don't know.

transing children ain't my values.

 

[Sammy Jankis]

Third, and I say this as a rabbi and meditation teacher, there is a place for anger, and this is one such place. I am absolutely furious that Republicans have taken advantage of legitimate Jewish fears, exploited actual antisemitic incidents and conflated them with non-antisemitic ones, and used Jewish vulnerability as a pretext. Quite honestly, I find such efforts to themselves be antisemitic. I have seen their impacts firsthand, in my own community, in people who are terrified into believing conspiracy theories without basis in reality, who are sincerely afraid for the wellbeing of their loved ones.

Finally, we need to stop the assault on liberal society being perpetrated in the name of fighting antisemitism. On May 8 of this year, a group of mainstream, centrist American Jewish leaders signed a letter titled “Stand Up for Jewish Safety and Democracy.” The letter reads, in part:


The letter concluded, “The time to act is Now!”

fuck you racist war monger Hebe.

 

[Sammy Jankis]

It is now obvious that antisemitism was never the real reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What lessons can we learn from this great exploitation?​

It is clear that many universities, in their attempt to balance free speech and safety, erred too much on the side of free expression. Detailed reports at Harvard, Columbia, and other universities have substantiated these claims. Jewish students were afraid.

It was at that moment that Republicans seized upon our legitimate fears and exploited them for political gain. So forgive us for not seeing their motives more clearly.


But those motives are abundantly clear a year and a half later.

First, Trump and his Republican allies have attacked universities for all manner of alleged sins: tolerating antisemitism, yes, but also promoting “DEI” (a term that, like “woke,” now means whatever Republicans want it to mean), failing to instill patriotic values in students, allowing trans people to compete in sports, skimming too much money off the top of grants, lacking “ideological diversity,” and not paying their fair share of taxes.

What do these allegations have in common? Not antisemitism, obviously, but the targets of Republican ire: universities, especially elite ones, which MAGA nationalists, post-liberal ideologues, and Christian theocrats all hate, albeit for different reasons.

American Jews were played — now what?

Antisemitism was never the reason for the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. What can we learn from this great exploitation?

forward.com

dei means teaching racism, sexism and xenophobia to children.



dei =rsx

 

[Sammy Jankis]

like whiteness means being on time and not wilding out.

and blackness means liking watermelon, and being late, and cant get an ID

 

[Sammy Jankis]

You ain't no Jew. You're a leftist. That's your religion. What a fucking phony!

ironically that makes him a real Jew.

too soon?