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OPENING PANEL remarks
by Judy Andreas, Catalyst to Coalition Director
Tonight I want to talk about why little ole white gentile farm-girl me cares
about anti-Semitism. Like with so many other oppressions, it is a part of my
life – I see it in my own thoughts and reactions, in personal relationships,
in the media, in religion – all the way to the US government and
internationally. I care about the Jewish people and communities insulted,
hurt, or destroyed by anti-Semitism. And I care about what happens to me
when I’m silent about the unfair patterns that I see against any group,
including against Jews. That means that challenging anti-Semitism is not
only a social/political responsibility, but a responsibility to myself and
to my own character. I believe in supportive solidarity by those in
positions of relative privilege, like the privilege I have as a secular
Christian.
I’ve also been lucky to have been on the receiving end of such support many
times in my life: Times when men have interrupted other men’s sexism,
straight people have shown concern about anti-gay attitudes, people of
“higher” social class have stuck by me as a working class woman. This is
what I mean by the term Ally. Many of those Allies to me have been Jews.
Yet, when anti-Semitism is in play, too often, I don’t speak up. And let me
tell you, in my radical activist world, the anti-Semitism is constant. Far
too much of what I hear about Jews is negative – the more radical the
context, the more heartless are the expressions towards Jews. Whether it’s
Pacifica Radio or indymedia or my personal conversations. What is my
responsibility as a gentile in creating this Left political climate where
anti-Jewish sentiment is almost taken as proof of Progressive credentials?
It’s seldom taken into account that America is 97% gentile and that we
gentiles hence have 97% of the responsibility for creating this environment
that censors concern for Jews out of our political discourse. The pressure
to pretend to ignore the constant anti-Semitism is enormous. But what
happens to me when I’m silent?
Every time that I swallow & try to ignore the constant implied presumption
that Jews do not deserve respect, I swallow a little bit of my pride as a
fighter for justice. I refuse to continue to be diminished by my own
silence. – Even when the issues are complicated and emotionally difficult. –
And even though I absolutely refuse to be positioned against Muslims and
Arabs and even when I’m not agreement about Israel.
In my radical Left, we get to the point, in a nanosecond,where we ask “How
can we confront anti-Semitism when we don’t agree about Israel?” So we drop
it. What kind of Progressive Activism is that? Since when do we in the Left
stop all action because we don’t exactly agree? Let’s face it, we never
would’ve done anything.
But we’ve actually done a LOT to weaken many oppressions. I believe we need
to use our experience understanding other discrimination to understand
anti-Semitism. That’s why the FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN Conference series is
dedicated to Ricky Sherover Marcuse, in the spirit of continuing development
of her anti-oppression work. She introduced a practice that enables us to
use theory from the Frankfurt (Germany) School of Revolutionary Psychology
to confront racism and other oppressions. Ricky was connected to the
Frankfurt School through her teacher and husband, Herbert Marcuse. This
school of thought recognizes that we must take our emotional responses,
attitudes, and beliefs into account if we are going to understand how
systems of oppression and injustice are maintained.
And still, the theories of the Frankfurt School need to be developed to
apply to the complicated world of overlapping oppressions that we live in.
To do this, we also need to acknowledge anti-Semitism, even when other
oppressions are in play. We need to be able to show concern for
anti-Semitism even when class issues are very complex. We need to reflect on
anti-Semitism in ourselves and our progressive organizations. We also need
to expand our definition of anti-Semitism beyond blatant Nazi-style
references. Because deniable forms of prejudice are now the most cruelly
effective, definitions need to change. As a progressive community, we have
yet to define what anti-Semitism even looks like today. We need to develop
theory, practice and organizations to effectively challenge anti-Semitism as
a social justice issue.
Because this is so easily overwhelming, let me bring up 2 successful, though
still embattled, models that give me hope: fighting sexism & homophobia. 30
years ago, neither was understood to be a problem. Back then, even in the
Left, we didn’t recognize sexism and homophobia as prejudices. It took the
development of theory, intentional consciousness raising, years of
organizing, and the support of allies to change the culture of the Left in
relation to women, queers, and now gender assumptions. And look at the
impact we’ve made in 30 years, on how the world views women and the queer
community.
This is what I am doing in this room tonight. With the help of all of you, I
am continuing the process of changing my understanding of a very old and
endemic oppression, an oppression that existed long before the state of
Israel existed. I am taking my despairing or outraged private conversations
about anti-Semitism and joining a public dialogue about anti-Semitism in
America’s Left – from a progressive, activist perspective. Non-Jews of many
cultures are meeting here to shoulder our part of the responsibility, with
Jews of many cultures, and activists who are both. As with sexism and
heterosexism before, from changing our awareness of anti-Semitism, we can
change the world. Because that’s what we do. Let’s do it again.
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FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN: