The Bearded Balabos

This is going viral because people are drawing a straight line between BLM and Jews in America who are worried about antisemitism. Yes, in isolation “one must be anti-racist” and “one must be anti-anti-Semitic” is the same logical (or illogical) argument. But is it the same in practice? Are Jews shutting down cities or rioting or assaulting police in the name of anti-antisemitism? Is this Rabbi angling for a multi-million dollar grant for a new “research” lab? The problem isn’t the statement; it’s the goal. BLM demanded people be anti-racists while defining literally anything that stood in their way as racism. That is simply not true of antisemitism, which (through the IHRA) has a clear definition in order to combat the subjectivity of “hate”. We can (and should) debate this definition, but the people comparing this to BLM are just as guilty as the BLM people for assuming what is and isn’t racism/antisemitism to jump to their pre-selected clickbait-conclusion. After all, is it good to be anti-racist where racism is the hatred of people because of their race? Yes! You shouldn’t be racist. You shouldn’t be antisemitic. Can we agree on that? And if we agree, is it better to be more than not racist or antisemitic? Isn’t it better to be anti-racism and anti-antisemitism? Of course! You can’t demand that of people, of course, but you’re allowed to ask! The woke Right surely would want me to be anti-anti-Christian bigotry or anti-anti-white bigotry! Are they like BLM? Pointing to a Rabbi and saying “this is just like BLM!” is an easy social media win. Pity it’s dumb.