withasmoothroundstone:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

I don’t know how to explain to goyim that calling out anti-Semitism is not about hurt feelings or crocodile tears and everything to do with the fear of history repeating itself in the form of angry mobs hellbent on attacking Jewish people.

I don’t know how to explain that I am not calling Jay-Z out because I want to silence Black artists; I’m calling him out because I’m genuinely afraid that his false accusation about Jews owning all the property in America will result in people across the nation blaming Jews for the evils of the world and then inciting pogroms (violent mob attacks) against Jewish people.

I don’t know how to explain that I’m not calling out CDM because I don’t care about the liberation of Palestinians; I’m calling them out because I’m worried that if we allow non-Jews to police our beliefs and define for us what our ancient symbols mean, that it could ultimately lead to any displays of public Jewishness being deemed questionable or offensive, which could eventually end in violence against any Jews who are openly Jewish at public events.

I don’t know how to explain to goyim that nearly every Jewish person in the world either grew up with a relative who had to flee their home in the middle of the night because of this type of violence, or they actually experienced this trauma themselves. I don’t know how to tell them that this is an ingrained trauma in almost every existing Jewish family, and that it has been repeated every few generations across the globe since we entered the Diaspora nearly 2,000 years ago.

I don’t know how to explain that when people say almost the exact types of things that were shouted at my relatives by white Russian nationalists as they burned their villages to the ground that it doesn’t matter if you say you’re a progressive or an anti-racist, or you’re also marginalized in some way, because all I hear are the same words people have said to Jews for centuries before physically assaulting them, and I’m worried you’re going to eventually going to assault me, too.

I don’t know how to explain that if goyim read our history they might understand that we Jews have been used as scapegoats for the world’s evils everywhere on the planet from Lithuania to Ethiopia, and that regardless of our standing in society or our level of assimilation, that it’s always ended with our expulsion or murder or both.

I don’t know how to explain that I’m not trying to be petty or “take up space in the movement,” or draw attention away from other causes, but that I’m only asking for you to examine your words and actions now, while I still hope there’s time to pull out the seeds of anti-Semitism that have been planted, because I am literally afraid that if I don’t, you or somebody like you will ultimately be at my doorstep shouting “It’s their fault! Get them! Kill the Jews!”

I don’t know how to explain that I’m afraid you might believe the vitriol behind your words one day enough to kill me.

This is a message primarily for other gentiles:

With regards to understanding those visceral experiences of knowing the danger behind antisemitism – I’d also add that if you think you’re a non-Jewish person, you could be totally wrong.  Two of my closest friends grew up with no inkling of being Jewish.  As adults, one found out that her Welsh-sounding last name was deliberately changed (from Cohen) to hide her Jewish ancestry, and another discovered that half of her mother’s family died in the camps and the other half hid all trace of their Jewishness and moved to America posing as a different ethnicity entirely.  HER OWN MOTHER doesn’t know this.  Both of these things happened during World War II.

And if that doesn’t tell you how legitimately afraid of total destruction Jewish people are, I have no frigging clue what to tell you.  And if it doesn’t make you realize that you really have little to no way of knowing if your family is Jewish, and if therefore you should be afraid, for yourself even if you’re too selfish to care about people who know and/or can’t hide that they’re Jewish, I don’t know what to tell you.

And if you think as long as you don’t know, or aren’t practicing Judaism as a religion, or are passing, or aren’t technically Jewish by some standards because you’re only Jewish on your father’s side, or don’t “look Jewish” (read: look like a particular Ashkenazi stereotype) think again.  None of that stopped Hitler from going after people.  Hell, I’m not Jewish (1% on an ancestry test with zero known familial connection to the culture doesn’t count except to the most extreme antisemites), but people in my family have been targeted for antisemitic hate because they “looked Jewish” to some people.  (I still remember the look on my dad’s face when some kid sneered “hey, rabbi!” at him.  He was a dark-complexioned white guy with black hair, a long slightly bent nose, and a beard.) 

Like, if you think you have no Jewish ancestry, you may be right, but you may be totally wrong – loads of people are from a Jewish family and don’t know it.  If you think not being Jewish will save you if you “look stereotypically Jewish” – all it takes is one of the wrong variety of antisemite to be the victim of a hate crime.  Some antisemites throw words, others throw grenades, and you can’t control which it will be or what they’ll think of you on the street.   If you think not being officially Jewish by some Jewish standards will save you, you don’t understand that antisemites don’t use Jewish rules to figure out who’s Jewish.  So even if you think you and people you care about won’t be affected by deadly levels of antisemitism, then you have no idea how antisemitism works.  Including that you or people you care about may be of Jewish descent because antisemitism forced your family to choose between death and destroying all trace of their culture even to themselves.  

Try to fucking imagine what it would take to make you give up practicing ordinary things from your culture, important things from your culture, all of it, everything that makes you you, just to give your kids a chance at survival.  And maybe you’ll have some idea why even supposedly mild antisemitism has knives hiding behind it, and Jewish people can see it even if you can’t.  And as I said – don’t ever assume it won’t be you targeted if the shit hits the fan, even if you’re 95% certain you’re not Jewish, because I’ve watched two people learn about a heritage their own families had hidden from them, learn about dozens of dead relatives, and if it can happen to them it could happen to you.  And remember – they didn’t choose to lose their culture, that choice was made for them without their knowledge by relatives who didn’t tell them, and that kind of mess has repercussions for generations.  I’ve watched the repercussions.  Meanwhile other Jewish people either couldn’t or didn’t hide and they and their families paid the ultimate price – for not doing something nobody should ever have to do.  And the next person who accidentally finds out their family chose to pass as gentile (and may discover a huge amount of dead relatives whose memories had to be forgotten in order to pass, think about that too, if you judge anyone for refusing to do this to their families) could be you, or anyone you care about.  Jewish people come from everyplace in the world and can look like anyone, so you don’t know.

I’m not trying to say you should only care because it could be you.  That’s ridiculously selfish.  But most people are somewhat selfish or self-centered, so I’m just trying to get you to pay attention if you’re not already.  Don’t assume it’s someone else’s problem.  Nothing should be “someone else’s problem” to begin with – but nobody can even safely assume that it is.  Because antisemites don’t give a shit whether you totally assimilated or not, or whether you just have one Jewish grandparent, or whether there’s a 100% gentile heritage behind a stereotypically Ashkenazi appearance… if they can pin even a shred of Jewishness on you, those things won’t save you, and you can never safely assume they won’t find out.  Passing gives you cover, not a guarantee of safety or even survival.