By Ira Bedzow
Let me be clear, I do not think that anti-Semitism is cool. It is, however, more socially accepted and historically long lasting than any other type of hatred. Because of this, it can also shed some light on other “popular” hatreds that are trending today as well as how hatred in general has become a political and social tool.
It seems like we do this dance every few months, if not every few weeks. Someone “famous” will make an anti-Semitic comment and gain lots of media attention. I am not saying that the person does it for the media attention, but the two go together. The person will then apologize, declaring deep regret and a desire to learn from his or her Jewish brethren and sistren. A Jewish leader will then publicly “turn the other cheek” and help this poor soul see the light.
Everybody seems to win. The prodigal son comes back to the tolerant and multi-cultural fold. The Jewish community gets a chance to demonstrate grace and understanding—as well as the ability show how Jews could be tolerated if you only understood them. Society gets to mark itself a little higher on the scale of inclusion, since it called out a problem and then let it fix itself. But this is not a win-win-win. This is a recipe for reinforcing anti-Semitism and hatred in general. It turns social prejudice and reconciliation into a game, played by those who seek personal gain and status. It does not help society move forward, but rather it makes us keep spinning our wheels.
Maybe anti-Semitism is more socially acceptable than other forms of bigotry and hatred because people think that it is cool (i.e. socially accepted)—like how it is cool to poke fun at oneself or people who are propped up as jesters. Television has certainly caricatured Jewish characters enough to give people ample material to laugh at, though I suspect (or hope) the primary intention is to “laugh with” and not at Jews. It could be that anti-Semitism has been trending for so long that it has become mainstream. It is so embedded in our culture that to drop anti-Semitic language or terms from our everyday expressions would cause us to lose our everyday language. It is possible that anti-Semitism is socially acceptable—of course, except when calling it out is more opportunistic—because we now define racism and all other forms of systemic hatred to be about prejudice plus power. In this view, Jews are close enough to be considered like white people, or Christians or some other powerful group that hating them is okay. It demonstrates solidarity to a cause rather than dehumanization of a neighbor.
I do believe in allowing for the opportunity of repentance. I also believe in its efficacy. Past mistakes should not be the sole reason to cancel the possibility for public rectification and improvement. Shutting down voices will result in creating a social pressure cooker, where people’s inner resentment or fear of speaking will turn to bitterness and antipathy. This does not mean that mistakes should be glorified. On the contrary, they should be recognized for what they are so that we can all learn from them. When we hear what people think, we are better prepared to change their minds. This sounds all too familiar when it comes to other forms of prejudice.
To make a medical analogy, if repentance is a curative, an even better strategy would be preventative medicine. Rather than react to social intolerance, we should be facilitating ways to avoid it in the first place. I do not mean that we should solely look to the “system” or “policies and interventions” to use a term from population health. A more apt analogy comes from behavioral health. We should find ways to facilitate people making better choices when confronted with harmful and helpful options.
A great example of this type of strategy would be to learn from the decline in cigarette smoking. Smoking did not decline significantly because of higher taxes, more stringent policies or even warnings on cigarette packs by the Surgeon General. Smoking became uncool. When it became uncool, no one wanted to be the one who kept doing it. The correlation between coolness factor and behavior can also be seen in the rise of vaping. Kids won’t be caught dead with a cigarette in their mouth but vaping is all the rage.
So let’s stop making anti-Semitism cool—even in the sense of “bad boy” cool. Let’s call it for what it is—ignorance and hatred. And like a dangling cigarette, let’s not give reinforcing attention to stupidity. It doesn’t move anything forward.
Ira Bedzow, Ph.D., is associate professor of medicine and UNESCO Chair of Bioethics at New York Medical College (NYMC). He is also Senior Scholar of the Aspen Center for Social Values, a contributor at the MirYam Institute, and a regular contributor in Forbes for their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion section. Read full bio here.