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No, Jews Aren't White

(Commentary) Liel Leibovitz - By any and all metrics at our disposal - archeology, history, theology, even DNA tests - Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel. Still, to the zealots who shout that Jews are white, all that matters is that for the last few decades, American Jews have benefited from the rewards that come with being among our society's most educated and best compensated few. Yet the argument of privilege ignores the unique nature of anti-Jewish bigotry, a highly resistant viral strain that feeds precisely on the difficult truth that Jews don't really fit comfortably into any of the common categories. Jews are just Jews, a difficult realization that has driven haters to distraction throughout the generations. It's why we alone have been singled out for a steady stream of suspicion and persecution throughout history, even here in America. In 2019, nearly 2/3 of all religious-based hate crimes in America targeted Jews. Some Jews may have more melanin in their skin or fewer dollars in their bank accounts, some may dress in black and some drape themselves in the colors of the rainbow, but all belong to an extended family that stayed a family because it insisted on the display of collective behaviors. The creative genius of Jew-hatred has always been its ability to imagine the Jew as the embodiment of whatever it is that polite society finds repulsive. The Jew takes the shape of whatever the Jew-hater fears and loathes most. And if you decide that there's such a thing as "whites" and that they are uniquely responsible for all evils perpetrated on the innocent and downtrodden, well, the Jews must be not only of them but nestled comfortably at the top of the white-supremacist pyramid.
2021-07-29 00:00:00
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