Race and Culture Wars, Jersey City 2020: Black and Jew and Cultural Liberal

Antisemitism?

2020 kicked off in Jersey City with a horrific antisemitic killing by a black terrorist group less than a mile from where I live and work. They had planned massive killings of the Jews who recently moved into the neighborhood. To consider the killings as instances of "systematic Black racism" or even "systemic antisemitism" would be ridiculous. However, outrageous comments by a black politician did unveil the racial tensions that had been percolating quietly. There is resentment across New Jersey against Orthodox Jews who are accused of:  aggressively buying up real estate in a designated area, paying cash at good rates but later deflating property values; organizing effectively so as to benefit inordinately from government funds like busing to their religious schools; being distant, unfriendly and indifferent to the needs of other groups, including low income blacks. A gentleman knocked on my own door some time ago and offered to buy our home, on the spot. I was flattered and pleased, declined the offer and took his card. But many are offended by their aggressiveness; cities have passed ordinances forbidding such house-to-house solicitation.

I am defensive of the Jews.  The allegations seem accurate but their actions are neither illegal or immoral. Nothing wrong, in itself, with  aggressive purchase of property and competent community organization. Saul Alinsky ( Aside: quintessentially a secular Jew, he rejected his strict Judaic upbringing at the age of 12 and dedicated his first book to Satan who rejected the establishment and created his own kingdom) would have approved of the later, even as he despised their faith. It is not morally obligatory, to my knowledge, to be nice and friendly. Every community of faith and value has to balance concern with their own legacy/survival with an outreach to others.

I do not see "systematic antisemitism" in Jersey City or the USA. I am not worried about Jew-Black warfare. They are living together fine in our area from what I can see. These tensions are part of the chemistry, energy and dissonance of diverse, urban dynamics. The extremes, such as the shooting, are deplorable. But a certain inter-ethnic conflict is normal and irrepressible. Antisemitism is as marginal, impotent and pathetic as white racism.

If real antisemitism is a fringe phenomenon, there is real  anti-Zionism on the political left and anti-Judaism on the cultural left. To clarify the terms:

-Antisemitism is racial hatred of the Jews as a Jews (Nazism, KKK, skinheads). They are despised because of their Jewish blood, not because of their religion, politics or behavior. Similar to white racism, antisemitism in this sense is banned by a broad consensus; punished by strong systems of "anti-antisemitism;" monitored by a militant Jewish constituency; and symptomatic of a pathological fringe. The Catholic Church was never antisemitic, but often anti-Judaic:  people of Jewish blood were welcomed into the Church but required to renounce Judaism as a "God-killer" that had been entirely replaced by Catholicism. Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is antithetical to Christianity, an expression of pagan tribalism that exploded with Hitler. Monsignor John Ostereicher, himself a convert from Judaism and an architect of the Vatican II document on Judaism, accurately diagnosed Nazism as deeper even than racism, as a hatred for God and the law of God that was redirected to His people.

-Anti-Zionism is political opposition to the state of Israel. In the early days after the war, this was held by communities of Orthodox Jews so it is essentially different from antisemitism. It is strong on our political left where there is sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians and criticism of the aggressiveness of the state of Israel. This is balanced by a passionate Zionism of our Jewish community that is shared by evangelicals in their theological conviction that the Jewish state is playing a role in salvation history. Trump leans Zionist because of his family and the support of the Christian right; Obama was more critical of Israel. Catholic thought tends to be moderate and tolerant of a range of political views on Israel, although there is considerable sympathy, post-Holocaust, for Israel.

-Anti-Judaism is rejection of the traditional rabbinic Judaism which developed after the time of Jesus and the destruction of the temple. It prevailed in Catholic theology until Vatican II when it was firmly rejected. Catholic thought since 1965 is extremely philo-Judaic due to renewed interest in the Jewish roots of our faith and a sorrow and shame over the Shaol. This direction is laudatory except that it has tended to be deferential and incapable of criticism of Judaism, much like Zionists can be tolerant of the misdeeds of the state of Israel.

Anti-Judaism?

Underlying resentment against Orthodox Jews in the broader culture seems to be the odium of the Cultural Liberal. The alleged "liberalism" and "diversity" of the Left does not extend to observant Judaism which blatantly violates their absolutes. Their ten commandments:

- Thou shall celebrate sexual freedom and expressiveness, unhindered by fidelity and fecundity;
- Thou shall practice religion, if you must, in a private, apologetic, discrete, deferential manner;
- Thou shall be friendly and warm to everyone;
- Thou shall not practice exclusive forms of piety even if such is dear to your tradition;
- Thou shall abolish all gender distinctions;
- Thou shall eliminate the inconvenient, before and after birth;
- Thou shall abolish all authority and treat everyone like your buddy;
- Thou shall move in fluidity and avoid all final vows of any sort;
- Thou shall have compulsory secular schooling, a  successful career, comfort, security and status.
- Thou shall quarantine from the undesireables, sequestering them into nursing homes, prisons, etc.
- Thou shall seek guidance, comfort and protection from Science, Government and Technology.
- Thou shall confess and celebrate white guilt and black victimization in protests and reparations.

The Observant Jew is the Cultural Liberal's worst nightmare: even worse than the devout Catholic or zealous Evangelical. I admire Orthodox Judaism because it is a "thick" religion: zealous, passionate, counter-cultural, unapologetic . They honor their God as they understand, according to Tradition, and don't really care what everyone else thinks. Three cheers! They have long been the "Benedict Option"...cherishing traditions in defiance of a larger culture that despises them. As a hard-core, red meat Catholic myself, I see them as a friend and ally in the Culture War against  the totalitarianism of cultural liberalism.

Ironically, the cultural liberalism that despises traditions of authority and sexual chastity has largely been led  by brilliant secular Jews: start off with Freud and Marx and then the merging of their thought by Marcuse, Reich, Fromm, and many others. They are disproportionately represented in the media, Hollywood, the pornography empire, psychoanalysis, Marxism, labor and left wing politics. They are outstanding cultural warriors.

They dominate culture the way Kenyans do the marathon and Afro-Americans the NBA. Is it biological? in their DNA? Not impossible; I wouldn't rule it out.  (To even be open to that possibility is to be shunned as racist and evil)  More likely it is the result of centuries of Talmud study, disciplined ethical and religious living; a cultural legacy. Even more deeply, I see Jews as inherently gifted, even when most defiant against the moral order, because of centuries of walking in the friendship of God.

I respect the genius of the Secular Jew. He is a worthy opponent in our Cultural War. But I stand with the Observant Jew in championing of tradition, authority, the godliness of the family/sex/gender, and the sacredness of every human life.

Postscript: This topic is fascinating in its density, complexity, and dynamism and happily avoids the master-slave, white-on-black paradigm that has become tiresome, paranoid, emasculating, inflammatory, scapegoating, trite, self-congratulatory, rash-judging, hysterical, delusional, indignant, obsessive, sterile, polarizing and SO annoying.