Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

Anti-Semitism has been front-and-center in the news recently.  The former president dining at his home with white supremacist/Holocaust denier/neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and Kanye/Ye, who can’t seem to get a sentence out unless he is going off on us, has put anti-Semitism on the front burner in a way that I cannot ever remember experiencing in my lifetime.

Amidst much appropriate worry and fear within our community, there are some positives to carry with us. Finally, the growth, prominence and threat posed by white supremacists and white-supremacist movements are getting coverage in the press. (As Jews, we have known of the threat for way too long.)

I was in Baltimore last week (which, for some reason, makes me think of an old George Carlin routine). I was presenting at a conference on racial injustice as part of Gamaliel’s National Religious Leadership Caucus. MORE2 (the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity) is an affiliate of Gamaliel.

The pertinent takeaway from the conference is that the organization has made attacking white Christian supremacy a priority issue for the coming year. The Christian clergy with whom I work at Gamaliel are exploring how to take back their own Christianity and Christian narrative. It is a Christianity that does not demonize Jews, much less target Jews for violence. It is a Christianity that does not promote hate toward marginalized groups, be they African-Americans, Latinx, Muslim, Queer or, yes, Jewish.

While this effort is in its early stages, I am looking forward to sharing more information as the work progresses. It is a way to be proactive in fighting white-supremacist anti-Semitism, rather than simply being victimized by it.