to·ken·ism
the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality
Tokenism is racism.
THERE ARE ALWAYS FRINGE JEWS
There are nearly 16 million Jews in the world. Believe it or not, we are not a monolith. We don’t all agree with each other. In fact, Jews are notorious for disagreeing with each other…a lot. But there are certain things that we, for the most part, collectively agree on. Zionism is one of these things. Polls consistently show that between 80-97% of American Jews feel a connection to Israel.
Jews, like anyone else, can hold views that are harmful to the Jewish community as a whole. For example, consider this: in the earliest days of Hitler’s rule, there was a small group of Jews that supported Hitler. In 1921, a Jewish man named Max Naumann founded a group known as the “Association of German National Jews.” In 1933, a member of the group, Hans Priwin, issued a statement alleging that reports of the Nazis’ mistreatment of Jews were “stupid lies.” In 1934, the Association issued a statement of support for Hitler.
The Association of German National Jews was especially hostile to the less assimilated Jews from Eastern Europe, who they considered backwards and “racially and spiritually inferior.” They were also hostile to Zionists, as they believed that they were a threat to Jewish integration into wider society.
The main goal of the Association of German National Jews was the self-eradication of Jewish identity.
After Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor in 1933, Jews worldwide protested, boycotting German goods. Instead of supporting the protest, the Association came out against the boycott and issued a manifesto that the Jews in Germany were being “fairly treated.”
In 1935, the Nazis declared the Association of German National Jews illegal and dissolved it. Naumann was arrested by the Gestapo the same day.
Being Jewish does not preclude you from harming your own community.
Case in point…
TOKENISM KILLS JEWS
“Token Jews” have a history of causing serious harm to the rest of the Jewish community.
In 1918, the Soviet Communist Party established a “Jewish branch,” with the consent of Vladimir Lenin. It was named “Yevsetskiya,” meaning “Jewish Sections of the Communist Party.” The mission of the Yevsetskiya was, quite literally, the “destruction of traditional Jewish life, the Zionist movement, and Hebrew culture.”
From the outset, the Yevsetskiya began harassing Zionist Jews. Initially, the Yevsetskiya legally abolished the “kehillas,” the traditional Jewish community organizations. Sometimes, they even burned their offices down. They shut down everything from Jewish political groups to theaters to sports clubs. They raided all Ukrainian “Zionist” offices and arrested every single one of their leaders.
Until their dissolution in 1929, they imprisoned, tortured, and murdered thousands of Jews.
According to historian of Soviet history Richard Pipes, “In time, every Jewish cultural and social organization came under assault.”
The Soviet government dissolved the Yevsetskiya in 1929, claiming that it was no longer needed. During Stalin’s Great Purge in the 1930s, virtually all its members were arrested and executed. Some were shot by bullet, some were tortured, and others were sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. A former member even died when the prison he was in refused to supply him with insulin.
THE SO-CALLED JEWISH SECTIONS OF THE ENCAMPMENTS HAVE COMPLETELY DISRESPECTED, APPROPRIATED, AND MADE A MOCKERY OF JEWISH TRADITION
Judaism is a closed ethnoreligion. While it espouses universal values, it is not for everyone. It’s also not for everything. Communities and communal practices have boundaries, and at some point, things are so far outside the boundary of what is or isn’t Judaism that it just isn’t Judaism anymore.
At the University of Southern California, for example, Jewish Voice for Peace held a “Seder,” which not only made a complete mockery of actual Seders, which Jews have held sacred for 3000 years, but also used backwards Hebrew inscriptions. Just about every Jewish person who remotely grew up in a Jewish community knows from a very young age that Hebrew is written right to left, even if they don’t speak Hebrew themselves. It seems strange and offensive that a group of people that are so far removed from the Jewish community that they couldn’t spot the backwards Hebrew would purport to speak for Jews.
In another incident, at a University of Michigan Jewish Voice for Peace pro-Palestine “encampment” Seder, they seem to have served challah. Jews do not eat leavened grains during Passover, and anyone with even a minimal Jewish education knows this. Of course, not all Jews are equally as observant, but for a Jewish organization to serve leavened grains at a Seder is inherently exclusionary to observant Jews, which speaks a lot to who is even attending these encampments in the first place.
These are just a couple of examples. I cannot imagine disrespecting, making a mockery of, and misappropriating another group’s sacred traditions like this…and calling it social justice.
SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
I want to make this abundantly clear: the problem is not that these Jews at the encampments support Palestinians or care about the people of Gaza. The problem is that in their so-called “activism,” they are endangering their fellow Jews.
I don’t know how much more evidence we can show that these protests are filled with violence, incitement, harassment, and death threats against Jewish students who don’t fall in line. If your protest is only safe for Jews who say exactly what you want them to say, then your protest is not safe for Jews. Antisemitism is not a valid punishment for bad behavior or for political views you dislike. Antisemitism is a hateful, ancient bigotry that ultimately endangers all Jews…whether you like them or not.
These Jewish students at the encampments keep going to the media to rebuke accusations of antisemitism and gaslight other Jewish students about their experiences. Much like the Yevsetskiya or the Association of German National Jews, they use their Jewish identity as a cover for antisemitism. But we see through it, and it’s infuriating that you don’t see it too.
Or maybe you do see it, but you don’t care, because instead of doing the hard but important work of reckoning with your antisemitic bias, you would rather absolve yourself of having caused harm.
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