♪♪ Is anti-Semitism on the rise?

Approximately 60% of Jews in the U.S. have experienced anti-Semitic acts.

Rabbi Mona Alfi and activist April Powers and Kiyomi Kowalski of Project Shema join us to discuss the facts and what we can do about it.

Rabbi Alfi, what exactly is anti-Semitism?

It's- Anti-Semitism is prejudice against Jews or the Jewish people.

Either- It's either expressed towards an individual Jew or towards the whole community.

It is like any other prejudice.

It is often irrational and based on stereotypes and people's fears rather than anything that is actually tangible or correct.

Hmm.

April, when people approach this subject, share with us how is anti-Semitism misunderstood by non-Jews?

Well, I think anti-Semitism is misunderstood by non-Jews because they don't know who Jews are.

We're considered a white religious community, um, and that is not how we define ourselves.

We define ourselves as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, which happened well- thousands of years before we were a religion.

Many of us follow Judaism as our common religion, but also a lot of us are not white.

So, half of what would be Israel would not be considered white here.

There are a lot of- [Scott] Hold it.

Slow- Hold on.

Slow down for a sec.

[April chuckles] Not- Not white?

The... the- Not white.

I would say that a really common perspective is overwhelmingly- and Kiyomi, you're probably laughing at this- uh, are- Jews are considered to be white.

Tell us more about that.

I have so much to say about that, um, especially because the way we define ourselves is not based, and the way they define themselves in Israel is not based on the skin color.

We are Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Mizrahi, and we have a lot of other- [Rabbi Alfi] Or African.

[April] Or Igbo or Ethiopian, excuse me.

[Rabbi Alfi] Right.

[April] Or Igbo or Ethiopian Jews, um, so we have a whole diaspora that doesn't align with the white supremacy model, um, here in the U.S. And- So, and even in the US, 20% of us would be considered multi-ethnic or Jews of color.

Kiyomi and I are Black Jews, um, and Kiyomi is also a Latina Jew.

All of my nieces and nephews are “Jewtinos, ” or Latin Jews.

And so, um- [Rabbi Alfi] And I'm half Iranian and Iraqi.

[Kiyomi] Yeah.

Jewishness looks very different, depending on, um, you know, what your lineage is and, um, we are not relegated to one race.

And... and in actuality, the racial constructs that we, uh, define in the U.S. are inapplicable to... to this group of people.

So, I'm really confused now because, uh, the... the way that, essentially, I was socialized was that Jews, uh, fundamentally were related to a religion and, by and large, that at least the depictions in popular culture of Jews tend to be people who would register as Caucasian.

Give us the facts on... on who- what is it to be a Jew today?

[Rabbi Alfi] So, there's a couple of things for- Oh, do you want to go, April?

[April] No, go ahead.

Go ahead.

So, there's a couple of things to remember.

In the United States, because there was a massive emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century, um, Jews who were of Ashkenazi heritage, meaning that their families had been living in Europe for quite some time.

The image of Jews in the media tends to be that of Ashkenazi- white Ashkenazi Jews.

That doesn't necessarily reflect- or not “necessarily.

” It does not reflect the reality of Jews in the United States, as well as Jews worldwide.

It gives a very narrow perception of who we are.

Another thing to remember, um, when you're- And I think April brought it up.

The religion is an aspect of who we are.

It is not all of who we are.

If people take a DNA test, it's not going to say that you're Muslim or Christian or Bahai.

It's going to tell you what your ethnicity is.

Even if you're an Ashkenazi Jew- a Jew coming- who has, um, background from Europe- it will say that you're an Ashkenazi Jew.

It's not- and that tells you that it's an ethnicity and not just a religion.

And even by self-definition, we define ourselves as coming from a family or a tribe that expanded and went all over the world.

So, the other reality with Jews is because we have lived all over the world, we often reflect physically the host cultures that we're living in.

We interact with the larger society.

And so, if you go to Iran or Iraq, Jews are going to look the same as the Muslim, um, Iranian and Iraqis.

If you go anyplace in the world, we're going to reflect the larger culture.

And I think it's really important to say that the reason we reflect the larger culture and the reason we're in diaspora is because of violence and colonization.

We were colonized, and... and violence kicks us out and moves us to the four corners of the world.

And then, we end up looking like the societies in which we immerse ourselves, whether they're Asian or African, um, European or in the U.S. as well.

Well, Kiyomi, uh, uh, we're talking about sort of the di... the diaspora right now and how Jews have been dispersed all over the world.

Give us just sort of a... a brief history as to, um, how that took place and... and... and the... the vast dispersion that took place, with regards to the population.

Yeah, I think...

I think it's really important in the work that we do, um, specifically when we are engaging with people, uh, about who Jews are- because our... our primary issue is that people don't know who we are- um, is explaining, uh, the various expulsion events that occurred and... and put us in diaspora.

Um, we are a lot of things.

We are a... a people, a culture, an ethnicity.

Um, April does a great job of explaining the, uh, history and the lineage of... of Jews and... and how we have become who we are today.

[April] Which is- [Scott] Uh- Oh, go ahead.

[April] Basically, um, acts of violence starting... starting from, you know, if we go back- We can go back millennia before this, but it starts at 70 C.E.

when we were violently driven out of what would- we would call the biblical land of Israel, from... from Israel.

Right?

We were violently removed and we went all over, and we were always the mistrusted outsider.

And within, you know, every hundred years, or even less, there have been violent pogroms- it's a word we made up in Yiddish to explain this violence against us- um, because we came from, as I mentioned, the biblical land of Israel, were kicked out.

Some went to India, some went to Africa, some went to Europe.

But wherever we went, um, as the mistrusted outsider, there was violence and stereotypes and, um, a lot of blame for all the ills of those societies that we came into, because that was not our original homeland.

[Scott] Rabbi Alfi- [Kiyomi] I think it's important to- Oh, go ahead.

[Scott] Actually, Rabbi Alfi, I...

I wanted to ask you, though, when... when April talks about how every hundred years there have been the... these, uh, catastrophes that have taken place, there are many- particularly in this country- who say, “Well, that's never going to happen again.

” How... how would you respond to someone who feels like the world has moved past, uh, that... tragedy?

[Rabbi Alfi] I would say those people probably aren't Jewish who are saying that.

Um, I...

I don't know any Jews who think that won't happen again.

Um, I think the question is always, how will it happen next time?

We... we know it won't look like what it looked like last time, but it's going to happen.

And I...

I remember, um, before Trump was elected, talking with friends and saying, “It almost feels like we've had it too good for too long in the United States, ” that, “I dont know, another... another time frame that Jews have had it for so good in one place.

” And it made me... it made me really nervous and it made me a little scared because every generation of my family has had to move to someplace else.

And we expect it to happen.

[April] My family is actively looking to move.

[Kiyomi] Yeah.

I- Well, I think it- Something that's important, too, is that I...

I think people, if... if they know about the Holocaust- because we have a problem telling history in this country- but if they know about the Holocaust, they think of the Holocaust as the only, um, occurrence of, uh, uh, of, uh, Jewish genocide and... and, uh, expulsion.

However, um, that's just the worst example and most recent example.

We have millenia of, um, expulsion events that, uh, you know, explain, uh, how we have been marginalized, um, around the world.

There is a- Uh, uh, I have to put a couple of things on the table.

There is also, at least among some in this country, a belief that that sort of activity could not happen again because of the fact that, um, as years have progressed, that Jews have, one, integrated into the broader society, uh, in important ways.

And secondly, that the community in most parts of the world is fairly empowered to essentially stand up for the rights of... of the Jewish community.

Um, the... the sound of pessimism, particularly in terms of what you said, uh, Rabbi Alfi, uh, surprises me.

And could you speak a little bit more on that, about that pessimism and the belief that something will happen again?

So, as I said, we expect it to be different each time.

And I think that part of what's different this time than in the past is, whether we're talking about the pogroms or the Holocaust or the Inquisition, it was coming from the top-down in terms of leading the attacks against the Jews.

It was the government, it was the power institutions that were coming out against us.

And what we've been seeing with the rise of white nationalism and white Christian nationalism, that its actually more of a grassroots effort that's going on in the United States, that when we see the rise of the militia movement in the U.S., when we see the white- rise of white supremacy, its coming from the ground up.

Our synagogue was firebombed in 1998, it's- as you know, Scott, um, only too well- along with two other synagogues in our country.

Those were, um, so-called “lone wolves ” who came and burned our synagogues down, murdered a gay couple, attacked a Planned Parenthood, all within two weeks in the Sacramento area.

Um, and we see a lot of attacks like that.

We saw it, um, in Oklahoma, on the federal building in Oklahoma.

We see in the U.S. a lot of so-called “lone wolves ” who are really connected through the internet and through other white supremacist groups, and I think that's what's different about what's happening now in the United States- that sense of, yes, we may have equal rights, we may be full citizens, but we don't know what that white guy who's coming in and sitting in the back of the synagogue with a baseball cap and a backpack on, why is he here?

What is he- What's his intention?

[Scott] Hmm.

[April] And I think whats interesting about what you said- [Kiyomi] Yeah.

Um, is that we- Yeah, we have a lot to say.

[April] So much.

[Kiyomi] We experience the anti-Semitism on the right, which is the white nationalist movements and the, um, and the, you know, the Nazi armbands., um, but we want to also talk about anti-Semitism at is- as it exists on all, um, political, uh, spectrum.

On the left, we are seeing, um, us excluded from social justice and social activist spaces that our Torah values actually call us to, uh, activate.

Um, and our understanding of how, um, these expulsion events occur, um, and they most- and when Jews are in the most danger is when they are blamed by two sides of the, uh, the coin.

You've got the right side blaming us, uh, for whatever is going on in... in the world, and you've got the left side excluding us.

And when we are isolated, um, and alone- And when I say “right ” and “left, ” I mean political, um, spectrum.

When we are isolated and alone, that is when we are in the most danger, um, as Jews.

[Scott] I'd actually like to...

I'd actually like to go after that for a second.

You know, people as... as from as broad a spectrum on the left as Bernie Sanders, uh, um, AOC, um, uh, Rashida Tlaib, um, Ilhan Omar, all of these folks- and... and... and I'll stop there, but there are more who, historically, people on the left, on the progressive left have been in allyship with the Jewish community, but there seems to be a stridency coming up.

Can you share with us anything, uh, about what's behind that or what drives that, Kiyomi?

Yeah.

So, I'll say the work that we do at Project Shema is to help Jews who work in coalition, um, in coalition spaces, on social justice issues with folks on the left, um, and in the progressive left, um, speak more confidently and competently about who we are, um, to dispel, um, some of the... the features that activate anti-Semitism in those spaces.

Um, the people in these spaces, they believe that they are protecting a, uh, marginalized group.

Um, typically, how it... how it occurs is, um, around the issues of Palestine and Israel.

Um, this is how it comes up quite a bit.

So, I...

I, for instance, am a progressive and I'll be working in coalition spaces and, uh, working on racial justice issues or, um, abortion rights and the issue of my Jewish identity will come up as something that will exclude me from that space, um, and I- [Scott] Well, Kiyomi, uh, I have to interrupt- Kiyomi, I got to interrupt you for a second, because you talk about you being a progressive.

One of the interesting things thats- at the same time that's going on is that while you talk about people on the right, uh, engaging in, uh, their own version of anti-Semitism, at the same time, there are many who identify as being “right ” who are extremely pro-govern- the government of... of Israel.

How do you reconcile that?

[Kiyomi] Yeah, it's a really- [Rabbi Alfi] I want to jump in ‘cause thats a really interesting issue.

[Kiyomi] Go ahead, Rabbi Mona.

Yes, it is.

Thank you.

Go for it.

[Rabbi Alfi] They are not pro-Israel.

They are using Israel and Jews as part of their apocalyptic vision of the future, that this ties in again to white Christian nat... nationalism.

Many of them have Christian ideologies that believe that the rapture will start when there- World War Three starts out in the Middle East, that Jesus will return when either all the Jews convert or when all the Jews move back to Israel.

We're really part of somebody else's apocalyptic fever vision.

And if you look at what are they pro, they're not pro-Israel.

They're anti-Palestinian, they're anti-Muslim.

That- Often, there's a very racist ideology coming out, um, from their support of Israel.

They're not actually interested in a safe and support- a safe and secure Israel that is at peace with its Arab neighbors, but rather, they are more invested in an Israel that is combative with the Palestinians and, um, in an outright war with Iran.

That's a- That is interesting, but it actually opens another door.

And April, I...

I...

I just want to go to what is considered to be a third rail, uh, in... in some conversations in this country.

Is being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic the same thing?

[April] It dep- It- I love this question.

Well, it depends.

And I want to say one other thing.

Most Americans believe Israel has the right to exist, and it's not necessarily an apop- apocalyptic fervor.

It's just, you know, they believe- [Rabbi Alfi] No, I was talking about the right-wing politicians [April] Right.

[Rabbi Alfi] ...not Americans in general.

[April] Yeah, yeah.

Right.

I just- I dont want to leave that open.

[Rabbi Alfi] Right.

[April] But, um, it... it depends.

The monomaniacal focus of one nation state over all other nation state might be anti-Semitic if that's the only one.

And if you are saying it's a white supremacist colonial project, its- and it should be dismantled, does that mean the U.S. should be dismantled?

Does it mean that Australia and New Zealand should be dismantled?

I mean, we have a lot of- There's a lot of different criticisms of Israel.

I...

I feel comfortable critiquing Israel and the government, you know, but... but if you're only looking at one state... one state, and it's the only Jewish state in the world- Um, for example, the U.N. has more, um, you know, more, uh, resolutions against Israel than all the other countries combined, and that includes Russia that only has six and they've attacked a whole other country.

[Scott] Let me complicate this.. [April] Yes, go ahead.

[Scott] ...a little bit more.

Kiyomi, what does the... what does the term ‘Zionist mean and how does it relate to this discussion on anti-Semitism and Israel?

Zionist, like any other term these days, including sexuality, exists on such a wide strata.

For me, my Zionism looks like, um, the Jewish people have a right to, uh, some portion of their homeland.

And, uh, that's where my Zionism, uh, begins and ends.

Um, there are some folks who believe that, um, Zionism means a greater Israel.

So, expanding beyond, um, the, uh, borders that are currently defined.

Um, so, I want to say, like, when people say “Zionist, ” or- uh, and specifically when they say, “I am anti-Zionist, ” I want to understand what they're saying here, because often it's not saying, uh, that Israel doesn't have a right to exist.

Most of the time, a lot of people, um, uh, take on that... that rhetoric with, uh, little to no knowledge of what it actually means.

And usually, they're saying, “I'm anti-Zionist because I want, uh, the Israeli government to treat, uh, Palestinians better.

” And me too.

So, I...

I...

I...

I want to get to Project Shema.

April, tell us what exactly Project Shema is and what it is you're trying to achieve.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Project Shema is a non-profit organization, um, that was formed for Jews in progressive spaces who have been- We're being cleaved, we're being asked to leave in record numbers.

And we realize that Jews also don't understand anti-Semitism, modern anti-Semitism in its modern forms.

So, we were founded- [Scott] Jews dont understand anti-Semitism?

[April] Right.

We are- We- The- It evolves, and so we're used to- Were- We are prepared for a Holocaust situation and many other things, but this modern form of anti-Semitism, substituting ‘Zionist for ‘Jew and some of the other things that we're seeing, we were not ready for.

Our parents and our grandparents didn't prep us for this.

So, we are here to equip Jews and allies and others with understanding who Jews are, A, not just a white religious group, so that you can recognize anti-Semitism in all of its forms, in all of its modern iterations.

We compare it to a virus that evolves and can really take up- take down an entire community and impacts all communities.

And then, you can recognize it when you see it and be an up-stander and, um, understand how to interrupt it when you see it, because it's kind of the canary in the coal mine.

When- Students of history know that you can always get the Jews first.

Were the smallest minority.

Were .02% of the population, 2% of the U.S., and the vast majority of religious hate crimes, over 50%, and, um, even more.

In the UK.

But we don't understand that... that white supremacy goes for anti-Semitism first.

That's the foundation, and then they go for everyone else.

[Scott] Okay, so, I...

I...

I want to- Kiyomi, I want to go at this from this perspective, the thing that is unique about Project Shema is you're advocating to include a study of, uh, anti-Semitism and the issue of the.

Jew, not just in America, but worldwide.

In DEI and social justice efforts that, uh, range from civically, but in particular in corporations, typically, the Jewish experience is not part of the DEI conversation.

Give us the business case and the moral case for making sure that the story of the Jewish experience is included in DEI efforts ongoing today.

Yeah.

So, let me do- Thank you, um, Scott.

So, let me do two things.

I'm going to bifurcate, uh, uh, several issues here.

There is the, um- We... we, at Project Shema, do, uh, campus work.

So, um, we are supporting Jewish students in engaging in these spaces more productively and thoughtfully and... and taking into account who they are trying to, um, speak to.

If you're talking to people who are coming [indescernible] at the world from a progressive lens, there are things that activate that progressive lens and we want to speak to them in that... in that way.

So, we- we're helping students on campus.

We are also helping, um, people in civic spaces, uh, specifically Jews in civic spaces.

And then, beyond that, we are going into, uh, corporate DEI.

Um, and April is our, um, head of DEI and what we are trying to say is you cannot deal with anti-Black racism and all the other “isms ” and not deal with anti-Semitism as well, as a part of a robust DEI strategy.

And April is actually the best speaker on that piece.

[April] Right.

And- [Scott] April, what say you?

[April] Yeah, I say- I have been- [Scott] And we are com... we are coming close to the end of our show.

So, I... Id ask you... [April] No problem.

[Scott] ...go directly at the DEI issue in corporations.

[April] As the former global... global head of DEI for, uh, multiple companies, I...

I...

I didn't include anti-Semitism well into my own practice and I didn't realize how important- Um, it doesn't have to be a main thing.

It just has to be folded in with the other ethnic groups- not the religious groups- that if you don't have anti-Semitism folded in, then you will not understand the basis of white supremacy here in this country.

And if you care about combating white supremacy and white nationalism and anti-Black racism and all the other “isms, ” you really have to have anti-Semitism folded and baked into your DEI program.

[Scott] And... and Rabbi Alfi, I'd like you to have the last word on this.

If we want to be an allyship and we want to combat anti-Semitism, what is your advice to the rest of us?

You know, I love the name of the... of the organization Project Shema.

Shema means “listen, ” it means pay attention, be mindful.

And that is really- That's how we eradicate racism and prejudice.

It's by paying attention.

It's about being mindful and seeing the human being that stands in front of us instead of simply erasing them and dismissing them out of hand, because we have attached some label to them.

And I think that is what we don't do enough of in our country is we don't pay attention, we don't listen, and we're not mindful of other people's pain and other people's stories.

Thank you so much.

And thanks to all three of you for your ongoing work.

[April] Thank you.

[Scott] We will leave it there.

[Kiyomi] Thank you.

[Scott chuckles] And that's our show.

Thanks to our guests and thanks to you for watching Studio Sacramento.

I'm Scott Syphax.

See you next time right here on KVIE.

♪♪ All episodes of Studio Sacramento, along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video.