A placard featuring two Stars of David, and saying 'Our love is stronger than your hate'. Photo: By Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash.
Challenging antisemitism: Oliver Robertson on a new guide for Quakers
‘Nobody should have to earn the right not to be hated, attacked or killed.’
Are Quakers antisemitic? That’s been a claim in articles and letters in the Friend, most recently in October last year. What’s your answer?
Now consider: are Quakers racist? With the exploration that’s been done as part of trying to be an actively anti-racist faith community, how would you answer that?
If your two answers are different, then perhaps there is a problem. Antisemitism is a form of racism, as well as a form of religious hatred. Being Jewish is not exclusively about beliefs (there are secular Jews who are still on the receiving end of antisemitism) and people targeted for their heritage and how they look rather than what they say or do.
So, Quakers in Britain staff have been producing a guide for Quakers on challenging antisemitism. Copies have been sent to each Local Meeting, with others available to order and a digital version on the Quakers in Britain website.
The guide gives a brief overview of the history of antisemitism, which is quite different in different parts of the world. It highlights the main antisemitic stereotypes, tropes and generalisations that exist, like the association of Jews with wealth and power (and also with being an underclass – nobody said hate has to be logically coherent).
It describes some of the ways that antisemitism exists in Britain today and ways you can challenge it – as well as what to do if you are accused of antisemitism. The guide has lots of images, carefully chosen to illuminate, not just illustrate. There’s information at the back of the guide about the point and provenance of the images used.
The guide aims to be short and accessible, covering issues briefly, with interested readers able to look elsewhere for more detail. While the guide draws out many things that are (or, depending on context, could be) antisemitic, it doesn’t list things that are okay to do or say.
This is because context matters, the reaction of the person on the receiving end matters, and as a mainly non-Jewish faith, Quakers don’t get to have the definitive say about antisemitism – just as we don’t get (as a mainly non-black faith – at least in Britain) to have the authoritative voice on anti-black racism.
Writing this guide involved a lot of speaking with people who have direct experience of antisemitism – because they are (or have been mistaken as) Jewish, or because their work is about challenging antisemitism. Some are Quakers, some are not. Different people had very different, occasionally directly opposed, views. In such cases, the guide doesn’t come down on one side or the other. Instead, it names the tensions so that readers are aware of the minefields they could be walking into.
The most striking example of this is around definitions of antisemitism. Two of the most widely known are the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, and the later Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Different reviewers felt that one or the other was problematic or suspect. As the guide explains: ‘Some have explained that the Jerusalem Declaration is used mainly by politically left-wing groups and that many Jews will immediately suspect a document which promotes it. Some have argued that the IHRA is used to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel and is used as a definitive description in a way that was never intended.’
While the guide is hopefully of use to all Quakers, it may be especially helpful in three situations:
- for those Friends who engage with Jews, for example in the context of local interfaith groups
- in dealing with controversial Meeting house lettings
- in navigating expressions of support for Palestine.
The latter two are probably where Quakers in Britain staff have the most contact with Friends and Meetings over antisemitism. Balancing support for Palestine with avoiding antisemitism is probably the most sensitive issue, with the risk that revulsion at what the government of Israel is doing spills over into a more generalised dislike of Israelis (not all of whom are Jewish, not all of whom support the government’s actions) or Jews (most of whom are not Israeli).
‘Quakers don’t get to have the definitive say about antisemitism.’
We want to ensure that if we support one group, we don’t do so in a way that demeans or dehumanises another group. If we dehumanise some, it is easier to dehumanise others.
And we have seen from the recent high-profile attack in Heaton Park, Manchester, that antisemitism in our country (as well as in other countries, such as on Bondi Beach in Sydney) can have deadly consequences. Nobody should have to earn the right not to be hated, attacked or killed.
One question I was asked regarding this was, ‘Why just talk about antisemitism? Shouldn’t we be talking also about Islamophobia, or even against hatred in general?’ To which my answer is, while all hatred has some similarities, there are also differences. Anti-Jewish hatred manifests differently from anti-Muslim hatred and it’s important to be aware of the specifics and context of that.
Quakers in Britain staff have had far more requests for help or advice regarding antisemitism than Islamophobia, so it is a bigger presenting problem. It’s problematic to imply that you can only talk about one group if you’re also talking about another different group. And it risks creating a false idea that Jews and Muslims are in permanent opposition to each other and conflates this with Israel/Palestine.
It can be so easy for discussions around antisemitism to focus on Israel/Palestine. But in fact, most of us will have much more contact with, and much more influence over, Britain and Jews in Britain. That should be our focus. Some Jewish congregations meet in Quaker Meeting houses, providing more opportunities for connection.
The guide isn’t the last word in antisemitism or something to ‘prove’ our concern over this issue. Our actions show what we truly care about. I hope this guide helps more Friends reflect and engage thoughtfully, recognising where we misstep and working to make the future better and more inclusive of everyone.
Oliver is head of witness and worship for BYM. See http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/challenging-antisemitism
