Antisemitism: What has my party come to?

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Here is a sentence I never thought I’d be writing:

Today, Democrats in Minnesota can’t even agree on a resolution to condemn antisemitism.

For the first time, the question of whether the DFL Party should take a stand against antisemitism came up at dozens of precinct caucuses on Feb. 27.

In the vast majority of cases, the “yes” votes won the day, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), which drafted the resolution.

But in some parts of Minneapolis, the answer was: “No.”

As a lifelong Democrat, at a time when antisemitic incidents are surging, I have to ask: What have we come to when some in my own party refuse to condemn anti-Jewish bigotry?

In three DFL precincts, the JCRC resolution was voted down.

The most vocal opponents, according to witnesses, focused their ire on language about Israel. The resolution condemns “all forms of antisemitism, including the targeting of Jews as individuals, as a people, or denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist.”

That last part, they couldn’t abide. So they voted “no.”

In one case, they approved a hastily written substitute called “Standing against antisemitism and Islamophobia and Discrimination.”

No comment on Israel’s right to exist.

The message, I guess, is that they would be perfectly happy to see the only Jewish state in the world wiped off the map — and with it, nearly half of the Jewish population on Earth.

Don’t take it personally.

To be clear, I’m not equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Everybody has the right to criticize Israel and anything it does.

I’m talking about old-fashioned contempt for the Jewish people — which is spreading, ironically, in the party of diversity and inclusion.

There’s no question that the war in the Middle East — from the Oct. 7 bloodbath in Israel to the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza — has traumatized millions and fueled outrage around the world.

Can we all agree that the cause of peace is not helped when pro-Palestinian protesters spit on Jewish students and call them “dirty Jews,” as happened Feb. 28 at the University of California, Berkeley (tinyurl.com/sfc-berkeley)?

This is not just a casualty of war; it has been building for years among otherwise well-meaning people on the progressive left. But it has escalated since Oct. 7.

“Impassioned support for the Palestinian cause metastasized into the hatred of Jews,” writes journalist Franklin Foer in a powerful essay, “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending,” in the April issue of the Atlantic (tinyurl.com/atl-foer). “Anti-Semitism has become part of the landscape.”

In one telling example, he writes that a Cornell University student was charged last fall “with posting online threats about slitting the throats of Jewish males and strafing the kosher dining hall with gunfire.”

In another, he writes, a California teenager described how “his school life, as a visibly identifiable Jew, had become unbearable. Walking down the halls, kids would shout ‘Free Palestine’ at him. They would make the sound of explosions, as if he were personally responsible for the bombardment of Gaza … . As he was walking into the gym to use one of its courts, a kid told him, ‘There goes the Jew, taking everyone’s land.’ "

I know I don’t need to remind you where the demonization of the Jewish people has led in the past.

In the next few months, the antisemitism resolution will be up for debate again when DFL delegates gather for their regional and state conventions. And they will have a choice: To stay silent in the face of this centuries-old malignancy, or to take a stand against it.

Maura Lerner is a retired Star Tribune reporter.