Christians hate to think or talk about antisemitism, for good reason. Christians, both believers and disbelievers raised in Christian families, rarely escape the likely influence of this ancient prejudice on them and others. Known to them through church services and school instruction, the Gospels, especially John, are riddled with antisemitic terms and tales. Christian Antisemitism, a history from then to now, by retired Anglican priest William Nicholls, once occupied bookstore shelves in the Judaica section of major chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Waldenbooks lest the title offend by tacitly accusing browsing Christians (Amazon sells it at an outrageous price, though still worth it).
The attenuation of Christianity—atrophied theology, intrusive politics, declining membership—has not attenuated antisemitism. As Christian Antisemitism observes, modern antisemitism builds on two millennia of Christian antisemitism, with the result that Christianity has made Jews the unique, internationally approved scapegoat to explain or relieve cultural, political, and social stresses. Although modern antisemitism no longer needs Christianity’s theological props, it can appeal to them when necessary.
The surge in antisemitism since the turn of the century and, recently, since the outbreak of Israeli-Hamas hostilities reflects pervasive antisemitism throughout America’s Christian (and Muslim) populations. Radical antisemites are the exposed outcroppings of underlying bedrock. The English upper crust wittily understates this bifurcated bigotry: antisemitism is hating Jews more than is necessary. Antisemitism varies by degrees, with most antisemitism latent, lurking in the background. However, on the Right, it has been increasingly evident since the ascendancy of Donald John Trump and the prominence of alt-right fascistic organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. On the Left, it has been less evident, perhaps because those thus affiliated think too highly of themselves to admit the antisemitism which they publicly deplore, perhaps because many in the media and in academe have a Leftward bias and ignore it, perhaps because academics, mainly in the humanities, have been influenced by over four decades of their political concerns with race, gender, class, and colonialism.
Comes a catalyst, however, and the antisemitism of the Progressive Left becomes overt, much to the surprise and dismay of traditional liberals and Democrats. The conflict between Israel and Hamas has been the catalyst which has exposed antisemitism on the Left. The response of academics—everyone’s prime example being some Harvard students, faculty, administrators, and alumni—reflects these political concerns. Their support for Palestinians and justifications for Hamas reflect the simple-minded, binary dogmas that the powerful are bad, the weak are good. Israel is no longer remembered as a construct of the United Nations to serve as a post-war refuge for European Jews and a homeland for other Jews; it is recognized since the Six Day War in 1967 as a colonizing power. Academics might view Israel (wrongly, I think) as a “settler colonizer” but fairly (and, I think, rightly) criticize its policies in dealings with the West Bank and Gaza, notably its expanding settlements, on political grounds. However, when they call for a cessation of hostilities when Israel is defending itself by admittedly relentlessly attacking its sworn, relentless enemy, it is applying a standard of warfighting to this armed conflict which it applies to no other armed conflict. In doing so, academics reveal a principal symptom of antisemitism, the double standard.
The symptoms of antisemitism in Las Cruces are less obvious, though it is present, usually unrecognized, unacknowledged, or denied because it is small-scale, subtle, and quiet. The LCPD’s reluctance to address the near certainty that antisemitism motivated five false charges against me shows that it is rife within the department, from the cop on the beat to successive chiefs of police, permanent or interim. All City Council members disregarded the issue discussed in several of my blogs. My District 1 councilor not only did nothing to resolve the issue, but also secretly informed the city attorney of my views because she feared a lawsuit for bias-based policing and due-process violations. Several hundred Las Cruces citizens received the same blogs about the antisemitism motivating these charges, but none wrote either to challenge my position or to condemn the motive or the charges. Denial or dismissal of antisemitism tolerates it, and such tolerance is another symptom of antisemitism—no surprise in the City of Three Crosses.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, antisemitism is no secret. In Santa Fe, the Governor issued an executive order to address antisemitism in the state—ostensibly, though “whereas” details were missing, a statewide problem well known to her administration. In her administration, the former Attorney General ignored my complaint about bias-based policing altogether, not even acknowledging it. Obviously, officials fear to address actual cases because they are likely to expose the breadth and depth of antisemitism in a state three-quarters Christian and one-third Catholic.
Thus far, New Mexico has apparently experienced few, if any, outrageous incidents of antisemitism like those which are occurring in so many places elsewhere. “Apparently” is my way of making due allowance for the possible suppression of such disconcerting news. For the Governor’s executive order protests too much, with the likely perverse effect of encouraging under-reporting. Despite present circumstances, complacency about antisemitism in Las Cruces and New Mexico is unwarranted. The old adage is apt: the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
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