And I don’t say that as a credential. I say it because antisemitism is not an abstract subject to me. It lives in history. It lives in memory. It lives in the body.
Antisemitism is expected. Not accepted. Expected.
It is embedded. Reinforced. Recycled. Dressed up in new language every generation, but the machinery is old.
When people suffer, they look for someone to blame. That is not noble, but it is human. Pain wants a target. Fear wants a story. Resentment wants a face.
And Jews have been made that face for a very long time.
Since life includes suffering — and it does, despite our impressive attempts to outsource it, medicate it, or explain it away — the algorithm keeps running:
Suffering produces fear.
Fear seeks blame.
Blame looks for a target.
And historically, Jews have been convenient.
So how do we counter antisemitism?
Not by pretending it is irrational and therefore will disappear with better information. It won’t.
We counter it by naming it clearly, refusing to normalize it, and not allowing our own fear to make us reactive, tribal, or blind.
We counter it by standing as Jews without apology and as human beings without hatred.
We counter it by refusing the old game: victim on one side, enemy on the other.
Well written and agree on many points. I however have been targeted by a local cantor and congregation for old facebook posts that stated the atrocities that have been going on in Gaza and the West Bank that I witnessed first hand when I was there on multiple medical missions. The congregation who also was involved in local politics screamed at me and my wife when we tried to tell our story and we have been ostracized by both the Democrats and the congregants.
I don’t think I ever was antisemitic and I do share the same criticism that you have concerning the state of Israel. Now however I am suspect of having anything to do with someone who is Jewish as I am not sure how they will react. I would advise not calling someone an antisemite a good start. I still have friends who are Jewish and their religion and race doesn’t both us as we have known them for many years. Yes, it is a conundrum for anyone who is Jewish as well as supporters of the Palestinian people.
It can't be easy being a Jew in America today. It might be helpful if Jews make a clearer distinction between themselves and Zionism as it is currently practiced in Israel today. Israel has become the Golden Calf that Moses found Jews worshipping when he descended from the mountain with the Ten Commandments in hand.
You're proving my point. Zionism means for many Jews the belief that Jews have a right to live in the ancient land of Judea. It does not mean that Palestinians don't.
As a Jewish American, I disagree with your definition of Zionism. If you read the writings of the founders of Zionism (Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion) you would see that it was conceived as a colonial project.
Judaism is an ancient, venerable religion.
Zionism is a modern, nationalistic ideology.
As long as Zionism disregards, disrespects, disempowers and dispossesses the Palestinian people, it is immoral, unjust and cruel.
Zionism at this point covers a spectrum of opinions. Right-wing Zionists want "from the river to the sea," no differently than do people chanting at pro-Palestine rallies. I've never called myself a Zionist, nor identified as one. But many people I know who do call themselves Zionists are proponents of a two-state solution. For me, no one who is standing for justice should be shouting "from the river to the sea," for either people. To me, both belong there and both deserve to be there.
Some mean free for everyone in the phrase “ from the river to the sea”. It certainly what I mean and what the leaders of the organizations or organizing demonstrations mean. It was the case that before Zionism, Palestine was multiethnic and there’s no reason it can’t be again. as for antisemitism in the US, rather than emphasise continuity (victimhood), consider the diasporic alternative (solidarity).
Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The story of the Jewish Bund', by Molly Crabapple. Brand new book on the Bund, from the get go the main alternative to Zionism in Russia, Lithuania, etc. before they weaponized the Shoah (killed most of my ancestors), Zionist leaders in Israel had contempt for survivors, indeed all diaspora Jews they considered weak in contrast to heroic Kibbutz pioneers. Read some history!
In practice, it does mean Palestinians don’t. Why be stuck on the word? A Land for All seems a good idea for Palestine, as for the US. Jewish institutions insisting on Zionism and calling critics antisemites are a big problem. If we support genocide, we invite antisemitism. Wake up!
There are not 56 countries where 80% of people who are not Muslim are declared not a citizen because if they were citizens, it would mess up their Muslim demographics. There are not 56 countries that declared themselves an incipient Muslim state by when the population was 5% Muslim (at least not in the past 5 centuries). There are not 56 countries where non-Muslims are given a different color license plate and banned from walking down streets their families have lived on for millennia and where there is a death penalty for non-Muslims and all non-Muslims are tried in military courts for the most minor infraction. There are some Muslim theocracies, and people who oppose ethno-states oppose their theocratic nature. There are many countries where Christianity is the official religion, but for some reason you bring up a religion that is far more stigmatized in America than Judaism to imply that people who criticize Israel's extreme ethnic discrimination are prejudiced against Jews. Your argument is in bad faith. Ethnostates are a bad idea, and Israel is a very awful one, even excluding its worst violent abuses.
I am surprised that you are not spelling out clearly that what most people are enraged about (including many Jews) is watching Israel's historic and ongoing murderous destruction of Palestinians and occupation of their land - (and previously Syria, now Lebanon and Iran) -only possible because backed and protected by USA. Netanhayu's policy of conflating any criticism of that horror with antisemitism/hatred of Jews/ is what has made all Jews around the world much more unsafe. If people believe that he is acting on behalf of all Jews - which is what he says - then we will be enraged at all Jews. If we intelligently do our research and realise that Zionism is a political movement currently committing terrible war crimes and that it is NOT representative of the ancient Jewish religion and people -then we wont be pulled into his antisemetic story...which most Western governments have been are buying into and promote - especially USA . Surely you can see that??
Dear Marianne- I seriously did read your article...I was simply adding to it, because I care about the safety of Jewish people around the world- including the ones on the anti war marches in London here in UK - who are called 'self hating Jews' by Netanhayu because they strongly criticise his governments war crimes . Surely we all want life and humanity upheld equally for all?
Marianne, this is so beautifully written and resonates so deeply with me. Thank you so much, as always, for your wisdom and for everything you do. You are such an inspiration!
This is a stunningly concise and nuanced summation of Jews in America and Zionism. I'm a Rabbi and could not have said it better. I'm particularly sad for our kids. Some have burst out in tears getting ready for Bar/Bat Mitzvah projects when they recount the awful things their non-Jewish friends say to them about Jews. The cruelty seems unfathomable. Thank you Marianne Williamson. Your words are extraordinary!
Appreciate the clarity and discernment you brought to an issue that has become so charged and divisive—not to mention the courage it took to speak it so plainly in this moment. It matters deeply to so many of us. Thank you.
I Follow you, as an American with maternal Lebanese grandparents and paternal Iranian and Iraqi (identified as Assyrian), all Christian. I am a mystic. I am a retired Clinical Social Worker. I am a progressive Democrat.
Whom may I not Love & care about, Ultimately? No one.
May humanity turn the tide, toward mutual understanding, feeding and clothing all, - - and all the war-funding toward relieving suffering!
What happened to your view of democracy? How can any ethnostate not privilege one group? Should the US be a Christian state as many are trying to make it, especially Christian Zionists, who want Jews out of the US and into Israel? Why Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or Christian states? They are recipes for apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and war. “Demographics” — the insistence that Jews must be a majority in “their own state” — gives me “right of return” to a place no ancestors have ever been because of my mother’s bloodline, while Palestinians (called Arabs), have fewer or no rights, especially not a “right of return” even when they have been expelled from their homes. Jews have fought long and hard for equal rights. Your father was right to insist on equality for everyone.
This is so interesting to me. I went to school with lots of Jewish kids. The girls called themselves JAPs. They had the best clothes, shoes, and handbags. Their fathers were doctors. Every year they packed their big trunks so they could go to their fancy Jewish camps for the summer. The mothers hoped they’d meet other rich boys planning on becoming doctors or lawyers. They all did in fact. The girls became doctors and lawyers too. They had fancy houses and nannies. They were our friends. Nobody once said anything negative. A friend of mine lives in Israel. She’s married to a doctor of course. His three brothers are also doctors. When I think of a Jewish person, I think of a smart, rich person. And if I wanted a lawyer, I’m sure I’d look for a Jewish one.
I have visited Israel in 2005. I have several Jewish friends in Boise, Idaho. I've attended the local synagogue. I've had several conversations with its former Rabbi, and members. I attended a Passover in Tel Aviv. I stayed in a hostel in Jaffa. I stayed 4 days with a Muslim Arab Palestinian family in East Jerusalem. I stayed several days with a Polish Jew, who survived the holocaust, to become a Carmelite nun, and a peace activist.
As I understand anti-semitism, most Americans are not well informed on the history of Judaism, and of the nation of Israel. Ignorance allows prejudice to spread, especially when various groups promote conspiracy theories about Jews as a people.
Judaism is monotheistic. Shema Isra El Adonai, El ohim, Adonai Ehad. Hear O chosen people of God, God is beloved, God is many in forms and names, yet the Beloved is a Unity, a Oneness.
Yeshua was a 'Jew'. That is to say, he was born in the conquered Roman provinces of Gailee and Judea. The Hebrew, descendants of Sarah and Abraham, who believed in One God - Elohim, were called Jews by the Romans, as they lived in Judea.
The early followers of Yeshua, a Christ, were mostly Jews, until Paul and other disciples spread Christianity in the Roman empire.
Noah's son, Shem, was the ancestor of Abraham, Moses, and Yeshua, and the people of Israel, the 12 tribes. Shem was also the ancestor of Arabs, and of the faith of Islam. Abraham's son, Ishmael, was a 'Shemite' as was Abraham.
Christians, who believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, the Anointed One, in fulfillment of prophecies in the Torah, or Old Testament, are spiritual descendants of Shem.
Most Christians, and Americans, and especially Christian Nationalists, do not know this history, even though its in the Bible.
Jews, who practice Judaism, are Hu myn beings, like all of us. Jews have been made the scapegoats, and enemy of Christianity, ever since the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, and dispersed Jews as refugees to other countries.
Muslim nations have often been tolerant of Jews, as both are monotheistic. For example the Moors in Spain built a civilization that benefitted from Jewish scholarship, intellect, business skills, science and mysticism. Then the Christian states in Spain purged the Moors, and most Jews fled the Spanish Inquistion.
Enough of history... Israel, as a homeland, that gives Jews a nation is a recent creation. My experience in Israel is that much of its culture is PTSD from the holocaust. 'Never again!' Thus, Israel's obsession, and need, for military superiority against Muslim nations. Iran in particular has sought to destroy Israel, as a Jewish state. This policy is due to Iranian leadership, by its Shi'a theocracy. Sunni Muslim nations tend to be more tolerant of Israel.
Israel, to make peace with Palestinians, must extend universal human rights to all ethnicities in Israel, in Lebanon, in Gaza, in the West Bank.
Truth and reconciliation is necessary as it has been in South Africa, with apartheid.
Americans, especially white supremacists, need to be educated about universal human rights, regardless of ethnicity, religion, and color.
Our hearts must open, with love, for God, and all of God's children, which are all humanity.
Thank you Marianne for teaching the gospel of love. I respect your faith, and ancestry as a Jew.
Thank you, again and again. Keep it up. 👍
I, too, am Jewish.
And I don’t say that as a credential. I say it because antisemitism is not an abstract subject to me. It lives in history. It lives in memory. It lives in the body.
Antisemitism is expected. Not accepted. Expected.
It is embedded. Reinforced. Recycled. Dressed up in new language every generation, but the machinery is old.
When people suffer, they look for someone to blame. That is not noble, but it is human. Pain wants a target. Fear wants a story. Resentment wants a face.
And Jews have been made that face for a very long time.
Since life includes suffering — and it does, despite our impressive attempts to outsource it, medicate it, or explain it away — the algorithm keeps running:
Suffering produces fear.
Fear seeks blame.
Blame looks for a target.
And historically, Jews have been convenient.
So how do we counter antisemitism?
Not by pretending it is irrational and therefore will disappear with better information. It won’t.
We counter it by naming it clearly, refusing to normalize it, and not allowing our own fear to make us reactive, tribal, or blind.
We counter it by standing as Jews without apology and as human beings without hatred.
We counter it by refusing the old game: victim on one side, enemy on the other.
Well written and agree on many points. I however have been targeted by a local cantor and congregation for old facebook posts that stated the atrocities that have been going on in Gaza and the West Bank that I witnessed first hand when I was there on multiple medical missions. The congregation who also was involved in local politics screamed at me and my wife when we tried to tell our story and we have been ostracized by both the Democrats and the congregants.
I don’t think I ever was antisemitic and I do share the same criticism that you have concerning the state of Israel. Now however I am suspect of having anything to do with someone who is Jewish as I am not sure how they will react. I would advise not calling someone an antisemite a good start. I still have friends who are Jewish and their religion and race doesn’t both us as we have known them for many years. Yes, it is a conundrum for anyone who is Jewish as well as supporters of the Palestinian people.
I hear you. I'm sorry about your experience.
It can't be easy being a Jew in America today. It might be helpful if Jews make a clearer distinction between themselves and Zionism as it is currently practiced in Israel today. Israel has become the Golden Calf that Moses found Jews worshipping when he descended from the mountain with the Ten Commandments in hand.
You're proving my point. Zionism means for many Jews the belief that Jews have a right to live in the ancient land of Judea. It does not mean that Palestinians don't.
As a Jewish American, I disagree with your definition of Zionism. If you read the writings of the founders of Zionism (Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion) you would see that it was conceived as a colonial project.
Judaism is an ancient, venerable religion.
Zionism is a modern, nationalistic ideology.
As long as Zionism disregards, disrespects, disempowers and dispossesses the Palestinian people, it is immoral, unjust and cruel.
Zionism at this point covers a spectrum of opinions. Right-wing Zionists want "from the river to the sea," no differently than do people chanting at pro-Palestine rallies. I've never called myself a Zionist, nor identified as one. But many people I know who do call themselves Zionists are proponents of a two-state solution. For me, no one who is standing for justice should be shouting "from the river to the sea," for either people. To me, both belong there and both deserve to be there.
Some mean free for everyone in the phrase “ from the river to the sea”. It certainly what I mean and what the leaders of the organizations or organizing demonstrations mean. It was the case that before Zionism, Palestine was multiethnic and there’s no reason it can’t be again. as for antisemitism in the US, rather than emphasise continuity (victimhood), consider the diasporic alternative (solidarity).
Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The story of the Jewish Bund', by Molly Crabapple. Brand new book on the Bund, from the get go the main alternative to Zionism in Russia, Lithuania, etc. before they weaponized the Shoah (killed most of my ancestors), Zionist leaders in Israel had contempt for survivors, indeed all diaspora Jews they considered weak in contrast to heroic Kibbutz pioneers. Read some history!
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741043/safety-through-solidarity-by-shane-burley/
In practice, it does mean Palestinians don’t. Why be stuck on the word? A Land for All seems a good idea for Palestine, as for the US. Jewish institutions insisting on Zionism and calling critics antisemites are a big problem. If we support genocide, we invite antisemitism. Wake up!
There are not 56 countries where 80% of people who are not Muslim are declared not a citizen because if they were citizens, it would mess up their Muslim demographics. There are not 56 countries that declared themselves an incipient Muslim state by when the population was 5% Muslim (at least not in the past 5 centuries). There are not 56 countries where non-Muslims are given a different color license plate and banned from walking down streets their families have lived on for millennia and where there is a death penalty for non-Muslims and all non-Muslims are tried in military courts for the most minor infraction. There are some Muslim theocracies, and people who oppose ethno-states oppose their theocratic nature. There are many countries where Christianity is the official religion, but for some reason you bring up a religion that is far more stigmatized in America than Judaism to imply that people who criticize Israel's extreme ethnic discrimination are prejudiced against Jews. Your argument is in bad faith. Ethnostates are a bad idea, and Israel is a very awful one, even excluding its worst violent abuses.
I am surprised that you are not spelling out clearly that what most people are enraged about (including many Jews) is watching Israel's historic and ongoing murderous destruction of Palestinians and occupation of their land - (and previously Syria, now Lebanon and Iran) -only possible because backed and protected by USA. Netanhayu's policy of conflating any criticism of that horror with antisemitism/hatred of Jews/ is what has made all Jews around the world much more unsafe. If people believe that he is acting on behalf of all Jews - which is what he says - then we will be enraged at all Jews. If we intelligently do our research and realise that Zionism is a political movement currently committing terrible war crimes and that it is NOT representative of the ancient Jewish religion and people -then we wont be pulled into his antisemetic story...which most Western governments have been are buying into and promote - especially USA . Surely you can see that??
You did not seriously read my article, therefore i don't feel the need to seriously respond.
Dear Marianne- I seriously did read your article...I was simply adding to it, because I care about the safety of Jewish people around the world- including the ones on the anti war marches in London here in UK - who are called 'self hating Jews' by Netanhayu because they strongly criticise his governments war crimes . Surely we all want life and humanity upheld equally for all?
Marianne, this is so beautifully written and resonates so deeply with me. Thank you so much, as always, for your wisdom and for everything you do. You are such an inspiration!
This is a stunningly concise and nuanced summation of Jews in America and Zionism. I'm a Rabbi and could not have said it better. I'm particularly sad for our kids. Some have burst out in tears getting ready for Bar/Bat Mitzvah projects when they recount the awful things their non-Jewish friends say to them about Jews. The cruelty seems unfathomable. Thank you Marianne Williamson. Your words are extraordinary!
Thank you, Liz. You're doing a very important job and you will affect those young people for the rest of their lives.
Appreciate the clarity and discernment you brought to an issue that has become so charged and divisive—not to mention the courage it took to speak it so plainly in this moment. It matters deeply to so many of us. Thank you.
I Follow you, as an American with maternal Lebanese grandparents and paternal Iranian and Iraqi (identified as Assyrian), all Christian. I am a mystic. I am a retired Clinical Social Worker. I am a progressive Democrat.
Whom may I not Love & care about, Ultimately? No one.
May humanity turn the tide, toward mutual understanding, feeding and clothing all, - - and all the war-funding toward relieving suffering!
I share the dream. 💖 Thank you Marianne.
What happened to your view of democracy? How can any ethnostate not privilege one group? Should the US be a Christian state as many are trying to make it, especially Christian Zionists, who want Jews out of the US and into Israel? Why Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or Christian states? They are recipes for apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and war. “Demographics” — the insistence that Jews must be a majority in “their own state” — gives me “right of return” to a place no ancestors have ever been because of my mother’s bloodline, while Palestinians (called Arabs), have fewer or no rights, especially not a “right of return” even when they have been expelled from their homes. Jews have fought long and hard for equal rights. Your father was right to insist on equality for everyone.
This is so interesting to me. I went to school with lots of Jewish kids. The girls called themselves JAPs. They had the best clothes, shoes, and handbags. Their fathers were doctors. Every year they packed their big trunks so they could go to their fancy Jewish camps for the summer. The mothers hoped they’d meet other rich boys planning on becoming doctors or lawyers. They all did in fact. The girls became doctors and lawyers too. They had fancy houses and nannies. They were our friends. Nobody once said anything negative. A friend of mine lives in Israel. She’s married to a doctor of course. His three brothers are also doctors. When I think of a Jewish person, I think of a smart, rich person. And if I wanted a lawyer, I’m sure I’d look for a Jewish one.
I have visited Israel in 2005. I have several Jewish friends in Boise, Idaho. I've attended the local synagogue. I've had several conversations with its former Rabbi, and members. I attended a Passover in Tel Aviv. I stayed in a hostel in Jaffa. I stayed 4 days with a Muslim Arab Palestinian family in East Jerusalem. I stayed several days with a Polish Jew, who survived the holocaust, to become a Carmelite nun, and a peace activist.
As I understand anti-semitism, most Americans are not well informed on the history of Judaism, and of the nation of Israel. Ignorance allows prejudice to spread, especially when various groups promote conspiracy theories about Jews as a people.
Judaism is monotheistic. Shema Isra El Adonai, El ohim, Adonai Ehad. Hear O chosen people of God, God is beloved, God is many in forms and names, yet the Beloved is a Unity, a Oneness.
Yeshua was a 'Jew'. That is to say, he was born in the conquered Roman provinces of Gailee and Judea. The Hebrew, descendants of Sarah and Abraham, who believed in One God - Elohim, were called Jews by the Romans, as they lived in Judea.
The early followers of Yeshua, a Christ, were mostly Jews, until Paul and other disciples spread Christianity in the Roman empire.
Noah's son, Shem, was the ancestor of Abraham, Moses, and Yeshua, and the people of Israel, the 12 tribes. Shem was also the ancestor of Arabs, and of the faith of Islam. Abraham's son, Ishmael, was a 'Shemite' as was Abraham.
Christians, who believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, the Anointed One, in fulfillment of prophecies in the Torah, or Old Testament, are spiritual descendants of Shem.
Most Christians, and Americans, and especially Christian Nationalists, do not know this history, even though its in the Bible.
Jews, who practice Judaism, are Hu myn beings, like all of us. Jews have been made the scapegoats, and enemy of Christianity, ever since the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, and dispersed Jews as refugees to other countries.
Muslim nations have often been tolerant of Jews, as both are monotheistic. For example the Moors in Spain built a civilization that benefitted from Jewish scholarship, intellect, business skills, science and mysticism. Then the Christian states in Spain purged the Moors, and most Jews fled the Spanish Inquistion.
Enough of history... Israel, as a homeland, that gives Jews a nation is a recent creation. My experience in Israel is that much of its culture is PTSD from the holocaust. 'Never again!' Thus, Israel's obsession, and need, for military superiority against Muslim nations. Iran in particular has sought to destroy Israel, as a Jewish state. This policy is due to Iranian leadership, by its Shi'a theocracy. Sunni Muslim nations tend to be more tolerant of Israel.
Israel, to make peace with Palestinians, must extend universal human rights to all ethnicities in Israel, in Lebanon, in Gaza, in the West Bank.
Truth and reconciliation is necessary as it has been in South Africa, with apartheid.
Americans, especially white supremacists, need to be educated about universal human rights, regardless of ethnicity, religion, and color.
Our hearts must open, with love, for God, and all of God's children, which are all humanity.
Thank you Marianne for teaching the gospel of love. I respect your faith, and ancestry as a Jew.
Eloquent and accurate. Thank you
There was also predjudice and judgement against Americans in many countries in the world around the US genocides in Viet Nam and elsewhere.
Jews arent the only ones who get blamed for a govts. atrocities.
I guess its called being accused of guilt by association.
This is a brilliant piece of writing which I wholeheartedly support. Thank you Marianne