I am tired – tired of always playing defense against antisemitism. Tired of the lies about Israel and about Jews. Tired of media antisemitic and anti-Israel bias. Tired of politicians saying that “hate has no place in [add your location],” when it very clearly does. Tired of prosecutors who won’t prosecute hate crimes (especially in France). Tired of having my synagogue – and every other Jewish institution – protected by armed guards, security cameras, locked doors, and bollards to prevent (not always successfully) car rammings – not at Israeli bus stops (which are evil enough) but here in the United States. Tired of well-funded “protesters” disrupting Jewish events, protesting right outside of synagogues and Jewish schools. Tired of university presidents who look the other way. Tired of U.S. public schools that teach hate to K-12 students, tired of “teachers” at all levels who support student walk-outs to protest against Israel, Zionism, and Jews.

Tired of Jews being accosted on public streets, often without consequence. Tired of misuse of words like “genocide” and “apartheid.” Tired of the entire concept of “settler colonialism” – and especially when it is misapplied to deny Jewish indigeneity in Israel. Tired of progressives who claim to support human rights for everyone except Jews.

Tired – but not exhausted. My sense of American Jewry is that we are not only tired but we are angry. Very, very angry – to the point of seething. When 40 of 47 United States Senators from the Democratic Party vote in favor of ending aid to support Iron Dome – which saves both Israeli and Palestinian lives (by limiting the need for a more severe Israeli ground offensive), including 7 of 10 Jewish Senators, they have forfeited the support of American Jewish voters; it is beyond unacceptable, crossing over into inexcusable. And that does not give a pass even to those 7 Democrats who voted against that resolution – New York’s Senator Schumer, for example, has taken his own anti-Israel positions even though he voted against this particular resolution (see discussion here: “Why Are “Red Lines” Only On Israel?” and here: “Irony: Arab League Gets It; Western Leaders Attack Only Israel”).

And that is an American Jew. What our Israeli families are going through – and have been since October 7, 2023, and indeed since at least 1929 – is orders of magnitude worse.

The traditional response of American Jewry is to be defensive. We point out the hypocrisy of the Tucker Carlson/Candace Owens right and the Bernie Sanders/Hasan Piker left. We argue the facts – in this post-factual era where the “facts” are only those that one gets via one’s slanted internet feed. We fund the organizations that we hope can make a difference – and they do, but their impact is limited because they are always on defense. The haters continue to hate – and act on that hate – with impunity.

I am not denigrating the alphabet soup of Jewish organizations. They do good work, but their work is insufficient because we continue to see increasing Jew hatred and violence in our society. A new approach – an additive impact – is needed. We must go on offense.

We need to work to change the terms, change the language, change the foundation. The discussion cannot be on the hater’s terms – we must set the agenda.

It means that we need to challenge hate speech, and make it have consequences – that’s why I’ve written and spoken to provide an analysis of the law that confirms that hate speech is not protected speech, and should be treated just as defamation and obscenity, with civil and criminal consequences (especially civil – making people write checks and lose jobs can make a difference). See here(beginning at p. 19), here (“The Intersection of Hate Speech and the First Amendment”) and here (“Defining Hate Speech”).

That includes drafting and advocating – strongly – for anti-hate speech legislation that creates civil liability for hate speech. Such legislation does not violate any First Amendment principles, and is in effect in countries around the world, insufficiently enforced.

It further includes rejecting false narratives that seek to water down or excuse antisemitic speech, as discussed here (“Two Antisemitism Bills in Congress – Enact Both”).

It also means that when, for one example, a group of protesters are bused to a residential neighborhood in the Chicago north suburbs where a Jewish U.S. Congressman lives at 2 a.m. to awaken and frighten the residents – many of whom are young Jewish families – with loud and angry anti-Israel protests, the protesters (and the bus company) should be civilly and criminally liable, and those who funded the protest (by, for example, paying the bus company) should be liable as well. And when Jewish teens are harassed and attacked at a public park in another Chicago north suburb by other teens, the harassing teens – and their parents – should face severe consequences including criminal, civil, and expulsions.

It means making media entities, social media and search engines, liable for algorithms that push and encourage the consumption of hate content. As an intellectual property attorney with a long-time practice including internet and computer law, I remain in favor of the civil liability immunities provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S. Code §230), but that immunity does not apply to those entities’ own affirmative conduct – and courts that have so-interpreted it are incorrect. Whether through a correct interpretation of the current exceptions or through a needed amendment to the statute, the push-technology of hate content must be ended.

It means not only being aware of foreign funding of universities (and lower level schools) such as that has been covered so thoroughly by ISGAP (and discussed in this excellent article by Uri Zehavi) and taking steps to disallow it.

But merely disclosing and disallowing the foreign funding of hate is not enough. Despite the alphabet soup of organizations, the most critical funding for American Jews at this time is to endow their own department chairs to change the teaching and scholarship about Israel and Zionism – to reflect the true reality of what they are rather than the hate-filled screeds that pass for “scholarship” today. It took decades of anti-Jewish funding for universities to reach this point, so changing the paradigm will not be a rapid endeavor, but it must be started now – and must be a priority.

It means not only criticizing K-12 curricula pushed by “ethnic studies” programs like the Liberated Ethnic Studies Consortium, but creating our own more balanced curriculum that does not soft soap America’s racist history but also points out the progress that we have made – even as more progress is needed – and that teaches true inclusion rather than an oppressor/oppressed binary narrative. See here (“Is Teaching Hate Coming to a U.S. K-12 Public School Near You?”).

The Liberated Ethnic Studies Consortium is well-funded and has a ready-made curriculum. The American Jewish community needs to spend the funds needed to draft and advocate for an alternative curriculum.

It means defunding UNRWA permanently, and perhaps the entire diseased UN – and demanding that no funding at all (and certainly not U.S. tax dollars) will be given for teaching hate to Palestinian kids, so that we lose yet another generation to hate, and (again) having a properly balanced curriculum for those kids too. As I’ve written many times (see, for example, here and here, it doesn’t matter at all what kind of government Israel has or what its policies are if Palestinian rejectionism continues to be the rule as it has for Israel’s entire existence. There is no point in even discussing a two-state solution – which I support while recognizing that it is impossible for the foreseeable future – when no solution of any kind is possible as long as generations of Palestinian kids are taught that jihad is the only solution.

In summary, it means not always playing defense, but going on offense. Filing affirmative lawsuits against haters and their funders in a wide variety of contexts. It means enacting anti-hate legislation.

None of this is easy, especially when we are tired. But if anyone is going to be “exhilarated” about anything, it can be that we stop being only defensive. Yes, it is depressing that there is so much to do while our community lives in fear, and yes, it took decades to get here  so it will not be a quick change – but these are among the things that our community should be spearheading. These are among the things that should be our strategic priorities. If we want and need change – and we do – we have to start somewhere.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)