THIS WAS ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER Arthur Hays Sulzberger was publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961. He was also a Jew. During his
THIS WAS ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER
Arthur Hays Sulzberger was publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961. He was also a Jew. During his tenure at the NYT, Sulzberger intentionally buried newspaper coverage of the Holocaust. Why?
Sulzberger was an assimilationist, and he felt disconnected to the plight of Jews in Europe.
Sulzberger was an antizionist, and he feared that giving coverage to the Holocaust would bolster the Zionist movement.
Sulzberger wanted his coverage of the war to by rooted in universalism, rather than Jewish particularism.
Sulzberger believed that drawing attention to the plight of Jews in Europe and Hitlerâs genocidal campaign would make antisemitism worse.
Instead, what actually happened was thisâŠ
Relegating Holocaust coverage to the back pages of The New York Times actually had an opposite, catastrophic effect.
As Jews across the United States decried Nazi policies, they were accused of mass hysteria, warmongering, or inventing false atrocities. Because The New York Times was known as the âpaper of record,â Washington DC did not take the cries of the Jewish community seriously, considering them uncorroborated. This had significant influence on the American governmentâs policies vis-a-vis the war and Jewish refugees.
AND THIS WAS DAVID ABRAMOVICH DRAGUNSKY
Dragunsky was a Soviet Jew, and along with his Jewish colleague Samuel Zivs, he chaired the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public (also known as AKSO, for its Russian acronym), a body established by the Soviet government in 1983Â with the explicit intent of silencing Jewish refuseniks, or Soviet Jews who decried institutional, systemic antisemitic discrimination in the Soviet Union and fought for the right to emigrate to freedom.
The Soviet regime weaponized Dragunsky and Zivsâ identities as a cover, and together they helped delegitimize the plight and pleas of Soviet Jews in the eyes of the international community.
WHY AM I REMINDED OF ALL THIS?
Because Matt Bernstein, known online as Mattxiv, recently posted a video to his 2.38 million followers in which he argued that Jews whose primary concern is antisemitism are the ones making antisemitism worse.
In other words, heâs not only telling us to be quiet, something that heâd never demand of any other marginalized community speaking out against the bigotry that harms them, but heâs blaming us for the bigotry we face, something heâd also never say to any other community facing skyrocketing hatred and violence.
Most infamously, Mattxiv admitted to dismissing his own grandmotherâs observations about her perception of the state of antisemitism in the United States today.
Iâd like Mattxiv to look the parents of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky or the loved ones of Paul Kessler or Karen Diamond in the eyes and tell them, âItâs fine...itâs fine.â
THIS IS MUCH LARGER THAN ONE INFLUENCER
Not for the first time, the Jewish community is currently experiencing a phenomenon known as institutional gaslighting, which is when organizations, systems, or institutions manipulate facts and deny wrongdoing to dismiss a communityâs concerns as exaggerated, irrational, or false. This can look like:
The mainstream media softening reports of antisemitic hate crimes, such as by presenting the perpetrator as the true victim.
The mainstream media rushing to report unverified claims (e.g. Al Ahli, 14,000 babies will die in 48 hours) and only issuing fine print corrections weeks or days later, after Jews have already experienced retributional violence.
Sectors of the political establishment and the mainstream media describing protestors chanting in favor of a 7th century massacre of Jews, waving Hezbollah flags, or cheering for ballistic missile attacks on Israeli civilians as âpro-peaceâ or âpro-ceasefire.â
Academic institutions tolerating the marginalization of most Jewish students as protected âpolitical activism.â
JEWISH IDENTITY AS A SHIELD
When Jewish American college students described harassment, vandalism, segregation, and even physical violence in the climate of the pro-Palestine encampments, encampment organizers pointed to the few anti-Israel Jewish students among their ranks to evade accountability. A similar scenario has been replicated time and time again, across fields, institutions, and industries.Â
This is an age-old tactic, one employed by virtually every historic oppressor of the Jewish people.
King Antiochus IV Epiphanes used the Hellenized Jews, like the High Priest Menelaus, as a cover.
The Romans had Romanized Jews, like Flavius Josephus.
The Catholic authorities in the Middle Ages had recent Jewish converts to Christianity, like Nicholas Donin.
Stalin had the Yevsektsiya and the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
The Nazis had Helene Mayer, whom they used to avoid an American boycott of the 1936 Olympic Games. And though Hitler never accepted them, the Association of German National Jews also laundered the Nazi Partyâs image.
Later on, the Soviet regime had the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public.
"Antisemitism is always a means rather than an end; it is a measure of the contradictions yet to be resolved. It is a mirror for the failings of individuals, social structures, and State systems. Tell me what you accuse Jews ofâIâll tell you what youâre guilty of."
For the past three years, celebrities with some of the largest audiences, from Ms. Rachel to Mark Ruffalo, have claimed that the pro-Israel or Zionist establishment is âsilencingâ them.
They make these accusations while standing atop of the biggest stages, winning the most prestigious awards, with adoring audiences of millions.Â
Meanwhile, we have actual, statistical data that demonstrates a clear silencing of Jewish voices in publishing, in the mental health field, in the medical field, in academia, even in Hollywood, and beyond.
"The foreign press speaks of âantisemitism.â This is only a propaganda weapon of the Jews against Germany."
Joseph Goebbels, in a November 16, 1941 article in Das Reich
"The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you."
A quotation sometimes attributed to an old Polish or Russian proverb, which appeared in the 1940 Nazi propaganda film, The Eternal Jew
The idea that Jews exaggerate or even fake antisemitism for sympathy is an old trope dating to antiquity. It plays on other antisemitic conspiracies and stereotypes, such as the accusation that Jews are manipulative and controlling.Â
By the 1930s, âJews cry antisemitismâ had become a popular sentiment, not just in Nazi Germany, but in the United States as well. Influential antisemites such as Charles Lindbergh accused Jews of exaggerating the Nazisâ antisemitism for the purpose of dragging the United States to war.
People experiencing abuse do not make the abuse worse;Â the abuser does.
Likewise, people experiencing bigotry do not make the bigotry worse;Â the bigots do.
Concerned Jews do not make antisemitism worse;Â antisemites do.
Just as it was unacceptable to perpetrate harm against Muslims or Arabs (or anyone perceived to be Muslim or Arab) in response to 9/11, it is unacceptable to perpetrate harm against Jews or Israelis in response to anything Israel does or is accused of doing.
People who cause harm to Jews or anyone else have personal autonomy; they alone are responsible for their own actions.
