In Could 2021, as Israel once more battled terrorists within the Gaza Strip, the Jewish state was hounded within the press and on social media. Protests erupted in US cities and Jews had been attacked on the streets in New York and Los Angeles.
Though this was the fourth main spherical of preventing since 2008, the backlash felt completely different this time round, mentioned David Bernstein, a longtime US Jewish neighborhood chief. Israel was not given any leeway for self-defense when the battle broke out, however was instantly demonized because the oppressor in lots of quarters, he contended.
“The Gaza battle was a wake-up name,” Bernstein advised The Instances of Israel in a latest interview, blaming an “underlying ideology” for driving the hostile protection of the battle. “I knew that if our society continued on this trajectory we’re going to be going through ongoing polarization, disenfranchisement of the Jewish neighborhood and rising hostility on each side of the political spectrum.”
That ideology was the progressive “woke” framework, and the fallout from the battle spurred him to jot down a book addressing his views of the problem.
“Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews,” printed in October, lays out Bernstein’s view of what has come to be often called the woke paradigm, sketching out its mental roots, its present manifestation, and the way he believes the US Jewish neighborhood ought to strategy the ideology.
The e-book argues that woke ideology locations American Jews on the flawed aspect of racial politics, hyperlinks Israel to racism within the US, and stifles debate, whilst many mainstream US Jewish organizations align with its views. As proof, Bernstein cites his experiences in Jewish communal teams waylaid by the ideology, the media’s therapy of Israel, a campus local weather hostile to Zionists, assaults on free speech, company range applications that exclude Jews, left-wing teams shunning Jewish participation, and different incidents.
Bernstein defines wokeness as an ideology with two core tenets — that bias and oppression are embedded within the buildings and methods of society, and never only a matter of particular person attitudes; and that solely these with the lived expertise of oppression can outline it for the remaining. It divides the world into oppressors and the oppressed, blames societal ills on a deeply ingrained imbalance of energy, and grants ethical authority to the have-nots by dint of that standing alone.
“This ideology that holds that there are oppressed and oppressors on the planet has actually caught on in lots of establishments, and that oppressed versus oppressor binary more and more is defining Jews because the oppressor and Israel because the oppressor, and that to me is extremely problematic,” he mentioned.
In Bernstein’s telling, proponents of woke ideology see this framework as the one acceptable rationalization for inequality, quelling opposing viewpoints as missing legitimacy to even be heard.
“I feel the American Jewish neighborhood has an enormous stake in defending what I name conventional liberal values of freedom of expression and open discourse,” he mentioned.
“Jews fare higher in open, liberal environments, and fewer nicely in closed, intolerant environments,” he added. “There may be nothing inherent about illiberalism spawning antisemitism, however there’s — given Jewish historical past — one thing inevitable about it.”
Bernstein grew up in Ohio surrounded by his mom’s politically conservative Iraqi Jewish household and his Ashkenazi father, a staunch civil libertarian. In an early formative expertise, he sided along with his father and the American Civil Liberties Union within the protection of the proper of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, in 1977, regardless of the town’s massive inhabitants of Holocaust survivors. He defines himself as a “small-L” liberal, supporting freedom of expression, free speech, and civil liberties working below the rule of legislation.
He led the liberal Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the David Mission, a now defunct pro-Israel campus group, and held a senior position within the American Jewish Committee. He break up off final yr to discovered the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values as he turned disillusioned with mainstream establishments. The institute goals to assist basic liberal values and bolster a range of views within the Jewish neighborhood, whereas opposing far-left antisemitism. (He has additionally written on The Instances of Israel’s open running a blog platform.)

Illustrative: Anti-Israel protesters name for an intifada at a protest in New York Metropolis, September 17, 2021. (Luke Tress/ Flash90)
Over the previous three many years, Bernstein has watched the social justice ideology develop from a distant tutorial self-discipline rooted in postmodernism to a world post-colonialist motion and campus fad, even because the time period “woke” has develop into pejorative to critics of the motion, he mentioned. The framework now guides company range applications and is a dominant ideology in lots of mainstream US establishments, together with Jewish ones.
He began connecting the dots between the ideology and antisemitism after the United Nation’s 2001 World Convention In opposition to Racism in Durban, South Africa, which was marked by relentless criticism of Israel. The Israeli and US delegations withdrew, saying the assaults had veered into antisemitism. In some ways, woke ideology is an outgrowth of postcolonialism when utilized to the US home scene, he argued.
The ideology gained floor within the US with the rise of the Black Lives Matter motion within the mid-2010s, he says within the e-book. Some progressive activists linked racism within the US to the Israeli-Palestinian battle, and engaged in radical rhetoric, corresponding to calls to abolish police and rebuild American establishments from scratch, that he seen as problematic. The ideology gained mainstream buy with the horrific homicide of George Floyd by the hands of the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020.
Racism is a scourge, however the woke motion’s overwhelming concentrate on the problem because the supply of society’s ills is harmful and counterproductive, he argued.
“Issues could have been at one time a perform of systemic racism, however not all of them are right now. There will be a number of elements in explaining why we’ve got disparity, and for those who insist that it’s just one issue — systemic racism — then you definately’re ruling out a number of the finest options,” he mentioned. “We’ve got to be trustworthy about that or we’re probably not fixing these issues, and I don’t suppose going to the extremes on that is going to convey alongside the bigger public. I feel one of the best change actions on this nation are extremely inclusive.”
“That doesn’t imply that there aren’t actual issues that have to be addressed.”
The ideology additionally claims to know absolutely the reality about societal disparities and subsequently assaults debate, stifling free speech. The assault on open dialogue is a departure from basic liberalism, which has no over-arching idea, however goals to assist the much less lucky in numerous methods. It additionally undercuts the centrality of debate in Jewish custom, he mentioned.
“Woke ideology sees itself not merely as a social motion to finish racism however as an entire worldview that supersedes the present white supremacist order. The ideology has its personal inner logic, its personal vocabulary, its personal historical past, philosophy, and conception of morality and legislation. And, like all religions, woke ideology embodies a dogma that rebukes all challenges,” he writes. “Woke ideology prescribes just one voice and thus forces two selections: undertake the ideology or be a part of the issue.”
Within the e-book’s foreword, outstanding refusenik and Jewish chief Natan Sharansky likened the woke ideology within the US to the “totalizing ideology I grew up with within the Soviet Union, which has taken the American left by storm.”
“I’m involved that lots of my good associates within the American Jewish neighborhood, who, for all the proper causes, need to be a part of the human rights and social justice actions of their time, don’t absolutely acknowledge the hazard of this ideology,” Sharansky wrote within the foreword.
Bernstein predicts that the motion will proceed to accentuate, saying, “Dogma begets ever extra excessive types of dogma,” as believers “one-up” one another to realize social benefit. The ratcheting rhetoric on the left additional fuels extremism on the proper in a vicious cycle, he argues.
Bernstein doesn’t low cost right-wing antisemitism. However he argues that almost all American Jews, like himself, dwell on the left aspect of the political spectrum and extremist right-wing figures, corresponding to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and their ideology shouldn’t have sway inside most US Jewish communities.
The US State Division’s antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt has compared far-right Jew-hatred to a twister and far-left antisemitism to local weather change, acknowledging that violent hazard at the moment comes principally from the far-right. She and different commentators have identified that every political camp is fast to establish antisemitism on the opposing aspect, however not amongst its personal ranks.
“Even when the menace to democracy is extra severe on the proper than on the left, that doesn’t imply we shouldn’t handle the menace on the left. Somebody has to repair the gaping pothole in your road even when there’s a extra severe water foremost break throughout city,” Bernstein mentioned.
Peter Beinart, a outstanding progressive Jewish commentator, mentioned a lot of the distinction boils right down to how antisemitism is outlined. Antisemitism on the proper is extra widespread, and extra usually characterised by conventional anti-Jewish stereotypes, corresponding to the idea that Jews maintain an excessive amount of energy, whereas the left is extra targeted on Zionism and Israel, he mentioned.
“Though folks on the left will be extra crucial of Israel, they’re a lot much less prone to have these sorts of destructive stereotypes about Jews than folks on the proper, in accordance to the research carried out by Eitan Hersh at Tufts, and different research,” mentioned Beinart, who mentioned he’s conversant in Bernstein, however has not learn his e-book.
The argument in opposition to progressive antisemitism “relies on the concept there’s quite a lot of antisemitism on the left. Except you outline anti-Zionism as antisemitism, which I don’t, you truly don’t discover quite a lot of antisemitism on the left, in comparison with the quantity on the proper,” he mentioned.
It exists on the left, identical to different bigotries exist on the left and elsewhere, however proportionally it’s smaller than on the proper, outdoors of anti-Zionism, he mentioned.
He additionally mentioned that, simply as anti-Zionism can spill into antisemitism, Zionism also can accompany anti-Jewish stereotypes.
“Simply take a look at Donald Trump. Donald Trump, clearly a Zionist, additionally a serial trafficker in antisemitic stereotypes. So you possibly can’t ask the query, ‘When does anti-Zionism bleed into antisemitism?’ with out additionally asking the query ‘When does Zionism bleed into antisemitism?’” Beinart mentioned.
He referred to as for distinguishing extra clearly “between Jewishness and the State of Israel.”
“It’s okay to protest in entrance of the Israeli embassy. It’s clearly not okay to protest in entrance of a shul as a result of the folks within the shul usually are not accountable. However the issue is that usually the American Jewish organizations themselves and the Israeli authorities usually don’t make that distinction between Jewishness as a non secular and ethnic identification and Israel as a state,” Beinart mentioned.
Bernstein additionally argued that the progressive motion is a menace to Jews due to its binary, zero-sum view of societal disparities between completely different teams that considers Jews white and beneficiaries of white supremacy and privilege, regardless of the neighborhood’s minority standing and its many individuals of shade. Different “white adjoining” teams, like Asian Individuals, are in the identical boat. The motion’s conception of fairness, as an alternative of equality, calls for equal illustration in all fields, as an alternative of equal alternative, which can hurt profitable minority teams, he argues.
“With fairness, any group on common that’s under the imply is essentially a sufferer of oppression and any group that’s above the imply is complicit, so Jews are seen as complicit,” Bernstein mentioned.
However Jews, who’ve largely discovered success in America regardless of historic oppression, threaten that conception.
“They see us as being over-represented and privileged, so in a method, we’re a residing problem to the dogma itself and that most likely provides rise to resentment,” he mentioned.

Illustrative: New York police safe a Jewish neighborhood occasion in New York Metropolis, Could 19, 2022. (Luke Tress/Instances of Israel)
The ideology’s method for discrimination is “racism = bigotry + energy,” he mentioned, which means in case you have energy, you can’t be a sufferer of racism, and for those who shouldn’t have energy, you can’t be a racist. It subsequently dismisses antisemitic assaults, despite the fact that Jews are the primary goal of anti-religious hate crimes within the US, in accordance with the FBI. In a single outstanding instance of that view, TV host Whoopi Goldberg precipitated an uproar earlier this yr when she mentioned the Holocaust was not about race, however two teams of white folks “preventing one another.” She doubled down on the incendiary claims this week.
Viewing Jews as privileged white folks additionally cuts Jews out of company range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) applications. Fairness contends that every one teams needs to be equally represented, which means that US Jews, making up round two p.c of the inhabitants, ought to solely be that proportion of a company, occupation, or college.
The e-book cites for example a Jewish pal of Bernstein’s who grew up poor, misplaced his father, was discriminated in opposition to and struggled with dyslexia, however nonetheless managed to haul himself up the company ladder. Regardless of his participation within the George Floyd protests, his employer fired him as a result of DEI restructuring.
“The woke idea of fairness can implicate Jews within the oppression of different minorities,” he mentioned. “Woke ideology insists that Jews not solely profit from white domination however are additionally complicit in it.”

Professional-Palestinian activists maintain a ‘Globalize the Intifada’ protest in opposition to Israel and in assist of Palestinian safety prisoners in New York Metropolis, September 17, 2021. (Luke Tress/Flash90/File)
Beinart mentioned that many US Jews are actually seen as white, however that doesn’t negate antisemitism.
“Being a beneficiary of white privilege doesn’t imply you possibly can’t additionally expertise discrimination. A homosexual man who’s white goes to learn from white privilege, however may additionally face discrimination for being homosexual. The 2 issues usually are not contradictory,” Beinart mentioned.
“Most Japanese European Jews, in the event that they stroll down the road and somebody appears to be like at them, they might not know they’re Jewish, however the particular person will see them as white and that has implications in the US. I don’t suppose that saying most American Jews are perceived as white is antisemitic,” he mentioned.
On Israel, progressive ideology views the Palestinians because the perennial victims, and the Israelis because the victimizers, with no room for nuance, Bernstein argued. Intersectionality has introduced the battle residence for US Jews, as far-left activists push the Palestinian narrative and exclude Zionist Jews.
There are rampant examples — Zionist college students have been banned from campus assist teams for sexual assault survivors; far-left activists have assaulted Jews on metropolis streets; UN investigators traffic in antisemitic tropes and demonize Israel as a colonial oppressor; and anti-Israel activists have repeatedly harassed Jewish groups whereas they’re celebrating holidays or Shabbat, to call a couple of.
Nonetheless, mainstream Jewish teams have gotten on board with the ideology, he accuses. Non-Orthodox US Jews, who’re overwhelmingly Democrats, have longstanding ties to progressive teams and need to be within the progressive tent, even when they don’t imagine in all its tenets.
“In the present day’s progressive left extracts its ‘pound of flesh’ by demanding that Jews self-identify as white, then mouth pieties in opposition to white supremacy, confess to their complicity in it, and give up their crucial schools and their cultural character, so as to not be canceled, or trolled, or to endure different indignities,” Bernstein writes. “Mainstream Jews who align yourselves with woke ideologues, it’s time to face actuality: they’re simply not that into you.”

Spectators on the Have fun Israel Parade in New York Metropolis, Could 22, 2022. (Luke Tress/Instances of Israel)
Inside Jewish teams, the ideology shuts down debate by demanding conformity, he mentioned, describing harsh outcry in opposition to two students who questioned data on the variety of Jews of shade in 2020. The woke motion’s fixation on language and terminology additionally bogs down progress with countless debate about minor rhetorical factors, he argued.
Bernstein referred to as for Jewish teams to “rebuild the middle” by forming new alliances, acknowledging that will probably be a painful course of, akin to “transferring to a brand new metropolis and making a brand new group of associates.”
He believes this new political middle ought to concentrate on preserving conventional democratic values and combating extremism, highlighting organizations like Israel’s non-profit Reut Group, and Free Black Thought, which advocates totally free speech, pluralism, and civil rights.
He additionally inspired the ideology’s Jewish opponents to battle the urge to evolve, converse their thoughts, write opinion items, and stop donations to the organizations with which they disagree and inform them why. The woke agenda is much less fashionable than its amplified voices make it appear, he contended, which means a small variety of opponents might additionally flip the tide.
Solely 6% of Individuals, principally younger and white, establish with the progressive left, however it’s the most politically lively group within the Democratic coalition. The a lot bigger and extra racially various teams within the camp principally don’t agree with the far-left’s calls for for structural change and its allegations of systemic racism, and are extra open to compromise, in accordance with a Pew Center survey final yr. Solely 6% of Black Democrats establish with the progressive left, and it’s the solely political typology within the US through which a majority believes a person’s success in life is essentially outdoors of their management.

Illustrative: Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists in New York Metropolis, Could 15, 2021. (Luke Tress/Instances of Israel/File)
A survey by Bernstein’s Jewish Institute for Liberal Values this yr discovered that 78% of progressives and 81% of very liberal voters imagine white Individuals, together with Jews, have “unfair benefits” that have to be addressed. Near half of progressives mentioned Israel is an “occupier/colonizer” and solely 16% noticed Israel because the historic Jewish homeland.
A majority of each progressive and really liberal respondents mentioned that they had “canceled” a pal or member of the family as a result of politics, whereas the remainder of the voters indicated they see cancel tradition as an issue.
Republicans and independents had been extra sympathetic to Israel, whereas Democrats had been extra supportive of the Palestinians by a margin of 25% to 32%. General, voters had been extra sympathetic to Israel than the Palestinians by a large margin, however youthful voters had been much more prone to be hostile to Israel, indicating a development away from assist for the Jewish state. The survey queried 1,600 probably voters in July and August and had a margin of error of two.5%.
Bernstein mentioned the state of affairs is enhancing in some methods and getting worse in others. Woke ideology has made little headway with American voters. There may be additionally a rising refrain of opponents, making it simpler for others to talk out. On the identical time, the ideology has develop into entrenched in lots of establishments and is being carried out with measures corresponding to DEI guidelines and college curricula, he mentioned.
“We’re in a spiral of illiberalism now and we’ve got to return and discover our middle of gravity and construct a constituency round it,” Bernstein mentioned. “I feel that will be a really highly effective position for the American Jewish neighborhood to play in American society — to assist ignite dedication to a brand new American middle that’s each pluralistic and patriotic.”