The “Good Jew” will Relinquish their Right to Sovereignty and Safety

By Kim Matheson
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In 2004, our team was awarded a grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research to assess the mental health implications of different forms of stigma and discrimination. One population we included in this research was Jews. At that time, we quoted that while “anti-Semitism is not gone,” it was “increasingly irrelevant to the daily lives and opportunities of Canadian Jews” (Weinfeld, 2001).
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One of the reasons we included Jews was due to the rampant historical antisemitism that had been evident for millennia, albeit in cycles of golden and dark eras. However, in 2004, we were sensing an emerging cloud of darkness. Indeed, the status of Jews was becoming more threatened than it had been in decades. Particularly following Al-Queda’s September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Centre, there was a surprising backlash against Israel seen through repeated negative votes against Israel within the United Nations, frequent reports of blatant antisemitism in Europe, and Western media coverage was perceived to portray Middle East affairs without sympathy to Israel. Many Jews believed that antisemitism had escalated, but that it was often couched in terms of anti-Zionism (not incidentally, many Jews do not view Zionism as a challenge to their group identity).
 
And escalate it has. From rabid BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaigns against Israel that started in 2005 (and funded by organizations in Iran and Saudi Arabia), to antisemitic campus groups fostering a rhetoric of hate, to trade unions and political parties capitalizing on what seems to be a zeitgeist of anti-Zionism applied through the exclusion and denigration of any Jew who dares embrace their Jewish identity with pride or in solidarity with Israel. While those fostering such Jew-hatred wave their hands with the defence “It isn’t about Jews, it’s about Zionism. It’s about Israel’s colonization and genocide of the Palestinians”, it is clear that their source of information derives from an addiction to social media platforms and the algorithms that expose users to narratives they already espouse, rather than a critical and informed understanding of history and global politics.

While there are many examples of such ignorance, here are just a few:

(1) MYTH Jews colonized Palestine.  Jews have been present in the region that now constitutes Israel since before Christ. Over the centuries, there have been an untold number of battles among Jews, Christians, and Muslims to occupy this region, and the existence of the state of Israel is an assertion that this region has long been a Jewish ancestorial homeland. In Jerusalem alone, one sees the evidence of a thriving pre-biblical Jewish presence, including the Temple Mount (957 BCE), the Western Wall (2nd century BCE), and Yad Avshalom (1st century CE).​

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(2) MYTH Zionists are an extremist Jewish group. Or as I recently saw on social media “Zionists are to Judaism what the KKK are to Christianity”. Zionism is not about the subjugation of any group. Fundamentally, given the long history of persecution, it is about the creation of a protected space that allows Jews to live in peace and safety.  The creation of a Jewish state became a Zionist imperative in light of the Holocaust of World War II wherein over 6 million Jews were murdered (to say nothing of the multigenerational trauma of survivors). Just as egregious was the global lack of sympathy for Jews fleeing Europe as countries, including Canada and the US, closed their borders sending ships full of stranded Jewish families away. In 1948 Israel was legally recognized as an independent sovereign state. Zionism derives its strength from the rampant antisemitism of the West and of the surrounding countries that continue to be overtly hostile to Jews.

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​(3) MYTH Israel instigated the war against Gaza as an excuse to eliminate the Palestinians. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. By 2007 Hamas held complete political control of Gaza. Hamas is well-funded by Iran and dedicated not to creating a flourishing Palestinian economy, but rather to the incitement of Jew-hatred and the destruction of the state of Israel. Following years of sending rocket missiles into Israel, on October 7, 2023 Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing over 1200 civilians and abducting 251 Jewish Israelis and foreign nationals, including women, children and elderly people. To date, 154 have been released, rescued or their bodies recovered; 97 remain in captivity. Israel’s goal is to protect itself from further deadly attacks, and to recover the remaining hostages. Hamas has integrated its military installations within schools, hospitals, and heavily populated areas in Gaza using citizens as a human shield, and provoking international outcry when Israel has the audacity to fight back.

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​These three examples aren’t intended to be comprehensive. There are those who will apply an appallingly revisionist interpretation of events no matter what facts are presented. Others who are sincerely interested in questioning the biases of social and mainstream media might be motivated to dig further to understand the sociopolitical dynamics at play – they might not agree, but their analyses may be thoughtful, recognizing the complexity of the situation that is not captured by simple-minded memes or headlines.
 
So why is this relevant here? Aside from a strong commitment to social justice issues, our research and that of others has consistently demonstrated that discriminatory experiences can culminate in stress-related pathology. Indeed, as in other stigmatized groups, Western Jews are at elevated risk for stress-related disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, along with stress-linked physical problems, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
 
At the same time, strong identification with such groups can provide a basis for collective esteem, social support and solidarity. Indeed, individuals who report high identification with a stigmatized group appear to experience the least depression or loss of self-esteem when their identity is threatened. Group members may turn to one another to reduce distress and uncertainty by acquiring validation from one another and minimizing the feelings of rejection emanating from the actions of outgroups. The ability to rely on support from within the group may also serve a strategic function, facilitating a collective understanding of events and potential responses. In short, the most effective coping strategy when groups are under threat is for members to come together. This is precisely what we’re seeing among Jews globally, a reaction that is intensified and polarized by the global uproar against Israel and unrestrained antisemitism that requires ‘good Jews’ to denounce themselves. However, Jewish communities have a very long history of resilience in the face of the most horrific persecution. This most recent dark era will be no exception.
 
I have spent my career trying to understand the factors that enable disadvantaged groups to mobilize and sustain strong positive identities. I have been conducting research with women’s groups, black immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQ2S, and Indigenous Peoples.  Working toward building a just and equitable society has grounded and motivated me in these efforts. I am not Jewish, but I am deeply disturbed by the uninformed self-righteousness of academics, politicians, and others who ought to know better but are actively promulgating this current wave of anti-Jewish hatred. Why have we not learned from history?