I'm Jewish, and I'm here to tell you that antisemitism exists on the left.

I get it. Israel has a lot of power and influence, and antisemitism was used against Corbyn as a smear. That doesn't mean that antisemitism on the left isn't also a real thing, and I'm tired of being regarded with suspicion as a Zionist stooge every time I bring it up.

I'm sick of being grilled by strangers about Palestine as soon as they find out I'm Jewish. You wouldn't get in a Sunni's face about the ongoing Saudi genocide in Yemen, so why do I have to answer for a whole country I'm not from? Why am I a "suspect" until I can prove my credentials?

I'm sick of being regarded as just a (((white person from Brooklyn))), as one poster on here put it. White people from Brooklyn don't get their places of worship shot up at random, or called k*kes everywhere online, or get assaulted if dressed traditionally.

I'm sick of making friends in left spaces IRL, to later hear them regurgitate Rothschild conspiracies or tell racist jokes about the Hasidic communities nearby. Big noses! Love of money! We have sex through a hole in a sheet! It never gets old! This shit people say about Jews would never get said about any other minority. I've even seen a "left" (ex)-friend from school say that "the only good jew is a dead jew" in messages (which apparently was "fine because she's Lebanese and it's a cultural thing and she doesn't really mean it").

There are many problems on the left, including racism and sexism, and it doesn't get better if we just pretend they don't exist. Jewish leftists are your allies, please treat us as such. We want the same goals as you. If we bring up that we feel uncomfortable, PLEASE do not just write us off. It's heartbreaking to raise the issue of the racism that you're experiencing in a supposedly inclusive space, just to be accused of being a shifty wrecker working for a foreign state.

This post was inspired by this one, where a random Jewish person (with "free palestine" on their page, no less) is implied to be a paid Israeli troll just for bringing up that anti-Semitism is a problem on our side too.

Edit: I’d just like to say thank you all for the overwhelmingly positive response to this post. It’s really great to know your comrades have got your back. I also appreciate how those with questions have (mostly) been open minded and engaged in good faith. It makes a difference.

  • vertexarray [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Yeah that post obviously blows, I have no idea how it got so upvoted. I'd hope it's just because the point is so confused that people didn't really pay attention to what they were upvoting...?

    • Phish [he/him, any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I think people get wrapped up in this idea that our politics are nearly perfect and everyone is out to get us. Plus there are plenty of bad faith concern trolls about leftist anti-semitism, like the whole Corbyn fiasco, or even when people say Eli Valley's art is anti-semitic, or TrueAnon is an anti-semitic podcast.

      Sometimes you're so used to fighting one thing you forget about another very similar thing.

    • CarlMarksToeCheese [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I upvoted and commented on that thread largely making fun of the poster themselves and frankly overlooked/did not push back on the part where the poster here claimed they worked at a troll farm. My lack of push back is because I roll my eyes every time people here accuse people of being psyops and just ignore it, but obviously letting that slide on that post wasn't a good call

    • Pezevenk [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah I mindlessly upvoted it at first because it was confusing and I didn't really understand what it was supposed to be about and then I read it a bit closer and I realized what the point was.