By Rabbi Steve Burg
I felt a sickening sense of déjà vu when I read a recent Washington Post article that insinuated that American Jewish leaders conspired to improperly influence New York City’s mayor and police to crack down on violent anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University. The echoes of the infamous antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” were unmistakable and chilling.
First published in Russia in 1903, the “Protocols” claimed to describe a Jewish plot to take over the world. That plot never existed; the “Protocols” was an absurd lie. Nonetheless, its false portrayal of Jews as cynical manipulators of world events who use nefarious backroom dealings to gain control of the economy, media and politicians was hugely influential, with dire consequences.
This vile propaganda gave a pseudo-intellectual veneer to ancient anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that falsely charged Jews with exercising nefarious omnipotent power and being disloyal to the nations in which they resided. Sadly, its toxic mythology continues to contaminate public discourse, as evidenced by The Washington Post article in question.
The article paints a picture of Jews operating as a unified, power-brokering cabal. This cabal, it is implied, exercises ill-gotten “influence” over political leaders in order to suppress free speech on campus. This is textbook “Protocols” and, like the “Protocols,” it is completely false.
First, contrary to the article’s implications, nothing Jewish leaders did was secret. American Jews have been as public as humanly possible about our demand that our sons and daughters be kept safe on campus. We have been begging and pleading with city leaders and police to enforce the law in order to prevent further harassment and violence against Jewish students.
We shouldn’t have to do this. The law should have been enforced months ago. Everyone has the right to be safe, including on a college campus. Students have the right to receive the education for which they have paid tens of thousands of dollars without interference from campus racists.
Unfortunately, we all saw the congressional hearing at which the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT...
