“Conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of a modern apartheid state is dangerous historical revisionism.”

— Lela Tolajian, student and human rights activist

When I told my Jewish neighbor that I thought ritual circumcision was essentially mutilation of a baby’s body, she called me anti-Semitic. My response (I know, I should have just shut up) was, “Since I believe that routine cutting off the most sensitive part of a male infant’s body is a cruel and primitive practice, I’d be discriminating if I made it OK if the kid happened to be Jewish (or Muslim).” Our previously warm relationship turned tepid, and after that, we were simply cordial with each other. (She did tell Louisa later that she fainted at the sight of the mohel snipping away at her eight-day old son’s penis during his circumcision ceremony.)

Since the Hamas atrocities of last October 7 and subsequent IDF invasion of Gaza, the term “anti-Semitic” (or -semitic) seems to be a mindless and impulsive response to many who are critical of Israel’s scorched-earth policy there, including progressive Jews! (I can’t bear to call it a war, when only one side, employing airplanes and tanks, has killed nearly 40,000 civilians — including 10,000 children — and destroyed much of what was essentially a concentration camp for over two million refugees, their families having been driven from their homes by Israel. The ongoing “operation” in Gaza makes the 1982 massacres in Lebanon’s Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps seem hardly worth noting.)

I’m not even sure what being “anti-Semitic” means anymore. In its original, now obsolete, form, it meant being prejudiced against those of the tribe of Shem (one of Noah’s three sons, per Genesis), which can properly apply to Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, Phoenicians and a host of Middle-Eastern and African groupings. Obsolete it may be, but how can we square the “anti-Semitic” label with Jews from, say, the U.S., Germany, Russia etc? Seems to me, only Jews from the Middle East can be termed “Semitic.”

(Ironically, the term was originally coined by journalist and politician Wilhelm Marr, 1819-1904, in his 1881 book The Way to Victory of the German Spirit over the Jewish Spirit, Jews, in his opinion, being responsible for all the ills suffered by Germany. Ironic because Marr made an exception when it came to marriage: Three of his four wives were Jewish.)

The real problem with the label “anti-Semitic,” and with labels in general (e.g. racist, bimbo, illegal, slut, retard, tranny, homo…) is that it creates defensiveness, stops discussion, and is just a lazy way to avoid facing up to our own fears and insecurities. I think my Jewish friends would agree.