To my right wing friends on Twitter:
I do not think that it is a coincidence that, on the week after Jews were slain in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, I have found many of my assignments at work to be having to research and write about the crimes of the Soviet Union against the Jews.
I do not think that it is a coincidence that, on the week after Jews were slain in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, I have found many of my assignments at work to be having to research and write about the crimes of the Soviet Union against the Jews.
Life is serendipitous & as it seems that many of you who identify w/ the right have in good faith claimed that there is no reason to be alarmed when terms like "globalist" become part of popular discourse,it has now become duty to explain why you are wrong, & dangerously so.
If my tone seems distressed/aggressive, I ask that you forgive me. This week I have been immersed in researching the crimes of Josef Stalin against the Jews. I have been immersed in this research so much that it has begun to affect my dreaming which has now turned to nightmares.
Thus you can understand/forgive my being terse when I say to those of you who excuse this language as being harmless or something you agree with that not only do you not know what you're talking about but you are being incredibly irresponsible and playing with dangerous fire.
It is no coincidence that the man who murdered Jews last week cited HIAS as a motivation. The accusation of "globalist" fits in with HIAS's concern for refugees. Pay close attention:
The "globalist" which simply connotes *foreigner* or one who has sympathies for foreigners has taken many forms in Jewish history. To understand its pernicious use in history, one has to return to the days of Catherine the Great who moved Jews to the Pale of Settlement in 1791.
Here too, the Jews were not called "globalists" but were seen as what the term connotes, ie *the foreigner* or *the other.* Russia had just conquered part of Poland & with it came an influx of Jews, prompting locals to become jealous/accuse them of perpetuating "fraud and lies."
This *foreigner* was later blamed for the assassination of Alexander the II and this led to a wave of pogroms culminating in a major pogrom in Warsaw in 1881. This led to the May Laws, a series of restrictions against Jews in the university, law, and medicine.
This was followed closely by the Black Hundreds, a counter-revolutionary force that fomented racial anti-Semitism and inspired more pogroms.
You will begin to note that the accusation of "globalist", or foreigner sympathizer has been used by right-wing and left-wing governments alike. This was the case in Russia. And it is not a dogwhistle in the slightest; it is a bullhorn.
In the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution, things seemed like they were going to take a turn. Initially the Bolsheviks who were anti-tsarist began to condemn everything that was a feature of the tzar, including his anti-Semitism.
Yet this left-wing revolutionary force, itself fought for by many Jews, began to revert. Those belonging to the Black Hundreds began to join the Bolsheviks and brought their anti-Semitism with them.
Thus calls to fight the Bolsheviks changed to calls to fight the bourgeoisie, to which Jews were accused of belonging and "exploiting the proletariat." Hence the call began to "strike out at the Yids."
Let's fast forward to Stalin. It is especially important to pay close attention to Stalin because of some of the popular arguments being made by you regarding President Trump.
Some of you have argued that because President Trump has supported Israel at the UN and abroad, it is silly to suggest he has anything to do with the current growing atmosphere of anti-Semitism. That is not only false, it betrays an ignorance of basic history.
In 1946, Stalin began to publicly refer to Jews as "rootless cosmopolitans" an obvious synonym of the PC term "globalist" used today. During his brief rapprochement with the Nazis, he agreed with the initiative to end "Jewish domination"
Stalin also played fast and loose with words. So for example he allowed the creation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee when he was fighting the Nazis -- and then proceeded to murder its members after it became a liability post WWII.
The accusation? Well rootless cosmopolitans of course who had shown some allegiance to Israel.
The point of this exercise is to remember this tragic fact of history, namely that fascists will do whatever is necessary to maintain power, including feeding their feverish paranoia over people they believe are fifth columns in their midst plotting to destroy them.
This culminated in the Doctor's Plot, an attempt to accuseJewish doctors of trying to poison the dictator and, upon receiving their coerced confessions, a desire to use said information to send all the Jews to Siberia. The only thing that stopped this was Stalin's death.
This is the history of terms "rootless cosmopolitan" "globalists" and "mercenary agents of a foreign power." It has ALWAYS been used to refer to a conniving, secret cabal of foreigners plotting to take over the entire world. And it is Jews that have been accused of this.
Its important to address this issue of President Trump's pro-Israel bonafides. After all, he has Jewish kids and grandkids. After all, he moved the embassy. After all he defended Israel in the UN. Be not deceived or naive; be only a student of history.
Stalin had his bonafides too. Stalin sold arms to the fledgling Jewish state. Stalin, let me remind you, voted to make Israel a state as he thought it would be a socialist ally with him against the West during the Cold War; Stalin, defended it in the halls of the UN.
Stalin, let me remind you, accepted Golda Meir to Moscow as Israel's ambassador. I can SURELY imagine people saying in 1948, "look, isn't Stalin the greatest pro-Jewish guy ever!"
But all the while, when throngs of Jews were meeting and embracing Golda in Moscow during the Yom Kippur service, Stalin's KGB men were among the crowd taking notes and plotting to put those same Jews in prison for expressing "nationalist" sentiments.
There was that characteristic playing fast and loose with language that the USSR is known for. An empire claiming to be communist and universal accused its Jewish citizens of being "rootless cosmopolitans" because it was increasingly Zionist.
Anti-Semitism needs no logic because it is illogical. To reiterate, all the while Stalin was arming the Jewish state, he was plotting to purge the Jews in his midst and murder them in Siberia. Now am I saying that President Trump is Stalin? Of course not.
I am merely saying to proceed with caution: Be not swayed by the fleeting rhetoric of the day and pay attention to Jewish history. Tastes change and are full of contradictions whenever they serve people's need for power.
And be especially weary of those who are comfortable with using language that has historically been used as a pretense to slaughter your people. The blood of your brother calls out to you and begs you to proceed with caution.
Shabbat Shalom.
Shabbat Shalom.
