Thread by @NudderingNudnik

There is a young Labour activist who is pro-Corbyn.
This activist is @charlotte2153
Charlotte speaks "as a Jew".
Charlotte has made a number of very public interventions in the Labour antisemitism "debate", some positive and some very negative (from my perspective).

Charlotte was an attendee at the Jewdass seder.

She very vocally defended his attendance and wrote a piece in the @JewishChron
However, she has also condemned Ken Livingstone and Marc Wadsworth and attacked Ken Loach.

Charlotte is not a cartoon "asajew" defender of all things Leftist and antisemitic. But she has taken a number of very public position on the issue of Leftist antisemitsm in the context of her Jewishness.

She has publicly accused @BoardofDeputies and @JLC_uk of "instrumentalising" antisemitism in order to attack the Left. Her Left.

For this - and a number of other reasons - Charlotte has had a public disagreement with some members of @LabourAgainstAS and accused them of bullying her.

When a number of @nusuk officers supported Israel in the Eurovision event she was publicly very critical and supported another officer who made a very nasty attack on them.
She referred to "fetishisation" of Israel.

So far so good. A Jewish voice that disagrees with other Jewish voices. Good. That's a complex community in action not a monolithic entity. All very healthy.

Except for one thing. Charlotte has been "a Jew" for only a year or 2.

Just 5 years ago Charlotte was identifying as an Irish Catholic. Yet today she attacks the @BoardofDeputies and those of us fighting antisemitism "as a Jew".

This raises some interesting and complex issues.

Jewishness is a complex, but not unique thing, in that we are an ethno-religious group. And as a faith group, we admit converts.
Now generally people convert because they have found a Jewish partner and wish to marry. Few people convert for other reasons.

For many Jews, our Jewishness is not religious - it is about culture, history, lived experience and history. And more history.
Why the history?
Because ours is a history of struggle and oppression. And exile. And murder. And hatred.

In many senses Israel represents the very breach in that historical experience. It draws a line in the sand of the Negev and says "from here on in, Jews will no longer be defined by our victimhood".

In centuries to come perhaps that will mean that Jews have freed themselves mentally from the millennia long scars of victimhood and what that does to a people. I embrace that future vision of being a Jew.
But here and now - we're not there yet. Certainly not for the diaspora.

So for now, my Jewishness is - against my choice - defined in some large part by the centuries of suffering of my family. By the murder of my family in the Shoah. By the traumatised elderly father who cannot go to Germany and who never had German goods in the house.

And my response to antisemitism and those who attack Israel is of course also defined by all this.
I grew up - like most Jews - being sporadically abused & attacked for the crime of being Jewish. Sure, i also got the chopped herring & the bagels - it wasn't all bad.

But it wasn't all good either. Often very much not good. Still is, of course.

So - when someone without ANY of this history, experience, collective memory and pain claims to speak for me & my family when attacking those from my community who seek to protect us - I get cross.

I'm cross with @charlotte2153 - not because she is a very recent convert, but because she does not show any appreciation of the complexity and nuance of her position. She says "I'm as Jewish as you" and then defends those who attack me (as well as sometimes being on my side).

In a nutshell - I believe @charlotte2153 should publicly speak "as a recent convert to the Jewish faith" but absolutely not "as a Jew" when intervening in the politics around antisemitism.
Her current position shows a lack of respect and judgement.

As a non-religious Jew I really don't give 2 hoots about whether some religious text somewhere tells Charlotte she can speak for me and all Jews.
She can't - she has no right to speak for us.
To not publicly preface her statements with "as a recent religious convert" is dishonest

The decent, sensitive thing to do would be for @charlotte2153 to be still, to be quiet on all matters political when it comes to Jewishness and antisemitism.
To wait. To grow. To learn.
But she can't do this. She is in a hurry to be heard, to speak loudly.

And the current political position we are now in - with an institutionally antisemitic opposition party - means that Charlotte is being heard. Very loudly. She has a platform and a receptive audience.

And she is using it to attack those of us who carry centuries of Jewishness, carrying a burden that seems to grow heavier by the day in 2018.
So i publicly call on @charlotte2153 to do 3 things:
1) Change your twitter profile to reflect your recent convert status

2) Refrain from commenting on antisemitism in the Labour party unless you point out your very recent convert status.
3)Do not attack Jewish communal bodies when they speak unless you state your recent convert status as crucial context.

To sum up - do not use your Jewishness unless you are totally open & honest about the nature & extent of it.
Otherwise you are in great danger of being a Rachel Dolezel figure. And you do not want to be that.

In fact, Rachel D didn't attack black community leaders, she was very supportive of them.
You Charlotte are doing something worse that what Rachel D did.

In summary Charlotte: you have every right to express your opinion on anything & your experience as a recent religious convert to Judaism is entirely valid & should be respected.
But be honest.
And do not represent your experience by diminishing mine.

Ends.