This piece may be read as Judy Andreas' response to this piece Ralph Seliger.
Thoughts on Jews & Oppression by Judy Andreas, Director of Catalyst to Coalition and FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN Conference Series Coordinator

The NY Area FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN: A Progressive Scholars' and Activists' Conference on Anti-Semitism & The Left has generated some discussion about whether to consider Jews as oppressed. Here's my take on the significance of this issue. The Left generally situates goups in relation to oppression in this way:

THESE ETHNIC GROUPS ARE OPPRESSED:
People of African descent
People of Asian and Pacific Island descent
People of Latin American descent
People of Native American descent
Arabs

THESE ETHNIC GROUPS ARE NOT OPPRESSED:
White People
Jews

You see where this leads us. Imagine the effect on millions of Gentile Progressive who accept this analysis. Many conclude that Jews do not deserve care as people oppressed by bigotry and have no place in coalitions of oppressed peoples. Rather, Jews are seen as well-to-do white oppressors whose power should be resisted. Jews, of course, are also affected by this analysis.

(You see how closely this parallels the deeply-held belief about "Jewish power" that has been a prominent feature of anti-Semitism since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were created in the early 1900's. See Dr. Christopher MacDonald Dennis' academic paper which documents this perception among college students today. Abstract on www.facingachallenge.com, click on "academic papers.")

While you may disagree that situating groups due to privilege is an effective social change strategy, I maintain that it is basic in the culture of the Left, generally. This is the reality that I live in as an activist, whether or not I value identity politics. I believe the point is to use these concepts of oppression to challenge prejudice itself. But, when it comes to Jews, we as a multicultural Left have not yet developed theory, practice or organizations to challenge anti-Semitism.

The FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN conference series is dedicated to Ricky Sherover Marcuse in the spirit of continuing development of her anti-oppression work. Ricky studied with the Frankfurt (Germany) School of Revolutionary Psychology, from which she created Unlearning Oppression theory and practice. You can learn more about Ricky's life and work at www.unlearningracism.org We need theory such as this that explains how our emotional orientation to Jews underlies our beliefs and actions to effectively fight anti-Semitism.

When the dominant emotional/social orientation of European Christian/secular Christian culture has demonized Jews for 2,000 years, that system of oppression remains embedded even when the economic and political situation of Jews is relatively comfortable. Hence, the cyclical nature of anti-Jewish attacks over the centuries. The system of oppression has remained in place despite periods of prosperity and tolerance, because the prejudice has remained.

I see this prejudice enduring in the world and in the Left. Some may view Left political stances about Jewish concerns as outside of prejudice, (yet see that they aggravate anti-Semitism once they reach into larger society.) But anti-oppression theory recognizes that all of our reactions, including political ones, are influenced by any unexamined prejudice that we may hold.

How can anti-Semitism be examined until we formulate a working definition of how it may appear in the modern world today? As with many traditional bigotries, modern forms of anti-Semitism have morphed into more "subtle" and "deniable" forms. That does not diminish their power. In fact, the case has been made that deniable forms of prejudice are more intractable, precisely because they are more difficult to recpgnize.

In the Left, we have taken on the job of tackling modern, more deniable forms of oppressions of many groups. To challenge anti-Semitism, we also have to accept the complexity created by many centuries of oppression and survival. In the current environment of the Left, if we do not validate the oppression of Jews, we are reinforcing the view of ethnic oppression listed at the top of this article. By challenging these prevaling beliefs about Jews and oppresion, we can begin a more effective movement to challenge anti-Semitism in ourselves, our organizations, and in the world.

Peace, Judy Andreas 4/8/06

Ralph Seliger replies to Judy Andreas:

Judy Andreas is surely correct that if groups are categorized as either being "oppressed" or "not oppressed," and Jews are considered as the latter (not oppressed), Jews fall onto the Left's shit list. But my argument is that it is this Leftist analysis that needs to be challenged, because it simplistically depicts reality, reducing whole groups of people into good and bad, oppressed and oppressor.

It is also unhistorical. The history of the Jews over the last two millennia is as one of the most oppressed, persecuted and massacred people on earth. Anti-Jewish hatreds are ancient and embedded in majority cultures through at least half the world, with the exception of Buddhist and Hindu societies in Asia. Christianity has poisoned the well for Jews into modern times and has even infected contemporary Islamic societies to the point where anti-Jewish feelings are more prevalent and venomous today in predominantly Muslim countries than in the Christian West.

There are many countries in the world where it's unwise to advertise one's Jewishness, but there are few places where Jewish communities remain that live in oppression. Iran is probably one such place, but Jews are more secure today in North America, in Europe and in Israel than in past centuries. Of course, the European Holocaust remains a living memory, and world Jewry has not even replaced, in raw numbers, the six million lost during that time. And the vibrant and ancient Jewish communities of the Arab world have also been lost-- although most of their progeny have found refuge in Israel and in the West.

The reemergence of anti-Semitism as a problem in Western Europe during the years of the post-Camp David Intifada, beginning in the fall of 2000, has been almost as much of a shock as the Intifada itself. We are now living in an era where the ubiquitous presence and graphic power of the electronic media, in instantaneously distributing imagery of Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israeli soldiers or in disseminating flawed theories of Jewish power in the US (for example) combine with preexisting prejudices to threaten Jews anew.

There is an age-old pattern of tyrannical regimes using the Jews as scapegoats to defer unrest or to fan and exploit this ingrained bigotry to safeguard their hold on power. This was obviously true of Nazi Germany and European fascist regimes in its orbit. This was true of Czarist Russia, this was true of Stalin's Soviet Union and neighboring countries that fell under Soviet domination (with anti-Semitism being disguised as attacks on "rootless Cosmopolitans" and "Zionists"). It has also been true of Arab regimes, which have long blamed their failings on Israel and Zionism.

What is different today is that the problem is not the current reality of anti-Jewish oppression, but the potential and threat of this happening again as Israel and the Jewish people are viewed by manipulated masses as sources of evil in the world that need to be defeated or eradicated. Jews are a vulnerable and threatened people, but not powerless and not (for the most part) oppressed. This is a complicated but problematic reality that defies the dualistic analysis of oppressed versus oppressor, and an adoration for the perceived "underdog," that the Left seems so fond of.

Ralph Seliger, www.meretzUSA.blogspot.com