I wrote a column about two or so months ago about the war in Israel and the remarkable lack of knowledge of many well-educated, compassionate people here and abroad about Jews. Whatever your feelings about the Israeli response to the unprovoked massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis and the death of 40,000 plus individuals in Gaza, this essay does not relate to that intractable problem. This essay is about our feelings towards one another in our home in the Berkshires.
There has been a rise in prejudicial speech in Great Barrington and other towns as the war in the Mideast has dragged on. Until recently, it had probably been 20 years since I heard someone discuss how one of their family members was “Jewed down” in a transaction. More current, and now heard more often, is the belief that Jews from New York (often just “New Yorkers”), are the cause of the rise in real estate prices and the general change and gentrification of the area.
Whatever the situation, and certainly our towns have changed, the addition of the Jewish identification has resulted in a tacit antisemitism that blames Jews for negative effects relating to the current economic situation here. This a typical antisemitic trope, the expanded one being that Jews are rich and control the world’s finance, media outlets, governments, etc. (hard since there are only about 15.7 million of us in a world population of 8 billion), and have no interest in anything other than making money at any cost.
When I was young, antisemitism upstate and in the Berkshires was more obvious. I remember my family being denied a room in a virtually empty hotel in Great Barrington when my father said his name was Cohen. When a cross was burned on the golf course of Copake Country Club, probably by one of the local Ku Klux Klan chapters, we knew it was because most of the members were Jewish and from New York City.
In the 50 years I have been a member of a country club here, the initial antisemitism which denied Jews membership has changed completely, as has the general attitude of all the members—both Jews and others.
This is not to say all individuals have been stripped of bigotry and prejudice, but that in living together we begin to know each other better and accept people of different backgrounds and religions. We also know better than to give voice to venomous bias, although because of current national politics, that reticence seems to be changing into an acceptance of hate speech and the actual glorification of those who use it.
Would it be conceivable a few years ago for a president to invite individuals to his home for dinner knowing their virulent antisemitism and race hatred (e.g., Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes) and claim that there were fine people on both sides of an antisemitic rally? Our leaders should try to halt bigotry, not run their election campaigns on it.
Whatever the situation of our nation and the world, false accusations of negative stereotypes have no place in our society. It is horribly offensive to use a religion or ethnicity to describe a negative characteristic, whether claiming someone has been cheated or that immigrants commit more crime than the rest of us (notably untrue based on extensive studies). We are better than this, but even if you cling to these nauseating stereotypes, you shouldn’t spew them to your neighbors, colleagues, and friends. After all, if you are that dumb and prejudiced, you should not reinforce that stupidity before the whole town.
