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English Lit Major voice: Akhnai is the oven, not the rabbi

I understand why Western artists and academics immediately see their own fields as the place where they can make a difference but Israeli artists and academics are often (though not always) the ones the Israeli government is, itself, trying to silence.

Anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are very real and powerful forms of bigotry in our modern world, and deserve to be talked about on their own terms. We can do that without taking away one of the words Jews have, rooted in the very particular Jewish experience in modern Europe.

So antisemitism refers to Jews, because that was how the term was invented. It was a way of inventing the racialization of the Jews, and it therefore differs from (while still borrowing from) earlier Christian anti-Judaism.

This can’t be a unique problem that only I have

To be more specific: the Trump administration has already taken many steps that will make it harder for the opposition to win. But it's not clear that they're enough, especially if the incumbent is very unpopular. We'll only know then if the consolidation has happened, can't know in advance.

I’m sure everyone used it that way around you when you were growing up, and you hadn’t even considered the broader implications of the phrase. You weren’t aware, but now you are. So, in the future, if you could please criticize public figures without Jews catching strays, we’d appreciate it.
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