Commentary | Avoiding Victimhood: A Lesson From Our Jewish Peers – By Lexi Boccuzzi (Real Clear Politics) / May 2, 2024
More than six months have passed since the deadly attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Yet it seems like every day I wake up to new reports of antisemitic conduct, particularly among America’s most elite young adults, Ivy League students. The latest has been a series of violent protests at Columbia and Yale where Jewish students were harassed and even attacked. At Penn, I have been reporting on the ground while protesters chanted “Israelis are pigs,” and “Al-Qassam make us proud, take another soldier down.” Our famous Ben Franklin statue was even vandalized with the KKK slur “Zios get fuckt.” How did the generation that prided itself on inclusive language, safe spaces, and affirming one another’s identities end up being so hostile toward Jews?
The story is multifold. It starts, of course, with Gen Z’s selective and shallow supposed tolerance. Ninety percent of Gen Zers expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and less than 50% believe there are “just two genders,” statistics that would be lauded by progressives as surefire indicators of “tolerance.” However, this is paired with rapidly increasing rates of intolerance for people of different viewpoints among Gen Z
None of this explains why Jews are exempt from this veil of tolerance. After all, they are a historically oppressed minority group. American Jews were crucial to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and supported gay marriage more than any other religious group. They also are the most reliable liberal voting coalition by faith, with 79% voting for Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms. So why, then, did progressives not only refuse to rally behind those experiencing antisemitism but actively propagate it?
