Again, thank you, Howard. I was shocked to see on Instagram a whole issue of a small literary magazine in our West Coast City devoted to #Free Palestine. I've unsubscribed from a couple of major literary journals, I've submitted to in the past. Frankly, even before the Hamas massacre, they would not have published me because of their political emphases. But now I don't want them in my inbox.
I was told by an eminent writer in my genre that an older Jewish woman was going to find it tough to return. One sharp as paint young woman suggested I should probably not be trying to get an Arthurian story about an Arab knight who converts into print. It makes me nervous and distressed. Please keep me in the loop.
These writers are not fooled at all and their intelligence is still intact. They are, as difficult as it is to accept, antisemites and have always been. The current madness is fuel for them to express it just as Trump's rhetoric gave bigots in this country fuel to express hate for immigrants, Muslims, and many others. The irony to me, as a Jew, is that so many of these people would say they are Christians, and the central figure of Christianity is a Jewish guy from Nazareth who spent his short life preaching (surprise! surprise!) Judaism, as most revealingly done in the gospel according to St. Thomas which was, for centuries, ignored. Recently, 100 professors at Harvard condemned their Chancellor for condemning antisemitism acts on the campus. This defies logic, professionalism, and oddly, a sense of grace that I thought a natural part of the intelligentsia. Antisemitism will outlast all of us, yet never completely annihilate Jews and Judaism. This is my hope, and my idea of the absolute irony of living in this world.
Again, thank you, Howard. I was shocked to see on Instagram a whole issue of a small literary magazine in our West Coast City devoted to #Free Palestine. I've unsubscribed from a couple of major literary journals, I've submitted to in the past. Frankly, even before the Hamas massacre, they would not have published me because of their political emphases. But now I don't want them in my inbox.
I was told by an eminent writer in my genre that an older Jewish woman was going to find it tough to return. One sharp as paint young woman suggested I should probably not be trying to get an Arthurian story about an Arab knight who converts into print. It makes me nervous and distressed. Please keep me in the loop.
These writers are not fooled at all and their intelligence is still intact. They are, as difficult as it is to accept, antisemites and have always been. The current madness is fuel for them to express it just as Trump's rhetoric gave bigots in this country fuel to express hate for immigrants, Muslims, and many others. The irony to me, as a Jew, is that so many of these people would say they are Christians, and the central figure of Christianity is a Jewish guy from Nazareth who spent his short life preaching (surprise! surprise!) Judaism, as most revealingly done in the gospel according to St. Thomas which was, for centuries, ignored. Recently, 100 professors at Harvard condemned their Chancellor for condemning antisemitism acts on the campus. This defies logic, professionalism, and oddly, a sense of grace that I thought a natural part of the intelligentsia. Antisemitism will outlast all of us, yet never completely annihilate Jews and Judaism. This is my hope, and my idea of the absolute irony of living in this world.
Thanks for your comments, Diana. It shows that education and intelligence is no barometer for basic human decency.
Gonna say I think it’s mainly a new variety of good old fashioned Jew hatred.
I just saw terrorist couture advertised on FB. I think this is all a fashion statement.
Facebook won’t take it down, either.