I AM BOTH JEWISH and an Israeli citizen, so I was recently shocked to learn that Minority Whip Katherine Clark, who represents my district in Congress, believes that I am an antisemite. In particular, Clark voted for the so-called Antisemitism Awareness Act, a deceptively named bill intended to delegitimize criticism of Israel by conflating it with hatred of Jewish people. The bill would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism, which includes, among other things, “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Based on both the Jewish values I was raised on and my experience living in Israel, I believe Israel is a fundamentally racist state. This is exemplified by its anti-miscegenation marriage law, a segregated school system that severely underfunds non-Jewish schools, and legally segregated towns.
Now, I am quite definitely Jewish. My paternal grandparents grew up in the Jewish community in Belgium; my grandmother’s family barely escaped the Nazi invasion. My maternal grandfather was for many years the Rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Cleveland. When I was three years old, my parents immigrated to Israel; my father and two of my siblings still live there. Growing up in Israel, I went to a religious Jewish high school, where among other subjects I studied Talmud (in the original Aramaic, of course).
Whatever her opinions of Israel, Clark has no right to declare that my views, as someone who is a Jewish citizen of Israel, make me an antisemite. Nor does Clark have the right to declare that members of Jewish organizations that are critical of Israel—like IfNotNow or Jewish Voice for Peace—are antisemitic.
To give another example of this bill’s absurd notions of antisemitism, consider the late Israeli scientist, writer, and public intellectual Yeshayahu Leibowitz. After Leibowitz’s death in 1994, then-Israeli President Ezer Wiezman described him as “among the great figures in the lives of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in recent generations, a man of intellect, philosophy, humanities, and literature.”
Yet the bill that Clark supported would declare Leibowitz an antisemite. While Leibowitz was a Zionist, he famously described Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories as dehumanizing and “Judeo-Nazi.” If this bill were to pass, “comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” would be considered antisemitic by US law.
Declaring that Jews are antisemitic if they hold the wrong beliefs or use the wrong words is offensive enough to disqualify this bill all on its own. But there’s a much broader constitutional issue. Like me, Rep. Jerry Nadler is Jewish, though unlike me he is a strong supporter of Israel. Nonetheless, Nadler voted against the bill, noting that it “threatens to chill constitutionally-protected speech. Speech that is critical of Israel—alone—does not constitute unlawful discrimination.”
Discrimination is already covered by existing laws; what this bill does, according to both Nadler and the ACLU, is suppress political speech, in direct violation of the First Amendment.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act is a horrifying insult to many of Clark’s Jewish constituents and a significant restriction to constitutionally-protected free speech. Clark should apologize for voting for it and make amends to her constituents. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Jake Auchincloss, and Jim McGovern voted against this misguided bill. When it comes before the Senate, Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren should follow their lead and vote no.
Itamar Turner-Trauring is a resident of Cambridge.
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