Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

by David L. Bernstein

Is woke ideology inherently antisemitic? You may be surprised to know that I don’t think it is. There is nothing inherently antisemitic about, for example, linking identity to privilege. But there is plenty of dogma in doing so when, for example, proponents insist that being white and male automatically bestows advantage in every context while being Black and female likewise automatically confers disadvantage. Sometimes, those immutable characteristics are, as claimed, advantages or disadvantages. Sometimes, however, a supposed disadvantage can become an advantage, and vice versa. Often, in life’s varied circumstances, such identities make little difference whatsoever. It’s both dogmatic and dangerous to insist that identity is a proxy for oppression and privilege, and to bully others into acquiescence, thereby creating an opportunity for more radical actors—the haters, who are always looking for an excuse —to make a more radical claim linking Jewish identity to privilege. Moreover, Jews fare better in open, liberal environments, and less well in closed, illiberal environments. According to the writer Dara Horn, “Since ancient times, in every place they have