Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

by David L. Bernstein

I fully agreed with the message of the spoof: an equity regime would produce a drive to the bottom that wouldn’t serve anyone, especially the people on the lowest socio-economic rung. Interestingly, according to Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, one of today’s greatest living Jewish theologians, the Kendi version of equity is at odds with the Jewish tradition. He wrote in Sapir—a Jewish journal of ideas—in Spring 2021: On one hand, the Torah repeatedly warns about injustice to the poor: “You shall not pervert judgment of the poor in his cause” (Exodus 23:6)…On the other hand, one must not pursue justice through unjust means: “You shall not favor a poor man in his cause [unjustly]” (Exodus 23:3); and “you shall not do unrighteousness in judgment [or policy]” (Leviticus 19:15). The Torah is warning against twisting our basic moral code on behalf of the oppressed. We cannot compromise our principles to assert that the oppressed are just regardless of their behavior, simply because of their identity. Their race, gender, past colonial status, membership in a marginalized group, and so forth, do not a priori make their cause right and all opposition to it wrong. Where a free society ought to engage in policy debates, we instead find ourselves in the midst of quasi-religious battles between good and evil. Already in a politically fraught predicament, I did not share my impression of the Equity cartoon with the Board members. Instead, I argued that the equity concept runs counter to the tradi...