JUSTICE - No. 65

39 Fall 2020 n audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of antisemitic incidents found that in 2019, the total number of these incidents in the United States increased 12% over the previous year, with a disturbing 56% increase in assaults. 1 The audit found that there were, on average, as many as six antisemitic incidents in the U.S. for each day in the calendar year, the highest level of antisemitic activity ever recorded by the ADL. A survey by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from September-October 2020 found that almost half of the respondents said they either had never heard of the term antisemitism or had heard of it but were unsure of “what it means.”The AJC survey revealed significant gaps between the perceptions of American Jews and the general public. An overwhelming majority of 88% versus 11% of American Jews said antisemitism has been a “very serious problem” or “somewhat of a problem” in the U.S. Among the general public, only 62% versus 33% agreed with this view. 2 Another overwhelming majority of 82% versus 3% of American Jews said that over the last five years antisemitism has increased (“a lot” or “somewhat”), but only 43% versus 14% of the general public agreed with this view. The COVID-19 pandemic has further intensified antisemitism in the U.S., and similar increases in incidents, fear and concern have been recorded across Europe. Several authors have addressed the surge in antisemitism, including Bari Weiss, but her book must be placed in a wider context of the current state of antisemitism in the U.S. and her own experiences. 3 This context is no less important than the book itself. The main goal of the book is to identify and suggest ways for fighting antisemitism. But in order to know what to do, it is necessary to identify the causes and manifestations of the plague in the U.S. The book includes six chapters: Waking Up, A Brief History, The Right, The Left, Radical Islam, and How to Fight. Two of these chapters, the antisemitism of the left and radical Islam, explore issues that, due to political correctness and cancel culture, scholars and commentators tend to ignore, brush aside or underestimate. The book begins with Weiss's motivation to write it: the shooting on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Weiss's hometown and synagogue. The antisemitic assailant killed eleven people and wounded six. According to the ADL, it is believed to be the deadliest attack ever on the Jewish community in the U.S. Weiss's own family experiences since she was a child also surface in parts of the book. Weiss rejects the definition of antisemitism as merely a form of racism against a minority group (pp. 28-33). This is first because Judaism is a combination of religion and nationality, not just ethnicity, and second, because “it whitewashes the Jewish people.”More than half of Israel’s Jews are of African, North African and Middle Eastern descent, and 12% to 15% of American Jews are people of color.“Today, when the greatest sins are racism and colonialism,”notes Weiss,“Israel, the Jew among the nations, is being demonized as the last bastion of white, racist colonialism — a unique source of evil not just in the region but in the world.”This ludicrous approach, which often leads to the rejection of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, is the new or contemporary manifestation of antisemitism. Classic antisemitism demonizes the A Reviewed by EytanGilboa 1. Anti-Defamation League,“Antisemitic Incidents Hit All- Time High in 2019,” ADL (May 12, 2020), available at https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/antisemitic- incidents-hit-all-time-high-in-2019 2. Avi Mayer,“The State of Antisemitism in America 2020: Insights and Analysis,”AJC (Oct. 26, 2020), available at https://www.ajc.org/news/AntisemitismReport2020/the- state-of-antisemitism-in-america-2020-insights-and- analysis 3. Deborah E. Lipstadt, A NTI -S EMITISM : H ERE AND N OW (N.Y.: Schocken, 2019); Isaac Chotiner, “How Anti-Semitism Rises on the Left and Right,”N EW Y ORKER , Jan. 3, 2020, available at https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/ how-anti-semitism-rises-on-the-left-and-right BOOK REVIEW How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss New York, NY: Crown, 2019, 211 pp.