This was originally posted on LinkedIn in early May, 2024.
Ignorance knows no bounds.
This photo was shared (with permission) by Sara Dudley, Esq. It's not the first time I've seen a sign like it. Ironic that Jews - EVEN Ashkenazi Jews - were never considered European. Hitler used this to fuel his racist ideaology and incite the Holocaust.
Now to address these "claims":
1. There is no such thing as a "Semitic" people. Semitic refers to a language group that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic. Yes, the term Antisemitism is a misnomer for that reason, and it's also the reason we remove the hyphen in modern usage. But just because the Jew hater who coined the term got it wrong, that doesn't take away from the fact that it is a very real form of hatred and discrimination towards Jews. Stop trying to co-opt it to deligitimize 3,000 years of Jewish suffering and displacement. We have been expelled from almost every country we have ever lived - including our homeland.
2. Again, Jews are not indigenous to Poland, and again, more Jews were murdered there during the Holocaust than in any other European country. You know who "lived" in Poland for a time? My grandmother, who was NOT Polish, who was sent along with her entire family to Auschwitz. She was one of three who survived. The nightmare of that place never left her.
When you tell us to "go back to Poland," you're effectively telling us to go back to a place where many of our ancestors perished horribly.
And to be clear, none of this does anything for the Palestinian cause.
Comments