Antisemitism by Erasure: Ignorance from the United Nations and New York State Government (Part I)
Last month I attended a special event at the UN: A screening of an excerpt of the documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust followed by a panel discussion with UN dignitaries and the movie producers. The UN, which is currently one of the most anti-Israeli, antisemitic IGO I can think of, possibly trying to change its image by dedicating a special office and hosting such event; Attempting to show it is actively fighting the rampant rising in antisemitism worldwide. The event is hosted by the UN special office called the Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme. This is a good first step, but the UN has a lot of internal auditing and “soul searching” to do before it could deliver a message that it is an anti-antisemitism organization from within (I am not referring to UNGA member-nations who oppose Israel’s for politics, some of which are legit or understandable). When it comes to fighting antisemitism, the UN remains in the “all talks” phase [While understanding the limitation of the UN as an IGO], is it not supposed to feed the antisemitic fire. For the rest of us Jews, it feels like the 1930s are repeating itself.
I admire Madam Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, but her opening remarks at the event were a bismal, lukewarm and disappointing. Her Excellency said that the USA lesson from the holocaust was mainly that USA must open its gates more to refugees. Was that the utmost important lesson USA learned from the holocaust? No lesson learned specifically in regards to fighting antisemitism, to expand education on the holocaust? She did not stay for the panel discussion, so I didn’t have a chance to ask. The panel discussion, led by Madam Under-Secretary General of the UN for Global Communication, Ms. Fleming, who concluded that the movie brings up the need for more uncomfortable conversations. If these are the two main conclusions from the holocaust or this important movie, then Houston, we have a [bigger] problem. This is the definition of whitewashing. These conclusions are void of gumption, especially when the event and movie are named “The U.S. and the Holocaust”. Not Europe, not Canada, not Israel, not the Middle East; USA!
Americans have been avoiding uncomfortable conversations for centuries. What even worse, is that in the process of diluting and avoiding tough, uncomfortable topics, like the holocaust, education on this topic was reduced to absurd levels. That’s why racism is not even nearly to be resolved. That’s why students needed a “safe space” when they saw campaign signs for Trump on campus. Almost everything is politically incorrect to talk about here. Every issue worthy of a deep, painful discussion, is avoided in the name of politically correctness, woke-ness or cancel-culture or all of the above.
When it comes to education, Americans care about free education, not so much about its quality. Americans have allowed some important lessons in American history like slavery and the slaughtering of Native Americans in high schools to be shrunk. Other chapters, like the ones on WWII and the holocaust were not only shrunk to single paragraph (yes, I checked my daughter’s history textbook) re-written or “modified” to the sensitive liberal ears, all in the name of so-called tolerance. How do you even teach tolerance when you modify facts? The result is onlt one: Ignorance.
A 2020 study shows more than a third of “Millennials and Gen Z New Yorkers think the Holocaust was either exaggerated or a myth”. Almost 1 in every 5th New Yorker thinks the Jews themselves caused the holocaust. This level of ignorance and misinformation, created a space for more holocaust deniers, for rewriting history, for conspiracy theories. This space gave room for the rise in antisemitism in USA, which has reached to its highest level since 1979, when ADL started recording it.
Following the 2020 study results, NYS Gov. Hochul signed a law that requires that schools will teach holocaust “properly”. What is “properly” and who gets to decide, in today’s woke culture?! How quickly this law will be implemented? Because every day that passes, we raise more ignorant kids who are either oblivious to the atrocities of the holocaust or develop antisemitic views and worse- commit hate crimes. This is only in NYS, the home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. What happens in communities outside NYC, in other parts of USA, where they never met a Jew?!
Working for Gov. Hochul, indirectly, at one of the NYS Office for Mental Health (OMH) hospitals, I know firsthand how antisemitism is addressed network-wide: Silently. And no, there wasn’t a moment of silence in memory of the six million perished in the holocaust. When I addressed that matter with my local chapter CEO, he said “we would like to be more inclusive” and said they are trying to do something about it. I am still waiting. Black History month was celebrated with major events: A large, beautiful exhibition at the main lobby. We got an email from the “Diversity and Inclusion Committee” of one (there is only one committee member, who happened to be a black woman), we had a luncheon with raffles and nice prices, sponsored by this “committee” budget (not by the unions, I checked!). Don’t get me wrong, It is absolutely great. However, OMH or most AMericans, for that matter, does not seem to understand that antisemitism is a form of racism. ONe should not take from the other. Yet, not one dime or a second was spent on Antisemitism or Jewish Heritage for decades.
Antisemitism is rampant in NYS and NYC (and USA) but OMH is mute, blind and deaf. I have been there for almost a decade and my fellow Jewish colleagues, who’ve been there much longer, say it was always been the case. I spoke to colleagues who work at City-run hospitals, the situation is mostly the same, but seems slightly better.
I contacted the director of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion at OMH Central Office only to be ignored. So I went up the ladder, to Commissioner Sullivan who also ignored my email, not even acknowledged receipt. Two weeks later I emailed Gov. Hochul’s office. A week after that, I received an email from the Director of Intergovernmental & External Affairs at the Commissioner Office. She emailed me saying the email I sent to the Commissioner was forwarded to her and that I “raised some valid points”. Well, thank you! She asked for some more information, which I gave her and she promised to be in touch. It’s been over two weeks and the silence is deafening. Am I asking for too much? Why is it so hard to address Antisemitism?! (maybe I’ll address that in a later piece)
These offices of so-called “diversity and inclusion” are not so diverse as they are mostly run by people of color, at least in OMH. You are lucky is you see an Asian person in that office. While African-Americans should definitely be the ones advocating and promoting awareness to issues affecting African-Americans, they are nowhere close, nor should they be representing me and my fellow Jews in our struggles against Antisemitism. Let me put it this way: If I, as a Jew, would be the one running this named office alone, addressing matters of African-American history, racism, it would be right to call that cultural appropriation. The same rule applies when anyone who is NOT a Jew, was not raised a Jew, attempts to address antisemitism and Jewish Heritage matters. Yet, when I contacted the Office for Diversity and Inclusion in OMH Central office, his deputy (I think) was proud to share with me that she is married to a Jew. This, apparently, was supposed send me a message of “I got you”. Apparently, in their eyes, this makes her an expert on Jewish suffering and struggle with antisemitism. That was last year, when I first contacted them to address the issue around the Jewish High Holidays. They were receptive then. They created a flyer (I wish I could share, but I shared with the one who reached out from the Commissioner office). Its very first sentence was “Jews are 2% of the NYS population” and even though it ends better, at this point, every reader would have finished the sentence in their heads with “and yet, so influential”, or anything in that stereotypic line, right?! Tell me you didn’t think exactly that! I was infuriated. The office of Diversity and Inclusion is feeding the antisemitic fire! If that wasn’t enough, they decided to translate the flayer to… wait for it….Yiddish. Because this is the language of the Jews, right??? WRONG again! Maybe if it was Hebrew I would be more forgiving, but Yiddish? If that wasn’t enough, they named the file “yid”. Of course it meant as a short for Yiddish, but had they’ve been sensitive or not as ignorant, they would have known that Yid for Jews is like the N-word for black Americans. On a latter email, I pointed out that being married to a Jew doesn’t make one the “diversity and inclusion” freedom-fighter for Jews. This is where the Director informed me they will stop all communications with me. When I emailed them a couple of months ago, asking to address antisemitism, yet again, he maintained his office’s silence. Uncomfortable conversation should start at these very offices for Diversity and Inclusion, otherwise, they are not worthy of their title.
NYS Gov. Hochul has good intentions, but signing a law doesn’t solve the problem, especially when you leave it to the local schools to decide what is “properly”. Like the UN, I suggest Gov. Hochul looks within her own “direct-report” institutions and entities. The current situation is contributing to the ignorance, intolerance and hate that are flooding our State and cities.
As a Jew, I am horrified. I never felt like this before. I called NY and USA my home. So after giving all higher-ups their fair chance, I decided to “take it outside”, and here I am, using a louder speaker, because all I got so far is a lip service. Enough is enough! I want action!
NYC needs a whole revamping of its education about tolerance, about antisemitism, about WWII and the Holocaust. Films like The USA and the Holocaust (free on PBS), A birth of a Nation and the series Roots all should be mandatory in high schools around the USA. Yes, I want my future grandkids to come disturbed from school because they actually learned about the atrocities Jews suffered in the holocaust, during the crusades or the Spanish Inquisition. I want them to be disturbed by racism, slavery, hate towards Asian pre and post pandemic (yes, there was the pre-, too!), and why are we still allowing genocides in Darfur, Tigray and Syria (just to name a few) to happen. I want to know schools are really teaching these topics, unapologetically! That they don’t rewrite history but rather schools are actually closing the ignorance gap that allows hate to grow.
We have to have the most uncomfortable conversations about all the things that make us deeply uncomfortable, from racism and slavery through human trafficking and antisemitism and so much more. We must educate and educate without fear of condemnation, as long as we don’t teach lies, half-truths or hate and intolerance towards ANY group of people.
