Read the full piece in Haaretz
By David Schraub
A few weeks ago, the Biden administration released the United States federal government’s first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
This historic document was met with widespread praise throughout the Jewish community, from venerable old-guard institutions like the American Jewish Committee (“a historic day for America and its Jewish community”), to unapologetically progressive Jewish groups like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (“we celebrate the Biden administration’s release of its National Strategy Document on antisemitism [and] call on our Jewish communities to seize this historic moment”).
The sheer range of Jewish organizations who rushed to announce their endorsement was noteworthy; as Ron Kampeas wrote in JTA upon the document’s release, the Biden initiative was met with enthusiasm “from the left to the center-right,” with only a few right-wing holdouts dissenting from the consensus.
The Biden administration’s bold leadership on antisemitism has created unprecedented national momentum to root out and eradicate antisemitism, wherever it lies. But it also had another effect: it has right-wing Jews reeling.
Because they are used to playing a central role in setting national narratives about antisemitism, Jewish conservatives were put in an unfamiliar situation.
It is the center and left, now, who are conducting the preeminent national campaign to combat antisemitism. Meanwhile, the right can’t decide whether to even climb aboard.
What the Biden Administration has wrought is a genuine alliance of the Jewish progressives, liberals and centrists – together comprising upwards of 70 percent of American Jews – to lead the fight against the scourge that is antisemitism.