What makes Jews safe/privileged in today’s political moment? What puts us at risk? How is anti-Semitism shaping the Jewish community’s response to Trump? How can a better understanding of anti-Semitism help us show up for ourselves and others?

Our guided discussion will use a modern framework for understanding anti-Semitism to explore how trauma and assimilation play out for us, our families, and our communities in the current political moment.

We will examine our personal experiences using a modern framework for understanding anti-Semitism developed by Dove Kent in her work with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice [JFREJ]. Join us for snacks, drinks, and thoughtful discussion! Pluralism Project Summary: Understanding Anti-Semitism in 2018 was hosted at Harvard Hillel by the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance. Fourteen people attended the event. With the exception of the Pluralism Project staff member in attendance, all event participants identified as Jewish and were students at Harvard College. The event was clearly intended to prompt internal community reflection, not to educate a wider non-Jewish audience, and it fulfilled this purpose well. Two young women facilitated the event, opening up with a historical overview of anti-Semitism. The facilitators stated that while it often seems easier to call out racism and sexism than anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism should be treated as a structural category of oppression just like other biases. The facilitators then split participants into three groups and handed out discussion prompts. After each set of questions, the groups came back together, and the room debriefed as a whole while the facilitators wrote down recurring themes on the board. Many participants reflected on childhood incidents that they later came to realize were examples of anti-Semitism. A few people spoke about the importance of not conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Participants with very different views on Israel held impressively respectful and nuanced conversations with one another. Several conversations reflected on varying responses in the Jewish community to the intergenerational trauma caused by the Holocaust, from those who feel the need to downplay their Jewishness in non-Jewish settings out of fear, to those who are quick to overlook instances of anti-Semitism that are not overtly violent because they seem to pale in comparison to the horrors of the past. The conversation ended with participants reflecting on the new wave of anti-Semitism following President Trump’s election. This summary was written by a Pluralism Project staff member who attended the event.