LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Why Holocaust inversions are antisemitic
If you walked past Vorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus on Wednesday, you may have seen Students for Justice in Palestine's (SJP) sidewalk chalk art display. Politics aside, I think it was a cool idea that allows grieving students to channel their passion into something creative. The art was all well done, and I support their right to make and display works that advocate for their beliefs.
At the same time, a few of the pieces fell into antisemitic tropes and violated Rutgers' own policies on antisemitism. I wanted to focus on one specific piece that said, "One Holocaust does not justify another," and show in detail how something seemingly innocuous pushes Jew hatred.
That phrase is a textbook example of Holocaust inversion, which, in case you did not know, is a form of antisemitism. But do not take my word for it.
Look at the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of antisemitism, which the Rutgers University Student Assembly adopted in its 2020-2021 session. Beyond clearly stating that "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" is antisemitic, it cites two classic forms that Holocaust inversion takes nowadays.
That specific piece of chalk art disregards "the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g., gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)." It also indirectly portrays "the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust."
To explain how and why, let us actually talk about what the Holocaust was.
Two of my grandparents were Holocaust survivors, making me inherently biased on the issue to an extent. My grandfather, Joseph Fruhman, for whom I am named, was lucky. Although he spent years being moved between camps in Eastern Europe, his technical ability as a machinist helped to keep him alive through the war. Some of his siblings and both of his parents were murdered, but others survived to make new lives in the U.S., U.K., Australia and, of course, Israel.
My grandmother was less fortunate. Her immediate family was separated to be murdered at the hands of the Nazis, and she spent years after the war searching to see if any of them had survived. None had.
They were both born in Poland, which means the Holocaust really started for them in 1939, when the Nazis invaded and began the systemic extinction of the world's most concentrated Jewish population. It needs to be emphasized that the Nazis initiated the Holocaust against an innocent civilian population that had not attacked them or the German people as a whole.
The current Israel-Hamas War began when Hamas, the military dictatorship that governs Gaza, launched a ground invasion against a sovereign state's internationally recognized territory. The group sent troops across a border, butchered and kidnapped civilians and launched thousands of missiles toward urban areas.
There is a difference between Israel's retaliation and the Holocaust, which should be becoming clearer.
To give the artist the benefit of the doubt, maybe they truly did not know. Maybe they were simply misinformed. Maybe they did not know what the Holocaust was other than an event in which many people died. Or maybe they only heard about the Israeli response and not the actual start of the war.
If that is the case, then I hope they see this piece. Their art would still have perpetuated antisemitic ideas and preyed on Jewish trauma, but at least it would have come from a place of ignorance.
But if that is not the case, if they are not as dangerously misinformed as the 63 percent of Americans under 40 years old who do not know that the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, then this seems like a pretty clear-cut denial of the "facts, scope, intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of Nazi Germany."
For those who would still argue that none of this is antisemitic because Hamas only cares to murder, kidnap, torture and burn Zionists and not all Jews, see these Gallup and Pew polls showing that between 80 and 90 percent of American Jews view Israel as part of their Jewish identity. Not to mention the more than 46 percent of Jews who actually live in Israel.
The implication that the horrors my family endured are even remotely comparable to a defensive war meant to dislodge an internationally condemned terrorist organization dedicated to finishing the Final Solution is a disrespect to both Holocaust survivors and to everyone, Israelis and Palestinians alike, who have suffered at Hamas's hands.
The civilians killed by Israeli strikes in an effort to destroy Hamas are indisputably tragic and horrific. Innocent lives that may have been the architects of a future peace are being snuffed out every second, and their deaths only further incense me against the dogmatic hatred that caused this war.
My heart breaks with every picture and story out of Gaza. But this is not the trauma Olympics, and saying that this war is equivalent to the Holocaust is simply wrong.
The second charge, that this repulsive Holocaust inversion also implies an invention or exaggeration of the Holocaust, requires a bit more critical thinking.
Where does the charge that the Jews and Israelis made up the Holocaust come from?
"Holocaust deniers also claim that Jews needed the 'Holocaust myth' to extract huge payments in restitution from Germany and to justify the establishment of the State of Israel," according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
To repeat this in simpler terms, Holocaust denial is, in part, based on the idea that Jews use the Holocaust to justify Israel's existence.
Rutgers adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism for a reason. Jew hatred has been on the rise in the U.S. for years and has skyrocketed since Hamas launched attacks three weeks ago. Jewish on Campus and AMCHA Initiative, two organizations dedicated to tracking campus antisemitism, have been reporting more incidents than ever.
Just this past week, Cornell's Center for Jewish Living (which is also the campus's Kosher dining hall) had to urge students to avoid the building after Jewish students were threatened with rape, beheading and mass shooting.
When a university adopts a policy, there is an expectation that it will be enforced in some capacity. The Brandeis Center argues that "a clear, comprehensive and uniform definition of antisemitism is necessary to understand, identify and effectively respond to anti-Semitic incidents on campus."
As stated above, I support SJP's right to demonstrate. I support the group's free speech and events that disagree with my politics. And I deeply sympathize with the group's pain, but we cannot allow hate-inspiring rhetoric to be conflated with political speech. The campus has rules, and they must be enforced.
Yosef Fruhman is a School of Arts and Sciences junior.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 900 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day's publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
