How antisemitism is sweeping California

Antisemitism has reached alarming ranges in the US, and California, which prides itself on tolerance, is not any exception. It has reached practically each main neighborhood. A narrative from Davis, California, illustrates the issue.

The primary time I visited Davis was in Could 2025. I used to be invited to handle Jewish college students at UC Davis, and anticipated a quiet, innocuous go to to a college city.

As an alternative, I walked into one thing solely totally different.

The Jewish college students I met spoke in hushed tones about how they have been afraid to be overtly Jewish on campus. School members confided that they have been reluctant to talk out. And members of the native Jewish neighborhood made it clear that they really feel deserted by the very establishments which might be supposed to guard them.

Earlier this 12 months, a UC Davis professor who had publicly threatened “Zionist journalists” and their households retained her place regardless of widespread outrage.

However hatred has unfold past campus — dressed up within the language of so-called social justice.

The Metropolis of Davis Human Relations Fee produced what it calls the “MAPA Report” earlier this 12 months. The report focuses on the native experiences of Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and their “allies” (therefore the acronym).

On the floor, it sounds cheap sufficient. In spite of everything, each neighborhood deserves to really feel secure, revered, and heard.

However should you learn the report, a chilling sample begins to emerge. This isn’t a doc about defending a susceptible neighborhood. It’s a doc that singles out one other, way more susceptible one.

The report persistently and systematically casts the Jewish neighborhood — notably these related to Israel or Zionism — not as a minority in want of safety, however as a major supply of hurt.

Obtain The California Put up App, observe us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

The report incorporates, with out problem or qualification, a collection of maximum and inflammatory claims about Jews and “Zionists,” presenting these unsubstantiated claims as respectable testimony slightly than biased assertions. 

The report features a grievance about “Zionist intimidation and the cowardice of others to face as much as Zionist fascism.”

One other remark within the report claims that Davis is being influenced by “a small group of ultra-nationalist and supremacist Jews who have been creating havoc for the town.” 

Think about, for a second, if a city-sponsored report included comparable language about another minority group. It might be rightly dismissed as bigoted. Right here, it’s offered as perception.

Probably the most troubling factor of all is the report’s repeated reliance on the idea of the “weaponization of antisemitism.” This isn’t offered as a contested declare or as one perspective amongst many. It’s embedded as a central thought.

Take into consideration what which means. If antisemitism is a “weapon,” then those that report it are usually not victims — they’re the villains. And if elevating consciousness about antisemitism is itself suspect, then antisemitism turns into, by definition, not possible to show.

It’s a basic rhetorical entice — and as soon as this concept is formally adopted by an official physique, it turns into one thing way more harmful: A coverage framework.

And that’s precisely the place that is heading. As a result of this report is not only descriptive — it’s prescriptive. It lays the groundwork for coaching applications and civic insurance policies based mostly on a newly constructed idea of “Anti-Palestinian Racism,” a framework that dangers equating assist for Israel — and even expressions of Jewish id tied to Israel — with bigotry.

To make issues worse, the method that produced this report solely deepens the priority.

There was no critical use of police knowledge. No engagement with college or college district information. No significant response to Jewish communal organizations — together with Hillel, Chabad, and regional Jewish management — all of whom formally objected to the report. 

We’ve seen this playbook earlier than — in Canada, in components of Europe, and more and more throughout North America. Redefine the phrases. Blur the strains. After which institutionalize the brand new, hateful narrative.

However right here’s the half that ought to alarm everybody, not simply Jews: this isn’t taking place on the fringes. It’s taking place in Davis — a metropolis that prides itself on being educated, considerate, and morally critical.

If this may occur in Davis, the place can’t it occur?

You don’t fight one type of prejudice by encouraging one other.

You don’t construct inclusion by scapegoating a minority.

And also you definitely don’t promote justice by distorting actuality.

The hazard shouldn’t be theoretical. Based on current reporting within the Sacramento Bee, the Davis Metropolis Council is now weighing whether or not to undertake suggestions stemming from the MAPA report, amid sharp objections from native Jewish organizations and important division inside the neighborhood.

What started as a fee research has rapidly change into a reside political battle — one that can decide whether or not the town formally endorses the framework it incorporates.

The query is whether or not these in positions of management can have the braveness to say, “Sufficient is sufficient.”

Rabbi Pini Dunner is the senior rabbi at Beverly Hills Synagogue.