Our last post was about some issues with the ADL statistics of Antisemitism. Let's say a couple of words more about numbers and then, if all goes well , we might explain why we're wasting everybody's time with this.
The field of Antisemitism research, especially in North America, is full of well meaning, well funded, organizations, and they always seem to have one message: "It's bad, Jews, it's reeeeeeaaaaaal bad, and it's never been this bad, ever!" you would never hear a Jewish organization say: "You know what? It's actually a little better... not paradise, but maybe, right now, not EVERYBODY is trying to kill us."
Take for example Jewish On Campus (JOC) a relatively new org, who partnered up with the World Jewish Congress (WJC). JOC maintain a platform of anonymous (ALWAYS anonymous, even when incidents are public) reports by Jewish students about Antisemitic incidents on campus.
During its two years of existence, JOC published two yearly summaries of the reports it had received. The 2020 report, registered 1097 incidents (which is about half of the total incidents reported by the ADL for the whole USA, mind you) in the six months of July-December 2020. In the 2021 report there were 544 incidents reported. Considering that 2020 reported for only six months, this is an astonishing drop of ~75% in campus Antisemitism.
And guess what? JOC never said a word about it, no matter how many times asked. They would not refer to it, would not comment on it and most definitely would not explain it. Why keep silent? If they have an explanation for this, by all means, let it be heard (Yes, there is the automatic "it was Covid" explanation. We heard it, we think it's not satisfying, and we would at least like to hear it from JOC itself).
Another example is the ADL, the most prestigious and long standing org publishing data about Antisemitism. As we said in our last post, the ADL seems very intent on making data look as menacing as possible.
Another example is a very loud org, called Combating Antisemitism (CAM). CAM has been posting, on its various social media accounts, information that at best can be described as "negligently inaccurate". They post a weekly and monthly review of Antisemitic incidents in world media and analyze them according to motives. For months, they would report a lot more incidents than what they had references for, and of course, would not respond to questions concerning that matter. At a later stage they started referencing all their incidents, but there was a catch: some of the reports were no Antisemitic incidents at all. Just for example, in their last post , Harvard faculty rejecting a BDS-supporting article (which is sort of good, isn't it?) is categorized as an antisemitic incident. The article was written weeks ago. Also, students at West-Chester uni calling for action against Antisemitc incidents, that happened months ago, is categorized as an antisemitic incident. Now, remember, CAM analyze motives, so this is not an RSS algorithm on a rampage. These are decisions. This kind of negligence sometimes reaches ~50% of the incidents' number.
As for other sources, things are not all that clear. The AJC, for example provides a lot of information on the matter of AS but mostly in the form of surveys, relating to how Jewish people and others perceive the state of AS, not what are the facts in the field. They later proceed to present the sentiment as a rise in AS. A report by the EU, reviewing the 2010-2020 period, shows that in some countries (like Germany) AS is rising. In others (like the "ISIS occupied" France of all places... ) it is actually declining. In England there seems to be a sharp rise, but reading the CST (The English version of the ADL, perhaps) reports, methodology is very vague, not to say undisclosed.
Also, and you might want to write it down, ALL SOURCES NEVER TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION POPULATION GROWTH! This means that incidents are always reported as raw numbers - bundled together, regardless of their nature - which means, in turn, that the default would be rising AS, even if per capita, levels of AS are the same. BTW, a good, balanced article in this matter was published by the INSS. worth the reading if you have the time.
Now, don't get us wrong. There is a problem. It's not small, and it may be getting bigger. It definitely needs attending to. But not like this. Not by giving us, the stakeholders, inaccurate information.
So, assuming these are not honest mistakes, what would be the motives to misrepresent numbers? This, we think, is not such a difficult question.
First and foremost, let's assume there's no malicious intent. Jewish orgs are doing an important work, and at least some of them do not sport cushy positions that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. So, these are orgs who are trying to call attention to AS by governments and institutions. It only makes sense to assume, that the more AS there is, the more attention and help they will get.
These orgs are not working with the most cooperative audience, namely Jews. Jews can be stubborn, complacent, overconfident and reluctant to leave their comfort-zone. Once again. It seems only reasonable that nudging them gently into action is futile and some extra boost is called for.
Last, and we say this with a heavy heart, Jewish orgs are not immune to a very common disease among fighting orgs: They become enamored with the fight. The bigger and scarier the enemy, the braver and more admired you can feel fighting it. Fighting a rising tide of evil always feels better than just going to the office. Again, we are not saying this out of disrespect. It is a phenomenon common to a lot of orgs, even the IDF and SHABAK. There's nothing wrong with identifying it and addressing it.
But the issue at hand is bigger than numbers. Maybe the numbers are rising, maybe they are falling, maybe this or that representation will bring a slightly different result. It's possible and we would drown in statistical jargon before we're done with it. So let's ask another question. Why is it so important?
We know there's Antisemitism. We know it's not negligible. Why do we have to research and analyze and report so hard? We have no law enforcement abilities, and the cost-effect ratio of addressing AS through legal or institutional action is catastrophic (True, that's a point worth discussing, but regretfully not today). So what's the point of spending millions on surveys, and data centers and research teams?
The answer lays in our strategy of facing AS.
Currently, our strategy of dealing with AS is being the victims.
Oh, some of you probably didn't like that. "WTF are you talking about!? We prosecute those f****rs! we get them expelled from uni! We make sure they never get a job! We get the FBI on their a***s! We are on the offense, you idiots!"
No we're not. Almost everything we do is mediated by 3rd parties. The government, the police, the courts, the universities and internet companies. We come to them and we ask them to do something on our behalf. And our way of getting their attention and cooperation is to show them how horrible things are for us. We know that without evidence that things are really bad, non-Jews will not fight for us. Not because they are Antisemites. Because of a much more mundane reason: It's not their problem. Simple as that. This is what being a minority means, even in the best of democracies. Your cause is not, cannot, be important for the majority as its own. It's natural, there's nothing sinister or evil about it.
So we keep pleading with the gentiles to save us. Some of these pleas are masked as "forceful demand for action!" or "sternly reminding X of their legal obligations!" but in the end, it all boils down to asking for help. Which is why we need the most horrific and scary evidences. Which is why we count obsessively.
Call us idiots, call us Antisemites, call us pompous, pretentious, dangerous or whatever. We'll still say this: Our strategy is problematic, not to say detrimental. It puts us in a victimized state of mind, conveys a message of weakness and leads us to believe things can't get better.
But they can.
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