It seems that my people have been forgotten once again. Anti-Semitism is not a topic that can be addressed in one column, so I won’t bother talking about everything that relates to this issue. However, I wish this country would hold anti-Semitism to the same standard that it holds racism and other forms of discrimination.

If the same energy were given to anti-Semitic hate crimes that is given to other types of hate, people such as basketball player Meyers Leonard wouldn’t have a job anymore. He recently used a common anti-Semitic slur while streaming “Call of Duty,” and his only punishments were a week-long suspension, a $50,000 fine and an apology statement that he was required to share. Football player Julian Edelman stated that he would educate Leonard about the word and anti-Semitism, and no one has said anything since. 

Why is it then that Steve Clevenger of the Seattle Mariners was suspended for the rest of the Major League Baseball season for his tweets about the Black Lives Matter movement? What he said was not right and should absolutely never be tolerated, but I believe that using an anti-Semitic slur warrants a similar punishment.

It seems to me that the general public doesn’t think Jewish people face discrimination anymore, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Cancel culture has become the knight in shining armor against racism and almost all other forms of discrimination, but it has abandoned Jewish people and is ignoring anti-Semitism.

I know firsthand that there are still those who don’t like Jewish people. I have experienced various forms of anti-Semitism my whole life. When I really sit down and reflect on it, I realize that a year hasn’t gone by where I wasn’t the subject of anti-Semitic jokes or comments.

As a kid growing up, other kids used to make fun of me for my nose, and one girl in particular would repeatedly call it a “Jew nose.” I never understood why she would say that until I got a bit older and discovered that there are a plethora of harmful stereotypes about Jewish people, and that having a large, “ugly” nose is one of them.

Along with that, there are also the stereotypes that we are good with money, are very greedy, don’t like to spend said money, and above all, hate Christians no matter what. Some would even go so far as to believe that Jewish people are the spawn of Satan himself, and if you look close enough, you can find a pair of horns on all of our heads.

While I was attending a sleepaway camp during my early years of high school, I once had a fellow camper come up to me and aggressively place his hand on my head and say loudly, “Wait, where are your horns? My dad told me that all Jews have devil horns, since you guys come from the devil!”

He was shell-shocked when I didn’t confirm what his dad had been telling him his whole life and walked away with a dissatisfied look on his face — as if he wanted to go home and brag to his family that he finally saw and felt a Jewish person’s horns.

Although I was never subject to any extreme anti-Semitism experiences on campus, I started to fear that something might happen to me when there were anti-Semitic hate crimes taking place on campus last year.

I began to hide my star of David when I walked around on campus, and eventually, I stopped wearing it at all. I wanted no one to be able to tell outwardly that I was Jewish, and I was able to accomplish this by simply hiding my necklace.

One thing that a lot of people do not speak about is the fact that former President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would cut government funding to any university or college that wasn’t actively working to put an end to anti-Semitism on their campuses, and ensure the safety of their Jewish student population. 

Without this, I worry that anti-Semitic hate crimes will be allowed to continue on campuses across the country, and that anti-Semitism will continue to be ignored by cancel culture. I cannot understand why the same attention will not be given to anti-Semitism that is given to all other forms of hate. 

Any and all forms of discrimination should not be tolerated, and we cannot pick and choose which groups of people to stand up for. Now that Syracuse University’s Student Association has passed a bill that condemns anti-Semitism, I hope that future students will be able to enjoy being on campus without worrying that their peers will be able to get away with anti-Semitic jokes and hate crimes. 

Samantha Kolb is an environmental studies major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at sakolb@syr.edu.

Published on March 31, 2021 at 11:07 pm