Summer Lee and I are both tired — but for very different reasons

Lee is tired of hearing about us Jews because there are other minority groups who are being persecuted.

The Congressional House Committee on Education and Workforce held a hearing on July 15, “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology.” It was one of many such hearings over the past year and a half, as a rising (and seemingly never-ending) tide of anti-Israel/anti-Jewish sentiment has swept through our campuses and communities. Summer Lee, the Democratic congresswoman representing Pennsylvania’s 12th District (which includes Squirrel Hill, home to Pittsburgh’s largest Jewish community and the site of the 2018 synagogue shooting), made remarks that convinced me, once and for all, that she has no interest in fostering any sort of allyship with the mainstream Jewish community.

Lee began by noting that despite this being the ninth congressional hearing on antisemitism since she took office, there have been no hearings on hatred directed toward other minority groups — particularly the Black and Muslim communities. She then lamented her dashed hopes that the hearing, or any of the other eight hearings she’s sat through, would reveal the root causes of antisemitism.

Despite my skepticism about the sincerity of Lee’s remarks given her history of divisiveness as relates to the Jewish community — from her minimal engagement with the Jewish community in the aftermath of Oct. 7, to her offensive acknowledgement of the year anniversary of the massacre and refusal to condemn antisemitic slogans and images during the campus protests over the past year — I found myself agreeing with her on one point. What I heard is that she is tired of yet another hearing on antisemitism — and as a Jewish resident of Squirrel Hill, I too am tired.

I am tired of another hearing that leads to no real change in the educational climate around Judaism and Israel. (Indeed, just last week the National Education Association voted to forward a recommendation not to use, endorse or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League, or participate in any of its programming, apparently paving the way for public school teachers to teach their K-12 students a biased and misinformed view of the conflict, which demonizes the world’s only Jewish state; the NEA board ultimately rejected the proposal.) I am tired of waking up each morning wondering what fresh form of anti-Jewish ostracism, hatred and outright violence has become normalized and acceptable in our society. I am tired of wondering if my Magen David, or my last name, or my son’s kippah, are the reason the restaurant server treated us poorly. I am tired of hearing about the many ways our “liberal allies” continue to excuse or deny bigotry they would immediately, and emphatically, call out against any other minority group, simply because it is directed toward Jews. I am tired of worrying that any attempt to stand up for myself, my family, or my community will be used to reinforce antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, pushiness and entitlement. I am tired of wondering if my academic colleagues blame me for their funding being withdrawn, for their DEI offices being shut down, for ICE targeting their international students, because if only I had shut my mouth and understood that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, none of this would be happening.

So, Summer Lee and I agree on something — we’re both tired. But that is where our agreement ends.

Lee is tired of hearing about us Jews because there are other minority groups who are being persecuted, and our needs are taking time, resources and attention away from those other groups who are just as deserving.

While I certainly believe that anti-Black and anti-Muslim hate and discrimination warrant the same level of care, concern and activism from Congress, it is this type of zero-sum logic that furthers divisiveness in our community — the very same “pitting” of groups against one another of which Lee later accuses the Trump administration. It would have been unthinkable to accuse the Black community of taking up too much space in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and ensuing protests against police brutality. Yet in the aftermath of the recent murders of three Jewish civilians by “pro-Palestinian activists” simply for being Jewish and caring about the Jewish state, this is an acceptable thing to say about Jews.

At the end of the day, I do not believe Lee is interested in understanding the root causes of antisemitism, because that would require admitting that she herself has been facilitating the spread of Jew hatred during her time in office. She has no hesitation in denouncing the classic White nationalist antisemitic language and imagery that most often emanates from extreme right-wing politicians and supporters — like that used in the flyers distributed throughout Pittsburgh this past spring — but repeatedly fails to acknowledge anti-Jewish sentiment when it is perpetuated by members of her own party under the cloak of “legitimate criticism of Israel.”

Sadly, I believe that Lee was emboldened by her reelection, in which she learned that her political survival is not contingent on the Jewish vote. She is tired of our complaints, has no need for our votes and wants us to stop taking up space so she can focus on more important things.

I wish I could focus on “more important things,” too. PJC

Andrea Beth Goldschmidt is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.