Vandalism on Synagogues in Sweden
The Nordic Resistance Movement is a Scandinavian neo-Nazi group who have antisemitism as the centre of their ideology and who most recently vandalised synagogues over Yom Kippur in Sweden. One of the way antisemitism operates is by deploying the (false) idea that Jewish people are all-powerful. This conveniently removes responsibility from those who are culpable so as to blame Jewish people for terrible events such as the Financial Crisis in 2008. The ‘all-powerful’ idea is also why institutions such as Harvard and Yale actually restricted Jewish people’s admission through Jewish quotas which were in place from 1922 to as recently as the 1960s. Outside of the Nordic Resistance Movement, antisemitic attacks are on the rise around the globe: earlier this year, a Rabbi was murdered in a spate of antisemitic attacks in New York; this summer, a Jewish centre was set alight at the University of Delaware, and in Germany last year a synagogue was attacked by a man as people marked Yom Kippur. And yet, we would be misdiagnosing how antisemitism operates if we only acknowledge its presence through violent attacks – we would be erasing antisemitism as a system and our involvement in its maintenance. Within antisemitism, when Jewish people are positioned as all powerful, we see the following consequences in society more broadly as well as in our workplaces:
- Jewish people not disclosing their identity as Jews
- Narrow ideas of who Jewish people are (erasing Jews of colour and Jewish people who experience poverty, for example)
- Jewish celebrations not seen as worthy of being acknowledged
- Jewish people’s promotions, pay rises and praise for their talent being invalidated, or not happening as they should, as they are deemed undeserving of it
- Experiences of their antisemitism in the workplace not being believed or taken seriously
- A belief that there is no need to challenge antisemitism in the workplace because ‘Jewish people are already in power’
The paradox here is that positioning and endorsing the idea of Jewish ‘power’ strips Jewish people of their safety, legitimacy and dignity. We must be alert to this particular dynamic if we endeavour to build inclusion practices that centre all marginalised communities.