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The following oped was authored by Professor Alvin Rosenfeld, the Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington and founding director of the school’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA):
The most important story to emerge from the Bloomington City Council’s meeting last Wednesday was not the passage of a resolution calling for more humanitarian aid for people in Gaza. That’s in line with American policy already in place and is nothing new. More noteworthy and deeply troubling was the open display of hate speech, which came to the fore as a consequence of the council’s deliberations.
At the meeting, some people were given a platform to espouse white supremacist hostility to Blacks and Jews and even to sign off with “Heil Hitler” declarations. One speaker claimed, “Every aspect of the media is Jewish. Every aspect of the government is Jewish. Our wars are fought for Jewish interest. Our whole existence is on Jewish supremacy.” Astonishingly, council members uttered not a word of disapproval in hearing such evil utterances until the very end of the session, when it evidently dawned on them that they had unleashed levels of hatred in our city that may not be easy to contain.
By and large, Bloomington has been a welcoming town for Jews, but years ago our city’s only synagogue was set ablaze by neo-Nazis and had to be rebuilt. More recently, swastikas have been daubed on walls around town and white supremacists have let their hateful voices be heard. At a time of escalating Jew-hatred on campuses throughout the county, including at Indiana University, the last thing we need is more of the same. And yet it’s coming our way — bomb threats have been made against Jewish institutions in town, and several of us are now on the receiving end of hate mail.
As a scholar of antisemitism and a long-time resident of Bloomington, I wrote to City Council members weeks ago and shared my concerns about the above. I heard nothing back from any of them. They declare themselves to be against antisemitism, but it’s far from clear that they have much knowledge of its causes and manifestations and can be counted on to act decisively against the threats it poses. Those threats are real and growing, including in our own town, especially so in the wake of the City Council’s unwise hearings.
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s session, one Jewish friend wrote, “I’m telling you, after that meeting, I feel like I was abused … I definitely feel more insecure in Bloomington now.” From another: “I can’t shake off the hostility in the room … Until last night, I only heard about folks siding with Hamas, rolling their eyes when someone talks about rape, and calling us murderers for being Jews. Last night, I saw it and experienced it with my own eyes. It was shocking.”
These sentiments are shared by many others. They clearly indicate that Bloomington is not immune to the threats of a resurgent antisemitism that are causing so much unease in other cities. On the evidence of Wednesday’s meeting, it is far from certain that City Council members will be up to the challenge of dealing with the hostile passions they themselves have helped to release.
