The saints of antisemitism pollute Boston

The column no one dared to print.

On Good Friday, a mob of self-appointed saints descended on Boston’s Faneuil Hall to inform the rest of us how saintly they were and then engage in racist incitement against Israel.

They were led by the antisemitic progressive congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who is not currently the most serious existential threat to American Jews (that title probably belongs to CAIR and AOC) but is certainly one of the Axis of Antisemitism’s most powerful collaborators.

Along with her were various clergymen and clergywomen who shed bitter tears over the infinite “suffering” of the overwhelmingly pro-mass murder and pro-Hamas Palestinians and professed profound solidarity with this genocidal collective.

While it may have gone unquoted by media reports, they appear to have spoken nary a word about the victims of Oct. 7 or the American Jews who are being viciously abused by Muslims, progressives, and themselves.

They did all this, incidentally, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. That is, a Jewish man from the Land of Israel who most of them worship as God. The irony was as redolent as the hypocrisy. Apparently unaware of this, they felt no compunction about pushing the world’s face into sewage in the name of the Nazarene.

In response, I wrote a column that attempted to point all this out and submitted it to the city’s two largest newspapers, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. Neither responded. As a result, I publish it below.

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For most American Jews, perhaps the most enraging thing about Israel’s American opponents is their hypocrisy. This was illustrated yet again on March 29 by the disgraceful charade undertaken at Faneuil Hall by a group of local clergy joined by Rep. Ayanna Pressley.

Based on the Boston Globe’s report, “On Good Friday in Boston, a call from protesters for cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war,” the event was not edifying. The participants spoke much in praise of themselves but appeared to have few words of comfort for the American Jews currently besieged by those participants’ allies, let alone for the victims of the October 7 atrocities.

This could only make the self-congratulatory ethos of the event all the more redolent with irony. Pressley, whose closest congressional allies include several antisemites, stated in doubtlessly stentorian tones, “This moment calls us to be in solidarity with the Palestinians and all people who are suffering under occupation and systemic violence. We are one human family. Our freedoms and our destinies are tied.”

This is all doggerel, of course, but even if one takes it seriously for the sake of argument, it is clear that Pressley cannot possibly mean a word she says, because American Jews and indeed Jews worldwide are currently subject to relentless “systemic violence” at the hands of those Pressley proudly supports. Clearly, her “human family” is less inclusionary than she would have us believe.

Pressley was not alone in her hypocrisy. There was also the lamentable spectacle of Rev. Darrell Hamilton, who proclaimed, “Pick up your cross and do what Jesus did by refusing to be pressured and influenced by fear or political incentive.”

I will put aside the extraordinary irony of citing Jesus in this context, given that he was a Jewish man who preached to Jews in a Jewish nation. More important are Hamilton’s enigmatic words about “refusing to be pressured and influenced by fear or political incentive.” There is no need to ask who is applying the pressure, stoking the fear, and wielding the political influence. All Jews know a dog whistle when we hear it.

As for Rev. Katie Omberg, she appears less hateful but quite shockingly ignorant nonetheless. She attempts to reassure us, “A lot of people think if you’re going to advocate for the well-being of Palestinians, you’re saying that Jewish people don’t matter. That’s not what’s happening here.”

The polite response would be that this is precisely “what’s happening here,” because anyone who demands a ceasefire without also demanding that Hamas immediately and unconditionally surrender is at best a hypocrite. A Hamas surrender would end the war instantly and save thousands of lives. The only reason not to demand it is the desire to rescue Hamas from near-certain destruction. One cannot desire this without believing that “Jewish people don’t matter.”

If Pressley and her friends wish us to take them seriously as political and spiritual leaders, then they must “do the work.” They must put aside their moral arrogance and bear witness to the suffering of American Jews. They must attempt to understand American Jews’ anger, grief, and fear. And they must acknowledge that some of their best friends are responsible for that suffering. In the words of the Jew most of them worship, they must see the mote in their own eye.

Sadly, this is unlikely to happen. Pressley and her friends could never say what they say if they did not consider themselves to be members of a caste of saints—the finest and most moral people in the world. Even if they were to engage in self-criticism, it would likely be as what Albert Camus called a “judge-penitent”: The person who believes “the more I accuse myself, the more I have the right to judge you.” By what right they claim this mantle of sainthood is unknowable. What is clear is that they do not deserve it.

However, if the evidence of my eyes and ears is worth anything, the saints should know that American Jews have had quite enough of their nonsense. They are no longer prepared to defer to self-appointed saints whose windy protestations of rectitude cannot fall upon Jewish ears as anything other than a very cruel and bitter joke.