Do Jews Count?

Do Jews Count?¹

After addressing how Jews are often excluded from Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) frameworks, I address why this exclusion matters, knowing that some readers will have an instinct to justify it (i.e. prejudice).

A recent study of 38 EDI policies and plans from 28 Canadian universities found that only six documents mentioned Jews or antisemitism.² Those six did not reflect understanding of antisemitism or the true and intersectional nature of Jewish identity, which is not only a religious identity but also has elements of ethnicity, culture, race and nationhood that generations of non-Jews have tried to erase.

The pervasive stereotype that Jews are a uniform and overly privileged minority is one justification for our exclusion from EDI and the false belief that, unlike other forms of discrimination, “the world’s longest hatred”³ (antisemitism) has been not only eradicated but, in fact, overcorrected.  This belief is the mechanism through which individuals feel entitled to enlist powerful Holocaust references for everything but empowering Jews, whom they believe to have taken advantage of Holocaust sympathy.

The fact that you may know any prominent Jews at all despite our being .5% of the B.C. population reinforces the harmful, false and age-old prejudice that Jews are hoarders of privilege. 

In case it needs to be said, Jews are not all the same. The fact that you may know privileged Jews, consonant with myths about the Jewish people more broadly, is not proof to the contrary.  If you are reading this, you are likely privileged too.

Regardless, people who experience some forms of privilege are not immune from marginalization.  I expect that any white woman or man of colour could attest.

Since Statistics Canada started tracking such information in 2014, anti-Jewish hate crime has dominated the “religious” category and formed a substantial share of overall hate crime. In 2023, 70% of deemed “religiously” motivated hate crime and 19% of all hate crime has targeted Jews. 

Turning to the bench and bar’s version of the stereotype of Jewish privilege, there is a misconception that Jews do not face barriers in the legal profession. Barriers exist, and they exceed the challenges of participating in Jewish life in non-Jewish society.

Stereotypes about Jews invert symptoms of our exclusion—such as successful Jewish law firms which started as de facto professional ghettos harbouring Jews who could not otherwise find employment—into “proof” of Jewish power, greed and insularity. This turns individual stories of resilience into further fodder for antisemitism.

I have seen this. Without being exhaustive:

1. When I was a law student in 2008, a lawyer with one of the “Seven Sisters” at a recruitment event told me not to apply to Goodmans LLP because it is a Jewish firm.
2. My contemporaries have told me that most Jews are wealthy, that I am “too sensitive” about “jokes” regarding the characteristics of a “typical Jewish princess” and that Jews weaponize the Holocaust and antisemitism itself.⁴ 

I have joined the CBABC EDI Committee because, in addition to wanting to help others, I want to see the fight against antisemitism reflected in the CBABC’s equality-pursuing efforts. 

There are certainly Jews who see EDI efforts as attempts to create new hierarchies that continue to keep Jews at arms-length. I refuse to resign myself to concluding that the important work of fighting for the rights of others is inaccessible to me unless I compromise my dignity as a Jew. Instead, I will continue to advocate for true inclusion, reminding myself and others that we must all remain mindful that true pluralism is hard work that demands reciprocal humility, curiosity, tolerance of the discomfort that comes with growth, and forgiveness. 

1. Title inspiration is David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, whose book bearing the above title about the exclusion of Jews from antidiscrimination efforts is accessible, brief, good and available on Audible.
2. Marom, Lilach, Switzer, Ania, "Misunderstood, Overlooked, and Marginalized: The construction of Jews and antisemitism in EDI policies and plans in Canadian higher education", Canadian Journal of Higher Education/La Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur (forthcoming).
3. If this term is new to you, you might consider referring to such resources as the Anti-Defamation League’s publication entitled “Antisemitism Uncovered: A Guide to Old Myths in a New Era”; or Anti-Defamation League, “Anti-Semitism and the Merchant of Venice: A Discussion Guide for Educators” at pp. 5-6; or Mark Schickman, “Introduction: Antisemitism: Civil Rights Advocacy is Long Overdue”, American Bar Association.
4. On the point of the belief that Jews are weaponizing antisemitism or Holocaust sympathy, such sentiments have been expressed by people who would violently recoil against analogous sentiments for other minorities, such as an allegation that a person of colour is “playing the race card”. Expressions of fear and marginalization by vulnerable groups, including Jews, should not be trivialized or snidely dismissed in such a manner.