He meant to Confederate soldiers that stands in a cemetery there was little public debate before the vote but those who spoke in favor of removing the statue said the lack of protest over the monument should not be mistaken for acquiescence we deserve more than to be told that those who lost a war fought to keep us in servitude deserve. Deserve to remain in our and on a place in our public spaces maintained by out tax dollars don't be fooled by sentiments that suggest white or black that because they've been no complaint that we have satisfied with the rich according to these Confederate men monstrosity do not mistake capacity to humiliation and then fold without satisfaction with humiliation and so. I laid out in Derry letters and politics is next good day and welcome to letters in politics I'm it shows or it's anti-Semitism back in the news as it periodically is this time it's about the 1st year congressional member Ilhan Omar of Minnesota one of the 2 1st Muslim women to have served in Congress late last week represent of Omar in a series of tweets routine her and other suggested at APAC the American Israeli Political Action Committee use money in order to influence u.s. Policy on Israel represent of Omar was widely condemned including by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi for being anti-Semitic Omar can jury and old trope that Jews control the world with their money others however rallied behind him are saying that there is nothing wrong with pointing out a pax influence on Capitol Hill and pointing out that it's enormous and APAC may not directly give money to lawmakers it because it's a nonprofit it's still uses its wealth in other ways for political outcomes so today we're going to be talking about all of this about anti-Semitism and its history and I'm very happy to welcome back to our radio station Dr Penny Rosen Wasser Dr Penny Rosen Wasser his longtime social justice activist in fact even a former broadcaster here. She teaches a class on anti-Semitism and Arab ism for the Palestinian colleague at City College of San Francisco in fact you can even sign up for that class which will be occurring this spring we'll give those details again throughout our conversation Dr Penny Rosen Wasser is also author of the book hoping to practice Jewish women choosing justice despite our fears and he was a monster it's great to see you again thank you for being here to have this conversation with me to thank you so much Mitt's for asking me to come and I'm honored it's I'm honored you're here and I wanted to reach out to you because your opinion on these things are always nuance and I think important and deep and that's the type of conversation I wanted to have about this so let me just begin by asking you how are you viewing. The situation that we've seen occurred this week with the Ohana war yeah thanks for asking and so I've been reading a bunch of different articles and this is where I am now in there may be information I don't have. First of all I think it's important to realize she was really been responding with her tweets to the smear campaign against her and rush she did by Republican Kevin McCarthy who is really trying to smear them because he says that it's anti-Semitic to criticize Israel and she's. A supporter of boycott divestment and sanctions against Israel She's a strong supporter of Palestinian rights which I am as well and I really hold her up because she and Russia have been bucking this what's been a consensus in Congress that you do not go against unilateral support for right wing Israeli policies. She was trying to point out in her tweets about the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics whether it's a Pac the n.r.a. Or the fossil fuel industry I think in the process the way I look at it is she made a misstep I think she made an unaware misstep by invoking the trope the anti-Semitic trope of Jews and money implying that Jews use money to control the world whether it's through a pact or whatever else. I have been thinking about this I make missteps missteps I think every day around racism I think there are things that I unaware Lee say or do I appreciate that my friends of color don't you know blow me off for that and will maybe kindly compassionately help me to see where I made a mistake so I see this as an unaware. Wording that she used and in the future would hope she'd be a little more thoughtful and more nuanced that she'd be talking about it. I think it's really important to notice that within 24 hours she gave a beautiful apology and unequivocal apology and I've read that in the interview yeah I think it's really really important as opposed to how many folks we know of in. Clued in from the leader of our country who we we never hear apologies for for a lot more hateful rhetoric that you find beautiful her well that she said it within 24 hours she said it was unequivocal I could I could read it I have it right in front of me anti-Semitism is real and I'm great this is her words and I'm grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole we have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity this is why unequivocally apologize and then I also love that she didn't back off from her main point she didn't let herself be intimidated she added at the same time I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics whether it be a Pac the n.r.a. Or the fossil fuel industry it's gone on too long and we must be willing to address it you were impressed by I was touched I was moved I were all Gleick I said I know I make mistakes every day The point is then to take responsibility for them and change our behavior and what I see her doing is saying I'm learning I'm growing I am learning about this and working on changing my behavior while also staying true to the point she's trying to make which is trying to avoid invoking anti-Semitic tropes but I think it's also really important to notice I think she's being smeared again they're trying to discredit her and silence or because she speaks out about Palestine but also she's a woman she's Muslim she's a woman of color so I think there's a lot of massage me and Islamophobia and racism coming at her as well she wears a hit job the 1st one to do that. And the final point I'd like to make is that if we're really concerned about anti-Semitism let's look at the leader of this country after Charlottesville when neo nazis carrying tiki torches. Murdered white non jewish woman but also chanted Jews will not replace us threatened a local synagogue or making the Hitler salute carrying his photo Trump referred to them as very fine people. The main the biggest ad in his campaign for a reelection that was at the very end of the campaign showed 3 prominent Jews Janet Yellen George Soros and Lloyd flanked on and next to it was rhetoric about them as symbols of international financial conspiracy that many Republicans were sharing social Yeah he has appointed to positions of power major people who espouse a lot of anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideas and actually I hold him responsible for his hateful rhetoric that I think motivated Robert Bowers to go into that Pittsburgh synagogue and murder 11 Jews who were praying at the Tree of Life Synagogue you know Trump calling folks people of color who were fleeing to this country to escape violence and and poverty and he's calling them invaders and trying to take over this country and you know we have to make this country white again and I think that kind of rhetoric really motivated from everything I've been reading Robert Bowers to do that so that's how I feel about Omar lot to unpack there that I want to go through with you I want to begin actually with the apology because you made me think about something I hadn't thought about and that's often times in today's political discourse an apology is often seen as capitulating as backing down as admitting you know weakness almost in that way but that that's not how you solve it wow that's amazing . That folks would see it that way to me. As people who care about each other and want to treat changing the world we want a more just and generous world we want to world where you know we're not perfect and again we all grow up in this country at least in a society that has so much racism and able ism in anti-Semitism and massage any and classism So we're going to be full of that and we need to just keep on learning it so why do we have to do but you know when we are called on something to take to it to take responsibility for it I mean I think an apology isn't enough then we have to follow it up with change behavior if we keep making the same mistake over and over you know there's something wrong there but yeah it's about holding each other accountable and just saying oh you know we're human I'm sorry I didn't realize that and I'm going to change and and you know it's like she did it and again it was just I thought beautifully done. Now let's go to what you say her original words and it was a tweet I don't have front of me but it was one tweet saying it's all about the Benjamins and it was she was mean Was 100 dollar bills I never heard of before I realized it's pretty common saying I missed it. From the ninety's. Yeah I was in college and that's Ok Ok And and so it's all about the Benjamins and then somebody asked her on Twitter what do you mean by that and she said a pack and that's where this comes from I've heard many people defend her saying that there was actually you know you called a misstep and I want to I want to hear why that was a misstep because we have heard people say well no she was absolutely right a Pac has all this power that influences we're talking about one organization that has the same type of Our it seems like the n.r.a. Does and nobody would be critical if we said the n.r.a. Is using money in order to gain influence on Capitol Hill Yeah thanks for asking because I think Mike to clarify I think it's using a Pac and the Benjamins together because of this anti-Semitic trope historically and in a minute I'd like to give the background on that around Jews and money that's what I think is the problematic part. And the whole APAC Israel Lobby issue is a nuanced one year it's a Pac is largely Jews white wealthy Jewish men they're the most visible part of the Israel lobby I think it's very important to remember that part of the Israel lobby are white evangelical Christians who tend to be under the radar but give tons of money and are very very supportive of Israeli policies fund a lot of the settlements so if we're going to look at who's responsible they have to be talked about to APAC Yeah you can be very intimidating very powerful as our lobbies that's what lobbyists do they're tough I used to interview them you did Lee back in the day when I was a daily reporter on the guy. I talk to them a lot they were tough sometimes I left those interviews feeling a little Yeah they're effective and they're one of the one of the major forces affecting u.s. Policy but also let's look at like I said the Christian evangelicals let's also look at weapons manufacturers they make money by selling weapons so it's beneficial to them any kind of conflict I don't know how many folks know that 100 percent now of u.s. Aid to Israel goes to u.s. Corporations primarily weapons manufacturers you know so any time when like Israel bombs Gaza for 50 days and kills 2100 Palestinians over half of them civilians over 500 children and 78 Israeli fighters were killed in that that in 2014 but that's u.s. Arms you know f. 16 fighter jets Apache helicopters things like that so anyway that's also we have to also look at it at that role in terms of influencing u.s. Policy APAC and the Israel lobby have a big part of that but there are other factors as well and so to to notice all of those and hold them to account Ok So somebody might look at getting back to the statement of your home are saying well that was what she was probably referring to not this you know you know that her statement I guess could be read different ways different list of well I think that's the one of the critiques I read is this is not an easy thing to talk about over Twitter you know you need some more nuanced discussion and it's hard you know in Twitter you have a limited amount of words you can use and so you know we could say she meant this she meant that again I give her the benefit of the doubt. I thought but I think what it was she tried to clarify in her apology what she meant all right let's get in to the background of this troll Yeah great of Jews money international financing international banking were when the Swiss began from what I know in their Christian Europe in the Middle Ages. Jews in most. Places were not allowed to own land and were not allowed to have a lot of the jobs. Christians were not allowed to use to have jobs with money it was called you sorry so you can lend money and get. Interest on it. But that was my understand Ok that's yeah that's probably what it is yeah yeah well you can give money but you can't and you can't you can't make all that's interesting on it so Jews became the tax collectors the money lenders the traders this also benefited Jews I mean it gave us the various jobs but it gave us we were needed we were considered indispensable and part of the way that anti-Semitism was happening in Christian Europe in the Middle Ages was it would happen in cycles very differently than say racism in this country today which is 247. If Jews would be needed to do those roles but when there was a crisis it could be something like the bubonic plague it could be some kind of economic issue it was very convenient to scapegoat the Jews and blame the Jews exiled them sometimes rape them murder them kick them out of the country then another country would take us and say oh we need these skills but so on a temporary basis having these skills gave us was a survival tool it was a safety mechanism for Jews so and I only learned this recently but so there was a very positive aspect of it for us as Jews to have those skills and so and again we're not allowed to have a lot of other skills so those skills have been passed down to you we're not allowed to do a. Sort of other functions in society yeah yeah and even if it was for segregation Yeah and even into the early you know early years of this country. And another way that this has functioned it's Jews often being in these middle roles for example and in medieval Europe the if you're a peasant and you had a bad year and you don't have any money when this Jewish tax collector comes to your door. Or who do you get mad at you get mad at the Jew that's who you want to beat up or kill or something like that you don't think about the fact the Jew is collecting the money but it's going to the ruler to the nobleman to whoever's in charge and that's actually. Anti-Semitism still plays out that way today it often diverts the rage of people from the one percent who are making the decisions in this society and a small percentage of those are Jews but the vast majority are not Christians and it diverts the rage of people and redirect the rage towards the Jews so it's I see it as anti-Semitism is often a cover for class power and class oppression and capitalism is going rather well it's just like what I said. People again well he is so you take the example of Trump's ad where he's holding up Janet Yellen and Lloyd Blankfein I am not excusing Goldman Sachs believe me but to hold them responsible and and George Soros who does you know a billionaire a Holocaust survivor who does incredibly positive work. Around social justice he does you know he is one of the people who is helping support the caravans and the funding of of refugees and asylum seekers many are supporting that . But so blaming them for this financial conspiracy to take over the world which I don't think exists but certainly the one percent is responsible not looking at all the other people who are part of the one percent so singling out Jews there's a. Group called New World Wealth think they issued this 2 years ago and they studied 13000000 millionaires. In this country in the world and found that 56 percent of them are Christian 2 percent are Jews another percentage are are Muslim Hindu etc but it's so Jews get singled out. Out in a way we're taught to focus on the Jewish faces for example people will complain about their Jewish landlord or their Jewish developer never mentioning all the Christian developers like how often do you hear someone complain about their a pisky Paley and banker or their Lutheran landlord or their Presbyterian boss and it's so it's subtle the way a lot of anti-Semitism is in this society today that again comes over directly from Christian Europe but it's also important to say what I'm talking about now is how it's come down mostly for the Jews which has been very very violent but for his rocky Jews some Sephardic Jews who especially his rocky Jews who are from Islamic countries anti-Semitism has been far less violent. It's usually been treating Jews as 2nd class citizens and treating Christians that way as well meaning not having the same rights as Muslims in that country but not genocide and since I'm speaking of genocide I wanted to make this point because I'm I'm teaching a workshop now called when I dare to be powerful for Jewish activists women genderqueer transfer and when I mention this last week a few of them had never heard this statistic before I think a lot of folks know that 6000000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust along with 5 to 11000000 Roma gypsies people with disabilities l g b t Q People left is communists but the statistics I think are even more chilling which is that what that did was wipe out one out of every 3 Jews in the world that 75 years ago wiped out 2 out of every 3 Jews in Europe and this was a systematic policy of the 3rd Reich So it wasn't just 6000000 it was this. One 3rd of Jews in the world 2 thirds of Jews in Europe and I find that very chilling I think it is of when you would look at those percentages of any any group that has been systematically and I laid it you mentioned the difficulty for the Jews Tom told me about that and who are for folks in the know the Ashkenazi Yeah thanks for asking so after the 2nd Temple was destroyed in Israel which was then called Canaan Israel Palestine I should say that in the ancient world that's not my strongest area of knowledge so but that's the part you know in broad strokes so when the 2nd temple was destroyed Jews were exiled some Jews chose to are able to stay in the Middle East Iraq Iran what we now call you know North Africa Syria and those are his rocky Jews. They speak Arabic their foods are Arabic foods for example on our high holidays or for Jewish holidays in this country the folks would have lox and bagels or to fill to fish or Arabic to use you know what have hummus and pita bread. Like Ethiopian Jews would have what he called it and the bread and Jira. Anyway so that was the heart of the Jewish Diaspora Jews are not the only groups that have a diaspora which is a forced. Displacement of the people Palestinians have a diaspora I think different Asian groups to Anyway seconds Africans for sure African Diaspora forced on them. Other Jews fled to Turkey and Spain and Morocco and North Africa and later South America those are Sephardic Jews they often speak Ladino they often some of their foods are different as well. And then what is now the largest I'm pretty sure the largest percentage of Jews today in the world fled to Eastern Europe. Those are my ancestors who come from Poland and Russia. Have traditionally been white Jews but now in this country 20 percent of Jews in this count