We've archived our previous overview on Antisemitism in Germany (you can still find a copy of it here, if you want). It was a pretty academic approach that now feels outdated.
It has become quite impossible to have a meaningful conversation about Antisemitism when seemingly everyone is opinionated. Even totally unrelated people now have a position on whether or not Antisemitism includes Antizionism. Lots of people all around the world are now expected - or think they are - to have a take on what is (or isn't) Antisemitism along with other "hot potatoes" like climate, gender, or AI. Even ChatGPT has an opinion on the matter (and ultimately, on us).
This is, at least, our personal assessment of this particular moment in our history. Maybe it's wrong; maybe it's just an expression of "Jewish Egocentricity". But if it's true - what could it mean to us as a people in general and as diaspora Jews in particular?
On the "meta" level, we observe how it's now a global issue. Who would have thought that a high school teacher in China could become a YouTube star with videos on Jewish theology and "Pax Judaica"? Yes, it really is a thing. A global thing, in fact.
So one way or another, we have become a global question - again. Whether one calls it the return of the Jewish question or, say, the Zionist question, isn't really so meaningful; either way, the matter in question is the same: Zion, Jerusalem, the holy land for some or the promised for others.
In other words: If Antizionism isn't Antisemitism because it is just about Zionism as a political movement, then we're dealing with "Zion" as the physically contested space of the ongoing political conflict. Alternatively, if Antizionism is regarded as some kind of Antisemitism because Zionism is the Jewish national movement, then it is about "Zion" as a Jewish concept. Regardless of one's support or rejection, the bottom line is the same.
To put it differently: There's no question we are a question. And not for the first time. Willingly or not, we are important to the world. The only choice we have is how to react.
Not so long ago, many of our ancestors thought the best reaction was for us to keep a low profile, to become as transparent and unimportant as we can. It didn't work out that well, but that's not much of an insight in retrospect. In real time, it felt like a viable option.
It might be worth our while to try a different approach this time, especially as diaspora Jews, if we actually want to retain our identity in face of the question imposed on us: For the first time in our history, those of us who live outside of Israel, those of us who, at least materially, could consider giving it up, are asked to knowingly, willingly, politically turn our back on Zion. To forfeit, as a diaspora, our Jewish homeland.
So at the end, whether one calls it Antizionism, Antijudaism or Antisemitism, we are left with another question, a particularly diasporic question: Without a common commitment to our homeland, what exactly turns different people with different citizenships in different countries, speaking different languages in different cultures, across different denominations, practices and backgrounds - Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Yemenite or Ethiopian - into a diaspora, a dispersed people?