Youngkin Ramps Up Fight Against Anti-Semitism
“We’re not anti-Semitic, we’re anti-Zionist.”
That’s the refrain we hear from pro-Palestinian protesters calling to free Palestine “from the river to the sea” and to “globalize the intifada.” They don’t hate Jews, they say. They hate the Israeli state, which just happens to be populated by Jews. Anti-Semitism, according to this logic, is something that emanates exclusively from the far Right.
There is anti-Semitism on the far-right, to be sure, although it doesn’t seem to be much in evidence here in Virginia since the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in which torch-bearing white supremacists (mostly from other states) marched down the Lawn of the University of Virginia proclaiming, “Jews will not replace us.” The precise meaning of that exhortation eludes me, as there is no rational scenario in which Jews comprising 2% of the U.S. population will be “replacing” anybody else. But notice what the white supremacists did not say: They did not say, “We will replace the Jews”… which is pretty much what “decolonizing” Palestine from the river (the Jordan River) to the sea (the Mediterranean Sea) does mean.
In their actual actions, as opposed to their apologetics, it appears that members of the pro-Palestinian movement are less inclined to respect the distinction between Zionists and Jews. When it comes to expressing their rage against the Israeli state, any Jew will do.
Thus, in recent days, the alleged murderer of two Jews (one of whom was American, one Israeli) in front of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., yelled, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” while a man who set eight Jews afire in Boulder, Colorado, with a makeshift flamethrower, allegedly proclaimed, “Free Palestine.”
The people conflating Jews and Zionists these days are not white supremacists. Some are Muslim: Not your friendly Muslim family next door, but Muslims steeped in anti-Western, anti-colonial, oppressor-oppressed ideology of America’s elite universities. In point of fact, most anti-Zionists in the U.S. are not Muslim at all. They belong to any number of leftist factions united by the conviction that the oppression of one group equates to the oppression of all.
We can be thankful, I suppose, that shooting people and setting them on fire are acts that politicians of both political parties still feel compelled to denounce. Sadly, the same cannot be said of rejecting the odious ideology that elevates one’s racial, ethnic and religious “identity” to the center of their personhood and inculcates resentment, and often hatred, against perceived oppressors. Like the Israelis and, by extension, the Jews.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) was early in addressing the new wave of anti-Semitism. One of his first executive orders, in 2022, established the Commission to Combat Antisemitism. “Our nation and our Commonwealth have seen an intolerable rise in antisemitism in recent years,” he proclaimed.
Then came Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its terror assault on Israel, followed immediately by coordinated demonstrations by pro-Palestinian groups on dozens of American campuses, and then a surge in incidents ranging from microaggressions to intimidation to outright murder against Jews. Whatever was happening in the Middle East—I won’t wade into the accusations back and forth—Jews residing in the United States were not committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. Yet individuals identifying themselves as pro-Palestinian were targeting them.
With anti-Semitic violence on the rise, Youngkin issued a new executive order two weeks ago addressing the scourge in Virginia’s schools and universities.
“No one should be unsafe in the classroom or on campus or feel targeted because of their religion or heritage,” stated Youngkin in Executive Order 48, Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Religious Bigotry in Virginia Public Schools and Institutions of Higher Education.
“This Executive Order reaffirms and strengthens the Commonwealth’s commitment to safe educational environments free from discrimination and continues our actions against antisemitism and anti-religious bigotry in public schools and institutions of higher education,” Youngkin said.
The Governor directed his administration to develop resources to help local school divisions, colleges, and universities to “prevent, track, report, and follow up on incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-religious bigotry.”
The latest order follows several other initiatives during Youngkin’s tenure, including:
Adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism as the standard for training, education, and combatting hate crimes in the commonwealth.
Adding ethnic origin to Virginia’s hate crime law in line with the IHRA definition.
Enhancing security for houses of worship and religious institutions, targeted safety plans and awareness initiatives to safeguard Jewish, Muslim and other communities.
Incorporating anti-Semitism awareness, Holocaust awareness, and Jewish history into the K-12 History and Social Science Standards of Learning.
Training 475 Virginia law enforcement officers on Global Extremism, Domestic Extremism, Campus Extremism and Anti-Semitism, with another training event in the works.
These measures are all worthwhile, though it is questionable whether they are sufficient. Virginia Universities—most notably the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University—have become hotbeds of anti-Zionist agitation. A year ago, protesters organized pro-Palestinian tent “encampments” at all four universities. The Youngkin administration backed a forceful response by university presidents, and the ensuing crackdowns resulted in dozens of arrests across the state. Demonstrations this past year were subdued, but hostility to Israel remains. In March, the Trump Justice Department named UVA and George Mason as among the 60 universities it has warned may be violating Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
It will take more than tweaking hate-crime language and teaching K-12 students about the Holocaust to transform campus cultures. It is doubtful that the university governing-board members appointed by Youngkin can do much on their own. Meaningful change won’t come unless the Governor commits himself and the weight of his administration to the effort in the half year that remains in his term.
This article has been republished with permission from Restoration News.
