Monday, June 13, 2022
A Road Map for Anti-Jewish Violence: Boston BDS’ Latest Outrage
The weekend I moved to Boston was the same weekend that The Mapping Project and BDS Boston released their map of Boston — which aims to analyze policing, white supremacy, and somehow, Judaism.
The locations of synagogues, schools, and other Jewish institutions are logged in their interactive database, which puts Jews and Jewish institutions in danger. And it appeals to centuries-old tropes about Jews and power, legitimizes them in the public eye, and then distances itself from anti-Jewish violence.
The Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,717 reported antisemitic incidents in 2021, the highest number ever logged since they began tracking the data in 1979. Antisemitic incidents in Massachusetts also reached a record high last year. Massachusetts is facing a growing Neo-Nazi movement, as evidenced by the man who attempted to blow up a Jewish assisted-living residence in Longmeadow in 2020; or the author of antisemitic and racist manifestos, who murdered two Black people in Winthrop last summer; or by antisemitic graffiti found in bathrooms at Marblehead elementary school this year.
When groups like BDS Boston implicate Jews in white supremacy, they amplify a false narrative. Antisemitism animates white supremacy — not the Jews. By creating lists, a similar mechanism to how Jews were scapegoated and surveilled throughout history, The Mapping Project and BDS Boston contribute to the cycle of anti-Jewish violence.
Additionally, this type of work is labeled as "activism," which detracts from the power of true and successful activism. There are social-justice driven organizations and non-profits that make maps that serve a purpose. The Southern Poverty Law Center, for instance, maintains a hate map that tracks hate groups across the United States. The Movement Advancement Project offers Democracy Maps, which show a roadmap of state election laws and policies, along with how they differ across the country. Such maps are grounded in reality rather than conspiracy, and mobilize people to positive action, rather than to hate.
Greater Boston holds the fourth-largest Jewish community in the country. It is home to dozens of shuls and synagogues, Jewish schools, and institutions. As I navigate Boston, I am wary of this map and the potential it has to incite violence against my community.
I think about the hospitals and medical schools that were listed as newfound "cancellations" on the map; the Jewish non-profit that serves those with disabilities and their families down the street from where I live that has been called off-limits; museums blacklisted and the call to boycott art. Antisemitism both signals the crumbling of democracy, and the erosion of difference and otherness.
I am reminded of what a good friend once told me: where there are Jews, antisemitism follows. I am reminded of how hate brews, how it starts as ignorance and ferments into ugliness and hostility — and how maps like these codify conspiracies and give voice to a seething minority.
And that is what they are: a minority. BDS advocates and other antisemitic activists remain on the fringe of progressivism. They may tug at the fabric, but they do not represent community activism and justice. They claim to speak for Boston, but we won't let them.
It's time to denounce these hateful "activist" tactics. There needs to be a proper investigation into the organizers who published this map. It's time to speak out against antisemitism with conviction; it's time to value Jewish safety.
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