What is the right word to describe prejudice against Jews?

I started putting my writing on the internet with the “The High Hat” back in the fall. In it, I presented that we need to start using the term “Judeophobia”.

Language changes. New terms evolve for new contexts and new situations. If we accept that antisemitism is an ever-evolving virus, then we need a term that works for today's day and age. We need the next evolution. "Judeophobia" is that next evolution.

What Does It Mean?

Judeophobia is defined as: The irrational fear and/or hatred of Judaism, Jews, Israel, and Israelis.

Judaism has many attributes split between all types of religious and cultural practice. Like any population, there is diversity within the Jewish world. But there are some central tenets to the religion that operate as through-lines throughout practically every sect and level of observance. They might not always be followed by all Jews, but any would recognize these attributes as including monotheism, the wisdom of the Torah, keeping kosher, and yes, a jewish national entity in the land of Zion.

The hatred and violence Jews are facing worldwide is so obvious it almost goes without saying. Daily physical attacks on Jewish institutions. Vitriol and blatant racism online. The resurrection of classic tropes about globalist control. Accusations that every incident is a "false flag."

These aren't fringe phenomena anymore, they are becoming normalized for the first time since the holocauast. They are often cloaked or wrapped in other messages, ie anti-Israel sentiment and anti-zionism.

What makes them Judeophobic rather than legitimate criticism however is a double standard. A standard that prejudice people apply to Jews and Israel that it applies to nobody else.

That double standard is Judeophobic at its root.

The Problem With the Words We Have

"Antisemitism" has been the most widely used term, but it is outdated and it has a critical flaw. For starters, it isn't particularly useful "Semitic" doesn’t mean anything to most people (including Jews). Most neutrals have never heard the term "semite" and that doesn't even mean Jewish. What's more, the term was coined as a way to justify prejudice against Jews in 19th-century Europe.

Most importantly however, Israel is not included in the term. This is because the state of Israel did not exist when the term “antisemitism” was invented. This is exactly the loophole that gets exploited when people say "anti-Zionism is not antisemitism." Technically speaking, they're right. For those trying to ward off hatred, that is a serious problem.

There is a growing agreement that the term is outdated, and some other terms that have been proposed to more accurately describe the prejudice. Recently, we see a lot of use of "anti-Jewish hatred" and “anti-Jewish bigotry”. They are accurate, but they are clunky.

These terms don't land because the words "hatred" and "bigotry" have been blunted. Hating is standard in the age of the internet. Bigotry evokes imagery like that of a fat man in a top hat smoking a cigar. What even is a bigot? These are technically correct terms, but they are not effective in moving hearts and minds.

"Judeophobic" however, is effective. That effectiveness is its superpower.

Why the "-Phobia" Suffix Is So Powerful

Judeophobia draws from the same branch of English that gave us "homophobia" and more recently "Islamophobia". That suffix, "phobia" does something interesting. It frames prejudice as irrational. When examined through the lens of Judeophobia, unfair criticisms of Israel, or of Jews can no longer be interpreted as protest to some perceived injustice. Those acts are now results of a person's highly negative character flaw. They are acting and hating on irrational fear. Think about someone who experiences arachnophobia. They are not acting wildly. They are not thinking clearly because they have some psychosis overpowering their logical brain.

There is lots of practical evidence on the efficacy of this term. It is battle tested. Look at what “Islamophobia” has achieved as a term.

To take a moment and examine "Islamophobia", we see that it is a highly flexible term. It can cover hatred of Muslims as individuals, suspicion of Islam as a religion, hostility toward Muslim nations, racism against Arabs, etc. You can't precisely what someone means when they throw that term around. That flexibility is a feature, not a bug. It acts as bulletproof armour to critiques and as an offesnive weapon totally destabilizes the recipient of the accusation.

Take a quick look and check the wikipedia article: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia

Reading through it, we can see that Islamophobia is an omni-term and frankly, this is a brilliant strategy. That wiki article cites the exact obscure linguistic debate tactic that is used to checkmate any detractors. To apply it to Jews, you can call someone Judeophobic. If they say "my criticism of Israel is not Judeophobic," the reply is already built in: that statement questions the very existence of systemic Judeophobia, which is, of course, Judeophobic.

While the logic is circular, the tactic has proven to be mightily efficient in the real world. If it continues to work, Jews should learn from, and use it. Jews need to focus less on being correct and more on being effective. 

Still not convinced? Try a little thought experiment. Right now, you are probably deeply critical of the Iranian regime and you would be happy to state so publicly. But are you Iranophobic? Suddenly, when that suffix is added to the mix, you want to stop and explain yourself. "No, wait — hold on, it's not that simple..." It's a small distinction, but it is extremely powerful.

Call someone Judeophobic and even if they can't quite describe it, they know immediately that it is a bad thing to be. It puts them on the back foot. They start rethinking their position.

This is particularly useful because it can be applied to overcome that diabolical of strategies to excuse hatred and bigotry, "antizionism". Judeophobia includes antizionism within its definition.

It's Time to Retire "Zionism"

If you've ever opened a Jewish prayer book, you know full well that the land of Israel is intimately entwined with the religion. At the end of Passover, for hundreds of years, when Israel just didn't seem like a reality, Jews were saying "Next year in Jerusalem." There can be no question that the State of Israel (or some version of it) is fundamental to Judaism. This until now has been called "Zionism".

But the term “zionism” is well past its best before date.

Zionism was a movement with a goal: a Jewish homeland. That goal has been achieved. Israel exists. It is not going anywhere. Continuing to use "Zionism" as a live political term keeps open a debate that history should have already closed. Having the debate implies that the existence of Israel is still somehow up for discussion. It isn't.

You wouldn't use the term "anti-suffrage" today because the suffrage movement was successful. The same logic applies here.

Further,, the word "zionism" has been hijacked, equated with negativity, colonialism, and fascism by bad actors. It’s been twisted into something that sounds like a nefarious ideology. It is a tall task to reclaim this and wash away the poison. There's no need to be a zionist the same way there is no need to be a France-ist, a Thai-ist, or an Americanist. These terms seem absurd, Zionism should be framed in the same capacity.

Retire “Zionism” and you can retire “anti-zionism”. Whenever anti-zionism is invoke, Judeophobia is there to even the scales. Judeophobia becomes the new omni-term. It covers Jewish indigeneity, the right of return, religious freedom, Jewish ethnicity, Jewish culture, and the existence of Israel, all at once.

A Word for This Moment

If you drop the word "Judeophobic" casually into a sentence, a neutral party will immediately understand what you mean. It is parsable. It is intuitive. It connects to a framework people already know. It closes the loopholes. It shifts the burden of proof, the Judeophobe now needs to tread lightly to align with their own values.

We can debate Israeli policy. We can debate Halakic law. We can absolutely debate Israel’s borders, criticize the expansion of settlements, criticize the Israeli government, and hold space to empathize with and wish for a better life for Palestinians, but we cannot debate that Israel exists or whether or not it should exist.

The word "Judeophobic" finally provides clear language to make that distinction. Judeophobes, or just "phobes" can check their prejudice at the door if they want to be part of serious discussion.

The word for this era needs to be "Judeophobia". Let's start using it.