Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Many fellow Jews have accused me of stoking the fire of antisemitism and inciting anti-Jewish violence since I publicly joined the crescendoing chorus of genocide scholars, humanitarian organizations, politicians and prominent Israelis who use the word “genocide” to describe the actions of the Israeli government in response to the unimaginable Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th, 2023, and the ongoing hostage crisis. One commenter on a recent online post I made regarding the assault of a Jewish father in front of his children in Montreal wrote to me: “Every vilification of Israel, including Ha’aretz posts like yours, fuels antisemitism.”

It is easy to come to such a conclusion in the current zeitgeist. An antisemite recently defaced a historic synagogue not far from my home in nearby Victoria, BC, Canada. In a hateful and threatening act, that individual scrawled on a pillar of the historic congregation that “Jews are evil because genocide is evil,” implying that the genocidal actions of the Israeli government mean that all Jews are “child-killing…monsters.” Similarly, individuals commenting on my public social media posts of articles critical of the Israeli government from publications such as Haaretz, the Times of Israel, and the Guardian have utilized that critique as a springboard for spewing antisemitic canards about the inherently “evil” nature of Jews.

While such hateful messaging might understandably dissuade some well-meaning........

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