About an hour into the conversation he mentioned that his parents had been poor and that he was the first in his family to go to college. Brandeis had given him a full ride, not merit-based, he explained, but because they wanted to diversify the student body beyond just Jewish students. I said that he must feel enormous gratitude toward an institution like that. He nodded. “Yeah, the Jewish people there are great. They’re not at fault for what Israel does.”
I paused.
I took a deep breath, trying to process what he just said; he had divided Jews, the people whose institutions had shaped his entire future, into Good Jews and Bad Jews. The ones who fund universities, build hospitals, and give out scholarships: good. The ones who demand a sovereign homeland and the right to defend it: guilty by association. This is one of the oldest antisemitic tropes in the book, and he used it as a compliment.
Zohran Mamdani does this. Jeremy Corbyn does it. Half of the progressive activist infrastructure in America does it. The pattern is always the same: validate the Jews who renounce Jewish self-determination, condemn those who don’t. It’s not philo-Semitism. It’s a permission structure that grants legitimacy only to Jews who agree to disappear as a political entity.
I said: “What is it that Israel does?”
“Well, It’s an apartheid state,” he said.
I felt my blood boiling, but I recently watched a video by a remarkable educator who teaches advocacy, and his advice was simple: “When someone makes a political accusation, don’t react. Ask them to define their terms. Because most people who use the biggest words know the least about what they mean.”
“What’s apartheid?” I asked, as if genuinely curious.
“It’s racial segregation, systematic discrimination, and separation based on ethnicity, enforced by the state.
“Interesting,” I said. I watched him settle into the teaching position, visibly enjoying it."Tell me more about it. Give me one example of that in Israel,” I asked.
He thought for a long moment. And he gave me the answer I wasn't really surprised to receive. “Let me see,” he said, while his eyes scanned around the area, searching for the right words. “Don't get me wrong, I am not that involved; I don’t really follow it that closely,” he said. “I’m training for the Boston marathon. I’m in a choir. I have kids. But it’s really well known and circulating around.”
And there it was.
