Mohammed Adnan Khan, a student at Temple University and a member of Kappa Delta Rho fraternity, was a patron at Barstool Sports in Philadelphia, when he ordered bottle service and requested a sign that said, “F*** the Jews.” Apparently, the servers were either impressed with the college student throwing money around, or they too were harboring their own antisemitic sentiments and obliged him.
Imagine, if a patron in a crowded bar, in a major US city, requested a sign that said, “F*** the Blacks” or “F*** the Latinos,” do you think the server would oblige him or have him escorted out of the facility instead? It is a very scary state of affairs when “F*** the Jews” has become acceptable.
The owner of the bar, a Jew whose name is David Portnoy, fired the servers who obliged Khan’s request, publicized the incident, and decided that a lesson in Jewish history by means of an all-expense paid trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz, would foster understanding in the young Jew-hater’s mind. While I am driven by emotion to want to criticize Portnoy for his ignorance regarding the psychology of antisemitism, I will refrain and try to explain the failure of Jews to deal with this and other incidents appropriately.
Sending an antisemite to Auschwitz is like sending a pedophile to Disney World!
Mr. Portnoy, Auschwitz might strike an emotional chord for you as it should most rational individuals. However, to an Arab Jew-hater, who is a ”dyed in the wool” antisemite, you are celebrating the accomplishments of one of his idols, Adolf Hitler. Did you forget that Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are still atop the best sellers list in much of the Muslim world?
Somewhere in your education you must have missed the history lesson that teaches that the Nazis and Arabs bonded over their hatred of Jews. After WWII, many SS officers found safety in Arab lands and set up educational facilities that taught antisemitism. They were also instrumental in starting The Muslim Brotherhood, the terror organization that assassinated Anwar Sadat and Rabbi Meir Kahane. The Muslim Brotherhood is also the parent organization of Al Qaeda and other terror organizations.
Mr. Portnoy, while I am critical of your methodology, I am aware your idea is symptomatic of a larger problem in the American Jewish landscape: our profound Jewish attachment to liberal ideals that are built on the premise that discourse and discussion will eventually yield the outcome we are seeking. I assure you that no amount of discourse or discussion would have made Hitler decide that the final solution was a bad idea, or bring Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
A heart to heart with Khan over a bottle of expensive scotch is not going to change his deeply engrained belief system. If we go back to the Torah, we were not commanded to have discourse and discussion with Amalek, we were commanded to rid the world of them. Today Amalek remains the symbol of classic antisemitism.
If we accept the premise that antisemitism has been elevated to a religious level in Khan and other like-minded individuals, how can we counter his beliefs using rational discourse? Perhaps we should force him to write a report on Hannah Arendt’s” Antisemitism Part One of the History of “totalitarianism?” That is probably a bad idea because it may teach him how to craft better antisemitic narratives. We would be better served making Arendt’s work mandatory reading for liberal Jews who think like Mr. Portnoy.
There is, sadly, no easy fix for the problem of antisemitism, as it has been weaponized numerous times over the course of history for different goals. Unfortunately, the internet and social media feeds on the vile anger that these narratives produce. The governments and organizations that drive these narratives invest massive amounts of money customizing the narratives to appeal to people across divergent groups. I laugh when I see protesters holding a sign that says "Queers for Palestine", since homosexuals are routinely decapitated in Islamic countries. Carry this thought one step further and we can argue that any American who has allowed their mind to be hijacked by these narratives does not understand that these are the same people who chant "Death to America, death to the Jews!" It’s sad to think that eighty years after the Holocaust some Americans are buying into proto-Nazi narratives.
We cannot fight back by taking people to Auschwitz, it is not part of their collective memory or identity, it is part of ours. We need to expose the vulgarity of the nations and organizations that drive antisemitism and remind them of the nature of what they are supporting. These are the people who brought us:
- 09/11
- 10/07
- Massacres in Asia and Africa of non-Muslims
- The killing of Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics
- Massacres of Serbian Christians
- Ethnic cleaning of the Kurdish people
And the list goes on!
From Google: Over the last 70 years, Islamic terrorism has resulted in numerous casualties and significant global impact. Specifically, between 1979 and April 2024, there were at least 66,872 Islamist attacks worldwide, resulting in at least 249,941 deaths.
On a final note, I came to Temple in 1982 to study urban sociology under the tutelage of a wonderful staff. To my shock I encountered two professors in the religion department who were spreading vile antisemitic narratives in their teaching. My ex-wife, who was studying Arab Israeli relations in an honors program, received an F on a well-crafted paper, but really for being a woman and a Jew. Fortunately, we had the sense to have the work peer reviewed, and she received a corrected grade.
While my personal experience might seem telling, consider that this was before the wealthy Arab countries started funneling huge amounts of capital into American universities to help promote their agendas.
We need to be custodians of our own well-being and unify our efforts to combat the Jew-haters.
Michael Nelinson is a Jewish activist and academic. His background includes Jewish history and liturgy, psychology, philosophy, and history.