Your May 25 editorial (“Mr. Biden, Define Antisemitism”) urging the Biden administration to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of “antisemitism” is far off target.
In the vernacular, “antisemitism” is used as an overly polite synonym to refer to the timeless hatred of the Jewish people. The 39-word IHRA definition is vague and cumbersome. The definition does not do justice to 2,000 years of hateful rhetoric and violence. It fails to convey the irrationality of this phenomena, its timelessness, its scope.
Instead of focusing on the IHRA definition, I suggest giving more attention to the word’s usage. When referring to this behavior and belief system, it would be more accurate to use the phrase “hatred of the Jews” or simply “Jew hatred.”
Ronald Jay Smolow, Washington Crossing
Antisemitism evolves and in its present iteration hatred of Israel is a fig leaf for hatred of Jews. that doesn’t mean Israel is protected from criticism, but the Omar’s, Tlaib’s and their soulmates are obvious Jew-haters.