Dear friends,
This morning, I opened Facebook to find a comment on one of our community forums attacking the mostly Jewish female administrators of the private Facebook group ‘Clarkstown Schools United’ by calling them ‘Communist Yentas’.
Over the course of the last few months, I have done my best to stay out of these ongoing online debates that have been turning uglier by the day in our community. Arguing with people on social media feels incredibly unproductive and when I have tried it in the past, I have felt it only leads to further polarization. In one instance, I was even cyber-stalked by a person whose comments bordered on dangerous.
I also find that members of the broad community are willing to say the worst of comments because they hide behind their computers. In a few instances, we have people in the various groups who hide behind fake accounts. Yes, social media truly seems to bring out the worst in people.
This morning, I realized that I cannot just sit idly by. The comment that the mostly Jewish women who run this private Facebook group are ‘communist yentas’ demands a response.
The word communist has long been used as a derogatory way of demeaning Jews. In Nazi era Germany, cartoons of Jews with long noses alongside the hammer and sickle were a constant. Jews were dangerous because they were guiding the world into the abyss of Marxist destruction. When communist is used as a slur, it has a deeply offensive ring to it of antisemitic hate. Whether intended or not, words matter.
The word yenta refers to gossipy women, who are overly involved in the matters of men. As noted in The Forward, the word is directly connected to the verb yentsn which means to copulate. Thus, yenta has a direct connection to sex and to an idea of sexual looseness. The word is deeply mysognistic and is dangerous.
Words matter – it matters what we say and how we say it. I have chosen to be careful about posting on social media forums for this reason – but I need to speak up when I see hate guised as political rhetoric — the use of the words communist yenta is deeply offensive and borders on antisemitic.
In this season of elections, I hope we will all try to do better.
Rabbi Brian Leiken
