By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — There’s a new social media app making waves that you may have heard of. It’s the all-audio app called Clubhouse. Though it’s only a year old, is still in Beta, and hasn’t had a public offering, it’s been given a $4 Billion valuation. Yes, that’s Billion with a B.
But recently, the app has been in the Jewish news for a different, less positive reason, and that is the antisemitism that some Jews are encountering while hanging out on the app.
Before I go into that, I suppose that I should tell you what Clubhouse is and why it’s different from other social media sites. Full disclosure, I’ve “lived” there since Christmas Eve and often refer to it as my Jewish Christmas miracle, so you know I’m a fan. Because the app is all audio, there is no texting, no image posting, no videos, nothing except real-time live audio. Think of it like a 1980s party line married to the mother-of-all convention breakout rooms.
When you log onto the app, you are taken to the hallway where you can see various rooms. The rooms in your hallway are curated based on who you follow and what clubs you join. The more diverse people that you follow, the more diverse rooms you will see. If someone you follow is in a room, or speaking on the stage in that room, that room will appear in your hallway. What this means is that you can wander into rooms on topics or with people that you might never encounter in your normal life. This can both be a great thing as you can find yourself in stimulating conversation with all sorts of amazing people; but it can also lead to issues of entering rooms or conversations that you may wish to avoid.
Such was the case last weekend. From what I’ve pieced together, this particular round of antisemitism may have been started by a right-wing Jew who opened up a room pondering the question of whether Jews have white privilege or not. While Clubhouse is international, and has people from all over the world hanging out there, it seems that there are more Left-leaning Americans than right-wing. There’s also a large contingent of social justice warriors and African-Americans. The title of that room could be considered “click bait,” which is a title that is designed to elicit an emotional reaction. In the context of Clubhouse norms, the title was, imho, fairly inflammatory. So it’s no surprise that it generated some controversy. The room was not well run (in my opinion). I was actually in that room at one point and witnessed some of the baligan. The conversation devolved into a free-for-all. Then some people from the African-American community opened up “response rooms” talking about the “Jewish room” and that’s when it really got heated. Multiple rooms were opened, mostly by non-Jews, and many of them would not allow Jews on the stage, and were repeating every dangerous, antisemitic trope. We don’t need to repeat those tropes here, we’ve all heard them.
This was not my first time experiencing antisemitism on Clubhouse. I experienced it as early as my first day on the app when I wandered into an African-American room talking about white privilege, and found myself on the stage under attack. My fault for going up on the stage to counter a point that I didn’t agree with. After saying that while I acknowledge that I have white privilege, as a Jew I don’t identify as “white.” I was told among other things that I can’t say I’m Jewish because I’m too pale (from a radical “Black Hebrew”) to being told that Jews have never done anything for the Black community and that those who had were doing it just for attention. There was a lot more, but I can’t remember it all, and honestly the specifics are not that relevant. So I knew that it was out there.
If this was one of my early experiences on Clubhouse, you might wonder why I’ve stayed on it and refer to it so favorably. Well there was another room that I wandered into that day, and that was the Shabbat Shalom room. There I found Jews (and non-Jews) from all over the world, and every form of Judaism celebrating together. Between the prayers and a d’var Torah delivered by club founder Kerry Leigh Miller, there were songs, led by musician Mikey Pauker. We went around the room stating what we were grateful for. I felt such a sense of Jewish community like I haven’t felt since my BBYO days. It was beautiful and exciting.
The next night there was a Havdalah room under the Value Culture club run by Adam Swig. There was more singing, more music, and we went around the room stating our intentions for the coming week. I loved it so much, I started making it a point to join in weekly and started referring to being affiliated with Kehilat Beit Clubhouse.
I’ve also learned a lot about the struggles of the Asian and African-American communities by going into their rooms and just listening to them talk, as they, like us, lamented being discriminated against, facing racism and being under represented in media. It seemed to me that in every minority room I went into, they were pondering the same question, “What about us?” Not talking about what was happening on Clubhouse, but what was happening in the larger world.
There are rooms happening on every topic under the sun. Since I am interested in media, I quickly found the rooms run by media, by people in Hollywood, and by other reporters. I’ve learned so much in those rooms about “the industry” and made some incredible connections who are helping me on my journey in media.
You’ll also find me in the rooms about writing and publishing a book, which I see as my give-back as I help people learn the ins and outs of self-publishing (my day job).
I also joined a theatre audio troupe where we produce audio dramas marrying Clubhouse technology with old radio drama techniques to create a different kind of entertainment experience. In fact, if you’re interested in that, we’re doing an encore performance of Star Trek: The Inner Light on May 29 at 6pm PST.
But I digress… back to the two-sided coin of Jewish clubhouse. Though there is antisemitism on the app, that doesn’t have to be your Jewish experience on the app. There are several Jewish clubs- like Shabbat Shalom, Value Culture, Jewish Tribe and Friends, Jewish Love Lab, and my club, Jewish Over 40 (and many many more). So there are many ways to find community and a Jewish experience on Clubhouse that go beyond religion and are far from the antisemites.
But sometimes it does happen that trolls will come into one of the Jewish rooms, or you may find yourself in a room that seemed to have an innocent topic, but turned ugly. What should you do then?? Well I put that question to some of my clubhouse friends and they had some great ideas…
Among the people I interviewed was Jonathan D. Greenberg who is the Director of the Institute for Non-Violence and Social Justice at the University of San Fransisco (which he founded with Dr. Clarence B Jones- Martin Luther King’s friend, lawyer and speech writer). Greenberg had some really great advice. On the topic of going into rooms that are having questionable conversations he said “First of all, you can just listen. But if I decide to engage in it, then there’s a implicit responsibility to stick with it. And that takes time and energy. If I’m in the room, then I’m committed to having a respectful conversation. If I’m not treated with respect, then I can’t stay. But if you decide to engage, then you have to maintain a respectful tone, and be prepared and to be informed, and have Google next to you so that you can respond and rectify statements that are false and to do so in a calm simple way.”
I wanted to know if there were any tricks that could diffuse a situation that was getting hostile, or what to say when someone says something that just doesn’t feel right. He suggested that a good response could be “I feel very uncomfortable with what you just said, and here’s why…” He suggests that going back to the “I” statements are always a good tool in conflict resolution. When you use “I” statements instead of accusatory “you” statements, there’s less room to argue, and more chance that a path to dialogue can be opened.
I also spoke with Adam Swig, founder of the non-profit Value Culture, and the club on Clubhouse of the same name. He and his friend rapper Rami Even-Esh brought Sami Steigman, (the first Holocaust survivor on Clubhouse,) to do a room allowing people to ask questions about the Holocaust and what it was like living through it. That room lasted for 16 hours straight and saw 20,000 people come through it. Some stayed for hours. He also brought Dr. Clarence B Jones to do a room on Martin Luther King Day. That room also lasted many hours and saw many thousands of faces. More recently he did a Passover Seder in collaboration with some of the comedy and music clubs, and that marathon room saw over 43,000 people come through it. His advice for dealing with the antisemites? First reach out in love and try to understand them, try to find common ground, and if that won’t work, or they’re being abusive, then report and block them.
Another new friend of mine, Danielle Ames Spivak (CEO of the American Friends of the Israeli Philharmonic), says that we should be bold in getting up there and speaking the truth, to share real facts and to focus on holding rooms that build a strong positive community, and of course to report and block the trolls. If you don’t feel that you are well versed enough in the facts to speak the truth, don’t. Instead educate yourself and spend some time going to rooms like the Hummus Thursday room that Danielle and author Noa Tishby hold. In that room Tishby (author of Israel: A Simple Guide To The Most Misunderstood Country on Earth) and Spivak bring guests to help dispel myths about Israel and Judaism, among other topics.
Aspiring author Eli Kohn, who is writing a book from her grandfather’s Holocaust diaries added that as Jews we have a responsibility to educate people on our history. She figures that rather than going into the rooms that are obviously antisemitic, it’s better to spend her time creating her own positive rooms and making a platform for education. She also notes that sometimes reaching out privately for a one-to-one conversation can make a difference. She tries to look for those people that would be open to that kind of dialogue.
Digital brand strategist Kaley Ames said that she keeps her hallway carefully curated by being really careful about who she follows and so she hasn’t actually seen any of the more problematic rooms, though she has heard about them. She and her cousin Danielle run a Jewish Geography room where people drop in every week to talk about where they’re from, make new friends and answer an important question- usually about food, like “What do you put on your bagel?” She also runs a debate room with her friend Sarah Sahagian who is the Executive Director of Speech and Debate Canada. She noted that a debate should be consensual and that sometimes people can get baited into having a debate. She says that should this happen to you and you’re not prepared you can say “I’m not prepared to have this conversation right now, I would love to set up a time and another room to discuss it.” In this way you can diffuse the immediate situation, but still leave room to have the discussion when you can come armed with facts. She says that she wishes that people would come with the attitude of “I disagree with you, but I’d really like to hear more of your side, and then to respond, “ that there should be room to say “I don’t believe in the thing that you believe in, but I want to hear more about why you believe what you believe.”
Musician and educator Mikey Pauker, whose rich warm voice drew me into my first Shabbat Shalom room with songs from his mentor, the late Debbie Friedman, has been in rooms with me that became quite challenging. He says that he feels conflicted about whether we should even enter those rooms or not. He notes that by entering the room, all the people who follow us will then see the room in their hallway, giving it more visibility. He notes that if you do go into the room, you need to read the room, listen to who is on the stage, look at the topic and to determine if it’s a safe space. Then listen. “If we do engage, I think the best thing we can do is speak from personal experience… and to be really clear and concise about factual information.”
Both Spivak and Swig had some additional thoughts for their fellow Jews on how they present themselves on Clubhouse, and that is to remember that unless you’re in a private room only with other Jews, you don’t know who is watching and listening, so remember to be respectful and that when you’re on a stage, things you say could be taken to represent all Jews. So keep your emotions in check, and educate yourself to be able to give facts.
How can you educate yourself? Well here are some books that could help:
Noa Tishby: Israel: A Simple Guide To The Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
Bari Weiss: How To Fight Antisemitism
Ibram X Kendi: How To Be An Antiracist
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When she’s not covering stories for San Diego Jewish World, Sandi Masori helps people self-publish memoirs and business authority books. In her free time, she hangs out with her kids and hunts for the best sushi in town.