Censoring hate speech is counter- productive

By Jerry Klinger

BOYNTON BEACH, Florida — It was a standard email type of solicitation that came, October 23, from the Times of Israel.  A free online six-week course on antisemitism was offered by Yad Vashem.   The first three covered a 2,000-year overview of antisemitism through the Holocaust.  The final three weeks were on understanding and recognizing modern antisemitism expressed by extremists on the right and left of the political spectrum.

I have a good Jewish historical background and I thought a decent understanding of antisemitism when I see it.  I certainly have been on the receiving end of it having proposed and installed Jewish historical markers in 33 states and in five countries.  On occasion, I even get “honorary” mentions by the Neo-Nazi types in places like Stormfront or American Vanguard.

My sense of distance was shattered Saturday, October 27 with the news that 11 Shabbat worshipers were brutally executed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by a Jew-hating monster.

I signed up for the Yad Vashem course and yes, already I learned bits of history I did not know.  What I learned more significantly was how Jews responded to antisemitism.

During the segment on contemporary antisemitism, the lecturer lamented that society needed more anti-hate laws.  Society needed more legislation censoring hate speech, hate websites and hate literature.  I wondered about the emphasis on laws and censorship to end antisemitism.  When antisemitic incidents occur, Jews always talk about the need for more laws.

Is less free speech the answer to hate?  In Israel and Europe, it is.  Free speech, critical of Mohammed, is legally censored in Europe. Holocaust denial is censored speech.  Many liberal American Jews believe the best way to fight antisemitism is to restrict speech, not confront it.  Confronting hate means exposing oneself to hate and the hater.  It can be dangerous.

American Conservative speech is largely curtailed in the American Jewish world as outside the Pale.  Jews are overwhelmingly liberal. Jews believe the myth that liberals will fight antisemitism and Conservatives will not. The American media, overwhelmingly liberal, is toxic to Conservative views and values.

Extremism is not the monopoly of the right.  Extremism and antisemitism is blossoming on the left as well.

Many of the great Supreme Court cases that broadened, clarified and protected free speech were cases involving Jews. Ironic that Jews should advocate the best way to fight hate is to censor free speech.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes wrote:  “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which [the people’s] wishes safely can be carried out.” It is essential, he wrote, to grant “freedom for the thought we hate.”

The World Jewish Congress expressed their approach to fighting antisemitism.

“Laws against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism need to be adopted and enforced properly in every country.

Where possible, licenses for TV and radio broadcasters should be granted only if these do not disseminate hate propaganda.”

Former ACLU President Nadine Strossen said:  “The most effective way to counter the potential negative effects of hate speech — which conveys discriminatory or hateful views on the basis of race, religion, gender, and so forth — is not through censorship, but rather through more speech. And that censorship of hate speech, no matter how well-intended, has been shown around the world and throughout history to do more harm than good in actually promoting equality, dignity, inclusivity, diversity, and societal harmony.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all.”

Yet many Jews persist and argue for more laws to fight hate speech and censorship.

The Museum of Tolerance in California is a rare Jewish response to hate. It is not Holocaust centered. It is also not national.  A small, remarkable site exists in Boise, Idaho, the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.  Few Jews have ever heard of the Idaho memorial and are astonished when they do…Idaho they ask?   Their work is to change the soul not simply to ban the speech of hate.

Education is the key, Jews say. If done right it could be. Few Jews engage in the educational process. It is confrontational. Many who do engage in education have agendas lacking in toleration and understanding of views other than their own. Not everything is hate.

Some Jewish organizations claiming they fight antisemitism cross into political advocacy, even belligerency. Their intolerance creates hate.

Jewish groups that can find no toleration for a small Christian Evangelical baker who declines to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple create antisemitism.

Restricting free speech is comforting.  It is a delusional solution with short-term results. It is P.C. and does not require exposing oneself to personal risk.

Anti-free speech and censorship laws do not fight antisemitism. Alexis de Tocqueville asked, about the “Tyranny of the majority vs. the Tyranny of the minority.”  Which choice is better to fight antisemitism? Which side will be better for the Jew a generation from now?

Fighting antisemitism is not a mantra, liberals are good, conservatives are bad, or liberals are bad, and conservatives are good.

Laws do not change hearts.  Ideas change hearts.  Ideas can destroy hearts. Jews must get into the fight.

Antisemitism will probably never go away.  It has a habit of shape-shifting.  Enemies and friends can and do switch sides.  Jews know better than most the cost of not facing ideas, not resisting antisemitism.

After two thousand years of failed Jewish responses to antisemitism, Israel was born fighting. Israel understood Adolf Hitler’s warning to the Jews in his 1925 book, Mein Kampf. “Whoever would live, let him fight, and he who does not want to do battle in this world of eternal struggle does not deserve life.”

Not all Jews can or want to live in Israel.  But the message from Squirrel Hill and modern Israel is one Jews must unify around.

Resist the antisemitism of the Right.  Resist the antisemitism of the Left.

Resist….

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Jerry Klinger is President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.  www.JASHP.org.