Is it possible to discriminate against a Jew for being a Jew without knowing that this is what one is doing?
Yoni Birnbaum, a Jewish man and rabbi, reports on what happened after he reserved a vacation rental in France.
The property owner emailed to say that he had noticed the word “rabbi” in Birnbaum’s email address and therefore felt it necessary to inquire whether Birnbaum was sufficiently critical of Israel before letting the booking stand. If not, the reservation would be cancelled.
This wasn’t a litmus test to which all prospective renters of the property were being routinely subjected. The owner acknowledged that only because he had noticed that Birnbaum was Jewish was he demanding to know his views on Israel.
Birnbaum replied, in part: “No doubt, you wrote your email to me out of some kind of twisted sense of virtue. But it seems clear to me that what lies at the heart of your demand for me to declare my views on the conflict in the Middle East, is that to you, before anything else, I am a Jew. Therefore, at the very least, you feel you have to test me
“In other words, you wished to subject me to a purity test. Am I one of the ‘good Jews’ or one of the ‘bad Jews’?”
Not the worst thing that can happen to somebody. But it has something in common with the very worst that can happen.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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6 replies on “No Vacation from Antisemitism”
One could imagine someone analogously demanding of an African-American that he state his views on the Black Panthers or on BLM, or of a person of Chinese descent that he make clear where he stands on Taiwanese independence, &c. I suppose that a saleswoman, seeing my name, might refuse to do business with me unless I declare my views on Irish reünification and these accord with hers.
In every case you cite, wouldn’t the person demanding to know your views before doing business with you be guilty of violating equal access laws? Sue them!
You’re presuming domestic — rather than international — transactions. As a practical matter, I couldn’t mount a suit against someone in France; and Mr Birnbaum faced discrimination by a landlord in France. Some legal action has been taken against those who have effected such discrimination within America against Americans.
But the issue here isn’t the law. I’m strictly against the law over-riding freedom of association, but I despise those who would engage in the discrimination faced by Jews who must make professions of belief to engage in ordinary transactions, much as I despise those who would make analogous demands of Blacks, of Whites, of Irishmen, &c.
Right now, many leftists who would be repelled in the hypothetic cases that I presented feel perfectly comfortable with singling-out Jews for special filtering.
I am antisemitic only to the extent that I oppose any of the world’s 16 million jews who hold these three closely inter-connected positions: They either (1) want to control the world, (2) already control much of the world, and (3) do whatever possible from their already-positions of control to prevent me from ever being able to find out if 1 and/or 2 are true. A fourth position would be if any of the 16 million would refuse to explain why they deserve the ethnic description of “semite.” i.e., the sons of Shem. Ishmael, OK, but Isaac, no. I don’t like feeling powerless, but that’s the way I feel. Helpless. City Hall to the max.
Curious to know if the booking was cancelled by the property owner.
Or if the rabbi cancelled it himself.
The rabbi canceled the reservation and asked for his deposit back in his response to the owner of the vacation property.