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Jew-haters are inversely connected to Jew-lovers. The haters hate us no matter what we do. They hate us, in other words, just because we're Jews.
Jew-lovers also love us because we're Jews, but in their case, it's because of what we do. Their view of Jews has been shaped by the good deeds of Jews.
How do we make sense of these opposite impulses?
Let's start with the haters. The ancient notion that Jew-haters will always find a convenient excuse to hate Jews is nothing new. For millennia, we've been humanity's favorite, most malleable scapegoat.
As my friend Yossi Klein Halevi, a JWR contributor, has written, "What antisemitism does is turn the Jews into the symbol of whatever it is that a given civilization defines as its most loathsome qualities. And so, under Christianity — before the Holocaust and Vatican II — the Jew was the Christ-killer. Under Communism, the Jew was the capitalist. Under Nazism, the Jew was the race polluter.
"Now we live in a different civilization, where the most loathsome qualities are racism, colonialism, apartheid. And lo and behold, the greatest offender in the world today… is the Jewish state."
These truths are hard to swallow. It's painful to hear that Jewish actions make no difference to those determined to hate Jews — that all they need to know to hate us is simply that we're Jews.
And yet, for some reason, as a community we still focus so much of our resources on these unconditional Jew-haters. We assume that since hate is the "problem," that is what we must "fix." But unconditional Jew-hatred is not a problem — it's a condition. We can throw $500 million to fix the problem, but as we keep seeing to our dismay, the condition only gets worse.
Why does it get worse? Because we're investing in a poisonous and fruitless market. We assume that we must mobilize to fight the poison of hate, but all too often that only encourages the poison to spread. We assume that to win a war, we must turn into tough warriors.
But even warriors know when it's time to pivot. Warriors would not ignore, for instance, the reality that our expensive war on antisemitism has consistently failed to make a dent.
They might even conclude that it's time to pivot to something bigger and more inspiring, something like pro-Semitism.
Just as the war against antisemitism suggests falsely that "the world hates Jews," elevating pro-Semitism suggests the very opposite. It reminds people that there are a lot more Jew-lovers than Jew-haters, and for good reason. Despite all the bad news we hear about Jews, Pew research still shows that more Americans hold favorable views of Jews than of any other religious group.
This doesn't mean we should ignore the fight against hate; it means we shouldn't let it define us. It means we should play to our strength —our actions. It means we should proudly build on the long Jewish tradition of contributing to America and the American dream.
I was at a private dinner the other night sitting across from two Jewish cultural giants. The conversation (of course) revolved around antisemitism. Impulsively, I interrupted. I talked about being raised in a Muslim country (Morocco) where Jews were just grateful to stay out of trouble and practice their tradition.
Now I live in a country where Jews are heroes. In every possible field —from comedy to science to academia to literature to entertainment to social justice to medicine to art to pretty much everything —Jews have contributed more than their share. And the two heroes who sat across from me were the living embodiment of that tradition.
"We are the LAST group anyone should hate," I said, almost naively. "I never want to lose that innocent thought."
And yet, it often seems as if Jew-haters have eroded that innocence and forced us to fight on their terms.
If I had a magic wand for our community, I would allocate our resources in two areas: one group focused on legal and physical protection of Jews, and other groups focused on building pro-Semitism. The first group would work with law enforcement to protect Jews and use the legal system to go after hate crimes. The other groups would make more noise by instilling pro-Semitism among Jews and non-Jews with an uplifting agenda that benefits all of America.
We don't need to show off; we just need to show and do. Show Jews in action doing new and great things. Teach courses and make films about the Jewish contributions to America. Instead of another Holocaust museum, open a museum of Jewish comedy. Share Jewish wisdom with the masses. Become champions not just of Israel but of America.
In short, we have an opportunity to launch a new golden age where Jews become known again for creating and contributing rather than just fighting hate. Building love and being creative is more compelling than fighting hate. It's who we are. It's our natural position. And we have more than enough innovation and resources with our community and our allies to make this a winning direction.
Those who hate Jews for no reason are a bad investment. Those who love Jews for the right reasons is where our future is. That is where we should open our hearts and invest our energies, both for us and for America.
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David Suissa is the founder and CEO of Suissa Miller Advertising, a $300 million marketing firm named "Agency of the Year" by USA Today that attracts clients like Heinz, Dole, McDonalds, Princess Cruises, Charles Schwab and Acura. Suissa's writings on advertising have been published in several publications including the Los Angeles Times and Advertising Age. He's also president of Tribe Media/Jewish Journal, where he has been writing a weekly column on the Jewish world since 2006. In 2015, he was awarded first prize for "Editorial Excellence" by the American Jewish Press Association.