The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:
More than 100 petitioners are seeking the removal of the incoming editor of UNLV’s student newspaper, alleging he posted anti-Semitic comments on a Web diary last year. . . . [The editor, Justin Chomintra] apologized to anyone he offended, but he maintained the statements published on his Web log, a kind of diary accessible to the public, were not anti-Semitic.
“I was venting,” he said. “I use strong rhetoric. I understand how some people could have been sensitive to the language, but I never, never, never intended to be anti-Semitic. It was completely personal.” . . .
The abstract question of when a newspaper editor-in-chief should be rejected because of his outside comments is complex. The editor-in-chief is in many respects the public face of the newspaper, and his public image and the quality of his judgment may well be legitimate bases for selecting him. What troubles me, though, is the labeling of his statements as anti-Semitic; it’s far from clear to me that at least those statements that the newspaper quotes are indeed anti-Semitic:
The comments that prompted the request were published by Chomintra on a personal Web page in September about a former girlfriend.
. . . Chomintra said “being Jewish isn’t what you are, it’s who you are. . . . It doesn’t determine anything. And if it does determine how you shape your life you’re a sad, pathetic, weak organism.”
He also criticized a Jewish student for “not wanting Jews to associate or date non-Jews,” and for “blindly celebrating being Jewish.” . . .
The comments also included several obscene words. . . .
Likewise, here’s what the petition, which I assume includes the worst of Chomintra’s statements, focuses on:
September 8th, 2003
“He no better than Hitler for thinking jews are anything less or more than anyone else. Burn in hell, you fucking ignorant pussy…being Jewish isn’t what you are it’s who you are, you stupid motherfucker. It doesn’t determine anything. And if it does determine how you shape your life you’re a sad, pathetic, weak organism. Forger your own identity and value system and stop being such a parasitic, spineless pussy”September 9th, 2003
“The last post was completely and utterly how I feel. I don’t regret or take back anything…but I’m not sorry for voicing my opinion…Fuck those Fuckers”
It seems to me perfectly proper to condemn ethnic groups — Jews or not — for being too focused on their ethnicity, and even for discriminating (albeit in perfectly legal ways) in their social and romantic decisions. Of course, if Chomintra condemns only Jews for that but thinks that it’s just fine when other groups do that, that seems an anti-Semitic double standard; and if his point was that “you’re a sad, pathetic, weak organism” if being Jewish “determine[s] how you shape your life,” but you’re just fine if being Irish or Hispanic shapes your life, that too suggests hostility to Jews. But absent such evidence, this seems to be a slam against perceived excessive focus on one’s ethnic identity, not an expression of hatred or hostility to Jews as such. In fact, Chomintra equally condemns (though rather less politely than I would have preferred) people who think that Jews are “anything less or anything more than anyone else” (emphasis mine) — more consistent with “people shouldn’t care about ethnic identity” than “Jews are evil.”
One can of course disagree with Chomintra on the merits, and conclude that it’s right for people to be focused on their ethnic identity (or in the case of some but not all Jews who focus a great deal on their Jewishness, on their religious identity). And it does sound like Chomintra put things a bit too pugnaciously, though remember that this is a Web diary of a college student, and that Chomintra is being faulted for the viewpoint he supposedly expressed, and not on the grounds that someone who is so willing to stoop to insult and vulgarity (even in Weblogs) is likely to be a bad editor-in-chief.
Still, absent more evidence, I’d be quite hesitant to simply condemn this as anti-Semitism, “highly discriminatory” (in the words of the local Hillel president), “blatantly hateful” (in the words of another critic), or “hate speech” (in the words of the petition). And I’m rather troubled that such condemnation is taking place.
UPDATE: A correspondent asked me: If Chomintra wasn’t anti-Semitic, why did he say these things about Jews specifically? (As I said above, if Chomintra is outraged by what he sees as Jewish tribalism, but has no problem with similar actions on the part of other groups, he can indeed be accused of special hostility to Jews — we have no evidence of what he thinks of people of other groups who focus a great deal on their ethnicity, but absent such evidence it would be good to have some sense of his motive.)
It’s hard to tell without seeing more of the context, but Rkayn Knowledge has a sensible conjecture, which is consistent with other snippets in the Review-Journal story:
1. He was dating a Jewish girl.
2. She broke up with him.
3. He believed (rightly or wrongly) that this was due to his not being Jewish.
4. He also believed that a friend of hers had talked her into the break-up, also on the grounds of his not being Jewish.
That would explain why (1) he’s annoyed at what he sees as some Jews’ excessive focus on Jewishness, and (2) he’s saying this about Jews and not about other groups. It’s also, as Rkayn Knowledge points out, not consistent with anti-Semitism, but is consistent with thinking that it’s wrong to “think[] jews are anything less or more than anyone else.” (Rkayn has more.)
But this is sheer speculation, of course, though consistent with the facts. If others have further actual evidence about this incident, I’d love to hear it.
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