The Jewish Origins of the Open Borders Movement

In a 2015 essay on ‘Whiteness studies’ I attempted to lay the groundwork and contextualization for a more developed study of the scale and devastating impact of contemporary Jewish intellectual activism in our colleges, universities, and wider culture. In that essay I noted the importance of Jewish activists including Noel Ignatiev, Ruth Frankenberg, Ricky Marcuse, and Terry Berman, who between the mid-1970s and late 1990s engaged in an effort to develop an academic discipline known as ‘Whiteness studies.’ Since its inception, Whiteness studies has occupied a unique space in an increasingly multicultural disciplinary landscape. Unlike Black studies, Jewish studies, or Asian studies, this sphere of academia is not intended to constructively explore the achievements, history, and culture of its scrutinized ethnic group. Rather, the genre exists to subject ‘Whiteness,’ and by implication White people, to a uniquely hostile dialectic consisting of the debasement of White culture, the degradation of White history, and the delegitimization of the European claim to existence. As such, the discipline may be regarded as an act of ethnic warfare, based as it is on the intended conquest of minds and consciences, and eventually, resources and territory.

In all Western countries, Whiteness studies, in both its academic and social justice expressions, remains disproportionately directed by Jews. This is an empirically observable fact. A book could be written on Jewish involvement in this academic “discipline” alone, but it should suffice here for a brief survey of some key examples. These include Syracuse University’s Barbara Applebaum, who has made a career out of advancing notions of ‘White guilt’ and ending what she describes as “White moral innocence.” In a similar vein is Leeds University’s Say Burgin, who teaches a course titled “Why is my curriculum White?,” while University of California’s George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place, has also written several books on ‘Whiteness’ and White guilt. Jewish feminist Michelle Fine, based at City University of New York, has produced numerous works on “White privilege,” including her book Witnessing Whiteness. Other Jewish academics highly active in the Whiteness Studies field include Lois Weis, David Theo Goldberg, Maurice Berger, Lawrence Grossberg, Jennifer Roth-Gordon, Cynthia Levine-Rasky, Laura S. Abrams, Judith Katz, Melissa Steyn, Paula Rothenberg, and Amy Eshleman.

Jewish involvement is perhaps even more intense in the sphere of so-called social justice activism. One of the foremost operators of “Whiteness workshops” in the United States is Dara Silverman. Silverman is a “consultant, organizer and trainer who has been building movements for economic, racial, gender and social justice for over 20 years. From January 2015 to July 2016, Dara was the founding Director of Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ).  As a consultant, Dara works with small and mid-sized groups to build their organizing skills, fundraising and organizational capacity. Dara was the Executive Director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York City from 2003–2009.”

Notorious Jewish acitivist Tim Wise has praised Silverman as “a critical voice in the newly-invigorated movement of anti-racist white allies. A relentless co-conspirator with leaders of color in the struggle against white supremacy and racial inequity, Silverman’s grasp of movement building strategy is second to none.” Regarding the actual content of her work, Silverman offers to ‘cure’ Whites of their “toxic Whiteness” via workshops and ‘webinars.’ In essence, these efforts are programs of deracination, executed via psychological abuse centered on guilt inducement. This effort at separating a people from their identity is more than a little hypocritical given that Silverman has stated in at least one interview that “I’m Jewish and I have a pretty strong connection to Judaism.”

In addition to Silverman, many more Jews have been attracted to the despairingly lucrative and fashionable business of convincing Whites to abandon their identity. Among them are Jon Greenberg, author of “10 examples that prove White privilege protects White people in every aspect imaginable,” and “Talking to Kids about Whiteness.” Other prominent figures in the social justice sphere of the assault on Whiteness include Debbie Zucker and Robin Nussbaum. When New York’s Vassar College decided to hold a series of Whiteness workshops last October, the two workshop leaders were Diane Eshelman and Michael Drucker, both of whom are Jewish. While the weakening of the internal or psychological supports of White identity is sufficiently problematic in itself, the problem is compounded by intensive Jewish activism in other spheres of academic and ‘social justice’ activity. The most damaging in these respects are the Jewish dominance in ‘critical race theory,’ and its correspondent political expression in the form of the open borders movement.

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