CAMERA Op-Ed on Award Winning Anti-Semitism
A CAMERA Op-Ed discusses an award granted by Carnegie Mellon University to a bigoted essay that describes Judaism as a religion that encourages elitism and supremacy, and Israel as engaged in genocide. The essay also argues that being oblivious to the outside world is part of “the whole essence of” the Jewish religion.
An excerpt from CAMERA’s Op-Ed, which was distributed by JNS and published in The Jewish Advocate, follows:
Earlier this month, a young Jewish boy won the Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Award for best high school prose. The contest, held by Carnegie Mellon University and sponsored by the school’s Office of the President, is said to “celebrate excellence in creative writing and the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Far from celebrating Dr. King’s spirit, though, the winning essay profaned his legacy by promoting the very bigotry he fought so hard to eliminate.
The writer announced that Jews consider themselves better and smarter than everyone else. “I once belonged to a wonderful religion,” the piece begins. “I belonged to a religion that allows those of us who believe in it to feel that we are the greatest people in the world—and feel sorry for ourselves at the same time. Once, I thought that I truly belonged in this world of security, self-pity, self-proclaimed intelligence, and perfect moral aesthetic.” But he would no longer remain a part of such an ill-willed “Self-Chosen People.” …
It should go without saying that such noxious rhetoric, which would blend in seamlessly on a white nationalist hate site, will fuel anti-Semitic views in readers who trust the piece deserves its accolade. That such an essay would be submitted for a contest named after Martin Luther King, and, more disturbingly, that a professor would select it as an award-winning entry, underscores how dramatically Dr. King’s legacy, 44 years after his death, is being warped.
You can read the whole thing here.
Carnegie Mellon, by the way, isn’t the only party guilty of endorsing anti-Semitic writings. An editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the anti-Jewish screed a “searingly honest” piece.
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