Awarded journalist and author Barri Weiss spoke at Robinson Theatre on April 5. This event was one of the many in Holocaust Awareness Series which promotes awareness of atrocities and genocides along with their consequences. 

Colorado Mesa University (CMU) President John Marshall and CMU Trustee David Foster joined Weiss in a discussion about the roots of anti semitism and the factors in today’s political and social climate that invite anti semitic sentiments. 

“The heart of this conversation strikes at the heart of our independent spirit and ethic here in western Colorado. An independent spirit that values good neighbors, values community and fundamentally has a greater health for our kids. And so, my hope is tonight that we have an opportunity to reflect on our health as a community,” Marshall said.

The panel compared the watchfulness of a community to an immune system in charge of filtering out hateful messages and ideologies which undermine national and communal values of liberty and inclusion.

Weiss grew up in Squirrel Hill, PA which is predominantly Jewish. After graduating Columbia University, Weiss started her journalism career as an Opinion Editor and Book Review Editor for the Wall Street Journal before then becoming an Opinion Staff Editor and writer for the New York Times in 2017. 

Weiss and the two CMU representatives opened the panel by discussing their personal experiences of anti semitism and why it seems to have become increasingly more prevalent over the last 50 years. 

“I think for those who aren’t in the Jewish community, it can kind of come as a shock. I brought my Jewish friends to synagogue or to places where Jewish communities where I speak. They all have armed guards, or at least metal detectors. And this is true whether you’re in New York or Texas or Florida doesn’t matter. That’s the reality now of being in a Jewish space in America, the question is, how did that become normal? Why did that become normal? And what can we do to reverse it?” Weiss said.

The panel attributed an emerging hostile and changing political environment to the recent uptake of anti semitic ideologies and hate crimes such as the 2019 shooting in Weiss’ hometown of Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 people. 

“The thing that is strange about anti semitism is the racist imagines themselves as punching down the homophobic punching, gotten yourself human to me. The strange thing about anti semitism is the anti-semite is punching down with the punching up at the same time. They’re saying you’re subhuman […]  yet you control the world. You’re subhuman and yet you control the banks and the borders […]. People look for a scapegoat during change,” Weiss said. 

Weiss stressed that anti-semitism is a shape-shifting conspiracy which allows proponents to support “seemingly paradoxical viewpoints”. This is in part due to the historical precedent of blaming Jewish people for society’s ills.

Weiss and others also addressed “cancel culture”, political correctness, the War in Ukraine and Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings during an audience Q&A.