Alyza Lewin’s father, Nathan Lewin, was born in Lodz, Poland, and had to flee his childhood home as it became a Nazified ghetto. He came to the U.S. with his parents, grew up to become a lawyer and raised a family.
His daughter, Alyza, had a safer upbringing but similar career path. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and became a lawyer herself.
As a kid, she would read historical fiction about the Holocaust, stare at pictures of Lodz and think to herself, “What a miraculous twist of fate that I wasn’t born in the Lodz ghetto.”
It’s not a twist of fate that she takes for granted. Through much of her legal career, the member of Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown has fought to protect the civil rights of Jewish students and employees in the U.S. Now, she’s going to fight antisemitism full-time as president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, an advocacy organization.
In her new role, the Dupont Circle resident has already taken state attorneys general, state legislators and a governor, Nebraska’s Jim Pillen, to Israel. This month, CAM will host a summit in Florida for 250 Christian pastors. The organization is also planning regular training sessions with law enforcement officers.
It is Lewin’s job to define and clarify antisemitism for them, and to teach them how to fight it. She said it begins with the definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
“Jews are not just defined by religious beliefs and religious practice. If you want to use tools at your disposal to address antisemitism, you have to understand that Jews are a people,” Lewin said. “Much of today’s antisemitism is targeting Jews on that basis. It’s denying that Jews are a people or that Jews have a history in the land of Israel. You cannot colonize a place where your ancestors are from.”
The use of this definition can vary based on the type of leadership group that is responsible for applying it. We went through some of the examples with Lewin.
Elected Officials
Political leaders are often in the position of distributing funding to public schools. That gives them power over what K-12 students are learning in classes, according to Lewin. Therefore, it’s their job to make sure that schools are not teaching a biased or erroneous version of history.
“We have classes that are taught today in kindergarten through 12th grade teaching that Jews are colonizers who stole the land of Israel from the indigenous population. It’s really erasing and denying Jewish peoplehood and the history of the Jews in the land of Israel.”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law describes an incident, among others, where a seventh grade middle school cooking teacher required her class to listen to a podcast that claimed Israelis had not only stolen the land from the Palestinians but had also stolen “Palestinian food” like hummus, falafel, baba ganoush and tabbouleh.
“[Jews are] being targeted and vilified on that basis. You need to be able to understand that, frequently, what is taking place is not a good-faith political debate about the policies of the government of Israel,” Lewin said.
In addition to funding, politicians should gain an understanding of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and how it can be used, according to Lewin. Title VI prohibits discrimination in programs receiving federal assistance. Jewish organizations have often used it to try to combat antisemitism in schools.
“They could create antisemitism czars, Title VI experts, who are there to review complaints,” Lewin said.
Law Enforcement Officers
The job of a law enforcement officer is more reactive than that of a politician, according to Lewin. An officer must be able to identify when a crime is motivated by antisemitic bias.
“If somebody is engaged in vandalism or a crime, was he targeting those individuals on the basis of their Jewishness? Or was he making some kind of political statement?” Lewin said.
The new president of U.S. affairs used the example of graffiti.
“If the content of the graffiti, if the statement being made by the perpetrator, would be considered under the IHRA definition to be antisemitic, that would be considered as evidence,” she said. “If you don’t use the IHRA definition, law enforcement may not recognize the antisemitic nature of the comments made by the perpetrator.”
It’s also important for law enforcement officers to understand context, according to Lewin. The inverted red triangle, a symbol of Hamas, is often used in antisemitic incidents today.
“So when they see it, it gives them a better understanding of the messages being conveyed,” she said.
Christian Pastors
Jews and Christians are natural allies against the antisemitic forces of today, according to Lewin.
“Christian pastors need to understand that there are forces at work who are seeking not only to target the Jews, but they are actually seeking to erase the Bible and undermine the Judeo-Christian values upon which our country was founded,” she explained. “The antisemitism that is rearing its ugly head threatens people of faith and is a threat not just to religious Zionists, but to religious Christians as well.”
