How I became an antisemite – Mondoweiss

In The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt. He replies, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”  I could say the same about becoming an antisemite. The gradual way involved the evolution of my thinking about Israel. The sudden way involved the adoption of a controversial definition of antisemitism by Columbia University, where I am an adjunct faculty member.

All of my life I have considered myself philosemitic, if anything. Growing up in Melrose, a white…