Bugging People About Fighting Jew Hatred

Here are two more journalistic articles I wrote in recent weeks.

Apr 01, 2023

A man-faced stink bug, or catacanthus incarnatus, also called a “Hitler bug.” Credit: Wikipedia. — Does this bug actually look like Adolf Hitler? Image source: Wikipedia

Click here to check out the first 30 Installments - Volume I - in this series on Antisemitism and Culture. The top 5 most important pieces from this first wave:

This is the 21st installment in Volume II, intended as another 30 pieces exploring the many manifestations of Jew Hatred and the issues surrounding it in America and globally. See the 20 previous installments listed at the end of this article.

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day commenting on and analyzing current cultural affairs and their impacts on politics, faith, and, well, everything. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

So last week I highlighted two recent articles I wrote about important Zionist activist Noa Tishby, first about her appearance speaking at Duke and then more of a general profile derived from two interviews I conducted with her:

God of the Desert Books

In Celebration of Noa Tishby, an Inspiring Israeli Warrior-Artist Fighting Antisemitism

Click here to check out the first 30 Installments - Volume I - in this series on Antisemitism and Culture. The top 5 most important pieces from this first wave: What It Means When the Leader of the Republican Party Dines With THREE Antisemites What Causes Someone to Be an Antisemite…

2 years ago · 6 likes · David Swindle

Now I want to bring to your attention to two other articles I wrote in the past few weeks for Jewish News Syndicate on similar themes and with a common genesis which are worth checking out. In both of these cases I intended to only write a short brief but each gradually grew into full-length pieces, the second co-written with my new editor.

First, an especially strange story about an insect in India which has been named after Adolf Hitler, a decision which received much criticism from the scholars whose views I sought:

Insect named for Hitler draws criticism from organizational, academic circles

Connections between the Nazis and Volkswagen Beetles are well known. But an insect that looks like Adolf Hitler bearing his name? That’s like letting the bed bugs bite.
An insect endemic to Southeast Asia and India, with the scientific name catacanthus incarnatus, is being called a “Hitler bug” for a feature on its back that resembles the dictator’s face, per recent reporting by New Indian Express. (Evidently, the nickname stuck to the bugs as far back as 2011, with a Daily Mail story in 2014.)
The bug was previously called the “man-faced stink bug,” due to its notorious smell. It also is widely regarded as a pest for eating fruit and crops.
The man-face has been given a name, and it’s the most notorious one imaginable.
“I can’t think of any defensible reason to name an insect or any other organism after a reprehensible dictator,” David Skelly, director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and Yale School of the Environment professor of ecology, told JNS.
Animals—of any kind—are neither good nor bad. Loading a species with this name is not something I would ever support,” added Skelly. “It shows a lack of respect for biodiversity science and especially for the millions of people killed by Hitler.”
Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, agreed.
“Naming an insect after Hitler is not funny or clever. It’s disgraceful and appalling,” he said. “It makes light of Hitler’s efforts to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe. Hitler murdered six million Jews and millions of others. His name should not be leant to anything.”

Read the whole piece about this poor bug - which I don’t think looks like Hitler at all - here.

Then I also wrote - with the assistance of my editor - this article exploring a congressional disagreement over a hate crime bill in which one Republican politician sought to insert “anti-Christian bigotry” alongside antisemitism or to remove any reference to a specific group:

When the U.S. House of Representatives condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry on March 7, 2019, the resolution ostensibly responded to anti-Jewish remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “It is troubling that Congress could not condemn antisemitism on its own,” CEO of StandWithUs Roz Rothstein said at the time.
Hours before the resolution passed, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told the Jewish Journal it was “an appropriate response to the debate we’ve been having about a number of comments made the past few weeks.”
When the White House created an Interagency Group to Counter Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Related Forms of Discrimination and Bias, Schiff didn’t appear to oppose the “antisemitism and” formulation, in which Jew-hatred appears to require a chaperone, as a dilution of anti-Jewish sentiment.
But when Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) sought to add “anti-Christian bigotry and bigotry against all faiths” to an amendment of Schiff’s that referenced antisemitism on March 1 of this year, Schiff adopted a bit of a different approach.
“Schiff, who is Jewish, appeared to balk at the request, noting that he would ‘be happy to accept an amendment’ that references ‘all forms of bigotry, including that against members of any faith,’ ” reported The Christian Post.

Read the rest here. It includes commentary from two academics who specialize in antisemitism each explaining how Jew Hatred is distinctly different in many ways from bigotry against other religions.

What do both of these stories have in common? They each highlight cases of people trivializing antisemitism to varying degrees, a more and more common occurrence today which, while not being outright antisemitism, certainly contribute in their own smaller ways to more and more people not taking seriously the rising threat of hatred against Jewish people today.

Bugging People About Fighting Jew Hatred

Here are two more journalistic articles I wrote in recent weeks.

Insect named for Hitler draws criticism from organizational, academic circles

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