u/pagexviii

My close friend from law school - a real mensch - has written this letter to the Economist. He is of Scottish heritage but did his Master’s in holocaust studies. Thank you to Alex for always supporting, advocating on behalf of, and uplifting the Jewish community.

In case there’s a paywall, here’s the body of the letter:

It is true that antisemitism caricatures Jews as “catch-all avatars for disorienting change” (“High time to speak up”, May 9th). Antisemitism is a mirror, not a window. Look into it and you’ll learn nothing about Jewish people and much about the anxieties and prejudices of the antisemite. And, like so many other prejudices, it does not depend on the presence of Jews, nor, as your leader notes, does it end with them.

All the more reason for non-Jews like me to say plainly and as often as necessary that a society cannot be free or flourish when our Jewish neighbours live in fear, and to stand up for their innate human dignity.

You are sceptical of “speech bans”, such as prohibitions on some of the slogans chanted at pro-Palestinian marches. This is not a matter of philosophy; the world needs practical answers. Reasonable, proportional limits on hate speech set by democratically elected governments are possible and widespread in free societies. No law has ever abolished hatred, but law shapes behaviour and signals what a society will and will not tolerate. Without such limits the loudest and most hateful voices set the terms, and that is no freedom worth the name.

Alexander McPherson
Toronto