Indiana State House Statement Against CRT January 12, 2022
Rick Bentley, President
Jewish American Affairs Committee of Indiana (JAACI)
Critical Race Theory (CRT): An Ideology Promoting Hatred of Jews and Israel
As president of the Jewish American Affairs Committee of Indiana, I am here
today to discuss with you an aspect of critical race theory that is of great concern to
me and the Indiana Jewish community I represent, but one that is rarely
mentioned. I am referring to the fact that CRT is an ideology that promotes hatred
of Jews and Israel.
Let me give you a few examples of how this occurs:
Reason #1. Attempts to dehumanize and even destroy Jews over the past century
by the Nazi and Communist movements are well known. Ongoing attempts by
parts of the Arab and Muslim world, and far Left and Right of the political
spectrum to do the same, are also common knowledge. Despite this history, CRT
defines all Jews– no matter their race, nationality, or ethnicity– as “whites” who
enjoy “white privilege.” Thus, CRT denies Jews their millennial history that
demonstrates that simply being Jewish has made them the target of some of the
most powerful and destructive forces ever, both past and present. To make matters
worse, to followers of CRT the belief that Jews are “white” mean that Jews should
not be given any sympathy, even when they need support and protection.
Innumerable examples exist of this occurring now, in our nation, in places where
CRT ideology has influence, such as when Jews are attacked on college campuses
or on the streets of certain major cities but get no sympathy or support whatsoever.
Reason #2. The Jewish people have an unbreakable nearly four thousand year-old
bond with the land of Israel that is documented in biblical and secular history,
archeology, and even in the names of its towns, cities and regions. The
establishment of the State of Israel was a unique ingathering from exile of the
Jewish people from all over the world. Yet CRT considers Israel a “white colonial”
enterprise that rewrites the Jewish historical legacy and is used as a weapon to
undermine the whole notion of the legitimacy of an independent Jewish state. It
also contemptuously dismisses the existence of approximately half of Israeli Jews
who happen to have dark skin and whose ancestors fled to Israel not from Europe
from but African and Middle Eastern lands. If there is any question about whether
CRT is influencing institutions in Indiana my answer is this: My group JAACI
recently dealt with CRT-motivated Jew hatred that was being taught to hundreds of
students at one of Indiana’s two most prestigious higher institutions of learning.
Reason #3. CRT helps fuel the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel agenda of the far
Left of the political spectrum, including movements that promote Diversity
Equity and Inclusion. A recent study by The Heritage Foundation supports this
conclusion. In this study 741 Twitter accounts of DEI staff from prestigious
national universities were tracked. DEI staff are exactly the people who believe
in and promulgate CRT. The investigators found that 96% of tweets were
critical of the Jewish state and that this criticism often veered off into clear Jew
hatred. In contrast, 62% of their tweets expressed positive sentiments for China,
our adversary that is led by a totalitarian communist party. This gives one a
sense of the politically radical and anti-Semitic underpinnings of CRT.
JAACI strongly urges the Indiana State Legislature to do whatever is in their
power to combat the pernicious CRT movement, which is a threat to Jews in
Indiana and worldwide.