Responding to a question about public frustration with Covid school closures, Weingarten singled out Jews for criticism, claiming that “American Jews are now part of the ownership class,” and “want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.”

In singling out Jews for opposition to school closures, Weingarten wasn’t evoking an edgy yet intellectually defensible idea. No evidence suggests that Jews were particularly outspoken about school closures. Indeed, given the historical partisan leanings of Jewish voters (voting for Joe Biden by a 3:1 margin in 2020, for example), the political contours of the school reopening debate would suggest that Jews were more sympathetic to Weingarten’s position, compared with the median American voter.

It raises the question: Why scapegoat Jews? To which a chorus of bad actors from the past four millennia might respond: because it’s easy. As Ruth Wisse has argued, anti-Semitism isn’t necessarily born from ignorance or even deeply held convictions about the nature of Jews. Rather, it comes from recognition that the alien status of the diaspora allows Jews to be cast as foils for diverse political causes, hence the anti-Semitism of both Communists and fascists. Weingarten, an ultra-secular and progressive Jew, doubtless doesn’t wish ill upon Jews. But she’s alarmingly quick to rationalize the act of selling them down the river when doing so benefits her union.