The suicide of Tom Schweich in Missouri was stunningly tragic but the face-value explanation of why he took his own life is particularly disturbing. A whisper campaign that Schweich was Jewish. Those who focus solely on the antisemitic nature of the alleged campaign itself are missing the bigger picture of the stunning level of pernicious bigotry involved.
I haven’t followed this story as closely as some but I have gleaned the following:
1. That a political party leader felt an effective smear strategy to beat a candidate for the highest office in a state would to be allege that person was Jewish.
2. That other adults jumped on the bandwagon of using “Jewish” as a slur.
3. That the person being “smeared” was so traumatized by the “accusation" that he was allegedly driven to suicide.
4. That the media is as guilty as the inventor of the whisper campaign of promoting the idea that there is something intrinsically wrong or shameful about being Jewish.
Some of the statements I have seen from news stories on this tragedy:
In an interview with USA Today, Steelman noted that Hancock was an opposition researcher and said it was “absurd” to believe Hancock didn’t already know that Schweich wasn’t Jewish.
With the suicide last week of Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich, we should lay such thoughts to rest. Words do wound and, in this tragic case, they apparently kill.
While Schweich did have a Jewish heritage stemming from his grandfather, he did not practice the faith. He was Episcopalian and open about his Christianity.
The late Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich was reportedly upset over comments that he was Jewish before he shot himself.
At Schweich’s funeral on Tuesday, former U.S. Senator Jack Danforth referred to a phone call he had with Schweich on February 24, just two days before his death. Danforth said Schweich outlined plans to go public with what Schweich thought were anti-Semitic remarks being spread about him.
I find the repeated distillation of this story into “someone called him Jewish but he wasn’t” appalling. Suicide is complicated and rarely rational and the ease with which too many are running the narrative that Schweich found death preferable to being “accused” of being Jewish is disgusting and ultimately denigrating to Schweich himself.
We regularly argue about antisemitism here at DKos. No, I don’t believe that criticism of Israeli policy fits the bill. But the continued blatant portrayal of Jewishness as something to be ashamed of – from the whisper campaign to media coverage of Schweich’s tragic death – sure as hell is.