Antisemitism is inherently irrational. And the most obvious thing about AFT President Randi Weingarten’s rant is that it hangs together about as well as Farrakhan’s Jewish gay plot theory, Hitler’s Aryanism, or some Muslim cleric explaining how the Jews, Hindus, and Freemasons are in it together.

But the whole point of antisemitism is that it doesn’t make sense. It’s an expression of rage to deflect from some horrible thing the perpetrator is doing. And it’s very often a case of projection. Take public school teachers, a privileged class whose unions decided that it wasn’t going to show up to work during the pandemic, while hiding that privilege behind increasingly bizarre claims of racism and sexism even though the people who suffered the most from union privilege were minority single parents.

So here’s Randi Weingarten spewing a Marxist antisemitic rant in response to a basic question.

I think some people are very skeptical of the power that they perceive teachers unions to have. They look at, for example, the ongoing struggles in Los Angeles, where they see this big dollar figure of aid being given for school reopening and are baffled by the perceived resistance of teachers to going back to work.

And Weingarten escalates quickly.

I have a very pointed response here for Jews making this argument. 

American Jews are now part of the ownership class. Jews were immigrants from somewhere else. And they needed the right to have public education. And they needed power to have enough income and wealth for their families that they could put their kids through college and their kids could do better than they have done. Both economic opportunity through the labor movement and an educational opportunity through public education were key for Jews to go from the working class to the ownership class. 

What I hear when I hear that question is that those who are in the ownership class now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it. 

The obvious response is, “What the hell?”

I’m not even beginning with the fact that Weingarten sounds like she should be delivering this speech while goosestepping and wearing a mustache. The most obvious problem with this isn’t even the antisemitism, it’s that it’s complete gibberish.

The accusation that Jews are part of the “ownership class” (whatever the hell that means, everyone owns things) is a familiar Marxist justification for antisemitism, but what the hell does that piece of familiar bigotry have to do with the failure to reopen schools?

The “ownership class” of whatever race or religion has the most resources. That means money for private schools, special tutoring, and parents who can work from home. 

Randi Weingarten’s antisemitic rant isn’t actually addressing the issue that the AFT’s refusal to go back to work is hurting the working class most.

But that’s how antisemitic rants are used to deflect from the issue, pounding the pulpit, despite being wholly irrational.

And then there’s the antisemitism.

Weingarten’s lefty defenders keep pointing out she’s Jewish. At least by way of her last name and ancestry. Of course so was Marx, who spewed violent antisemitism. In the early years of the Soviet Union, the Communist officials of the Yevsektsia or Jewish Section who persecuted the Jewish community were of Jewish ancestry. There’s ample evidence that you can have a Jewish last name, and be antisemitic. There’s zero evidence otherwise.

But it’s also the kind of antisemitism that has long since become normalized on the Left.

Weingarten will face zero consequences for her antisemitic rant even as rank-and-file teachers have lost their jobs for minor offenses against political correctness.

A final note, Randi Weingarten is married to anti-Israel activist Sharon Kleinbaum.