After receiving feedback that my song “Why Do People Hate Jews?” is racist, I wrote this detailed explanation aiming to contextualize the song in the context I intended, so that its message can be understood, and also to show how it’s definitely not racist. The purpose of this song is educational, not artistic.

Background to How This Song Was Labeled “Racist”

I uploaded a couple of different masters of my new song — “Why Do People Hate Jews?” — to Soundcloud, and posted their links in a couple of Reddit subreddits asking which master sounded better, in order to work out which was better to release. One master was louder and harsher, made by Landr, and the other master was softer and more musical, made by a professional mixing and mastering engineer, and I wanted to know what people who represented the audience thought. What I got in return was people not relating to the sound at all, but solely on the message, calling it racist. So from that, I understood that I needed to write something aiming to contextualize the song in the context I intended in order for to let its message become more absorbable.

Minutes after this screenshot was taken, the thread was taken down by an automated bot.

The Song: “Why Do People Hate Jews?”

In the end I went for the louder and harsher master. Here it is…

Wystelands’ “Why Do People Hate Jews?” is a song in 3 parts that aims to express:

1) Myriad events and phenomena that the Jewish people have been accused of throughout history — murder of Jesus, denial of Muhammad’s prophethood, greediness, usury, cause of the black plague, drinkers of children’s blood, physical bearers of devil horns on their heads, oppressors and child-killers of Palestinians, assassins of Tsar Alexander II who planned to establish an elected parliament in Russia, but it ended up going the way it did, Germany’s internal traitors who caused Germany’s First World War defeat, making up the Holocaust, making Hollywood, controlling the world, disproportionately succeed compared to other groups considering they make up less than 2% of the world population, the root of all evil, use excessive power for self-benefit, and those are some of the reasons why the Jews have been made targets of genocide as a result of the hate crimes against them.

2) The attempts of millions of Jews who have tried assimilating into other cultures, but despite the assimilation efforts, anti-Semitism rises at some point, marking out the Jews.

3) The hook: the deeper reason behind many people feeling hatred toward Jews.

Part 1: What Jews Have Been Accused of Throughout History

The first part of the song is made of a list of things that Jews have been accused of throughout history. Without being given the intended context, it could definitely sound racist — as the above Redditor understood, that “it’s Holocaust denial and accuses the Jews of being the devil” — because these are accusations that Jews have received throughout history.

The context is that, in the song, I’m a Jew speaking in first person, mentioning all the things I’ve been blamed for. The braggadocio style aims to show the irrationality of being blamed for all these events and phenomena, but also the reality that Jews have been and continue to be blamed for them.

Look at what happened in relation to Israel the last few days: Hamas fired a rocket that fell short and killed a child, and then posters went up in New York and London about “child-killing Israel.” It’s just one of many examples of how there are many people who feel hatred toward Jews (in this case expressed as hatred toward Israel), and are willing to feed off any opportunity to express that hatred.

To show how Jews have been blamed for all these events and phenomena throughout history, I used Genius’s annotated lyrics to reference Wikipedia entries for every circumstance: https://genius.com/Wystelands-jews-lyrics

Here are the lyrics to part 1:

We Jews

We killed Jesus

We denied Muhammad’s prophethood

We the greedy usurers

We cause black death epidemics

Drink children’s blood

Look closely at our head

Got two horns located there

Palestinians, oppressing and killing them

And all their children

We assassinated Tsar Alexander II

Caused Germany to fall in the First World War

The Holocaust, we made it up

Like Holo-wood, yeah we made it up

We run the world

Disproportionately outperform all y’all

We the root of all evil

Use our power for ourselves

That’s why you

Burn our books, burn our bodies

Shoot us down in our synagogues

We try to lose sight of who (Jew) we are

We try to be just like you

But you always call us out

Mark us, point us out

For not doing what we should be doing

Part 2: The Jews’ Attempt to Assimilate into Other Cultures and Anti-Semitism Rising to Mark Out the Jews

The second part of the song aims to show what millions of Jews have tried to do throughout history and also today: tried to assimilate into other cultures, tried to become Americans, Germans, French, Brits, etc. but despite the assimilation attempts, at some point, a boost of anti-Semitism emerges and Jews are marked out.

[Me speaking as a Jew]

I just don’t get it

What do you want from me?

I mean, why me? I’m just like you?

[Others speaking back to me]

Oh no you’re not

You’re a Jew.

Part 3: The Deeper Reason behind Hatred of Jews

[Hook]

You’re a Jew

Don’t just sit there loving you

You got some loving other Jews to do

You’re a Jew

Don’t just sit there loving you

And if you love some Jews

We might just love you too

You’re a Jew

Don’t just sit there loving you

You got some loving other Jews to do

You’re a Jew

Don’t just sit there loving you

And if you love all Jews

We’ll all love you too

Where the first part of the song described myriad events and phenomena people have pointed out as the reasons for their hatred of Jews, the third part — the hook — aims to show that there is an inner demand toward the Jewish people, which is concealed from both people who hate Jews as well as Jews themselves. By examining this inner demand from a deeper level — from the perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah — it is hoped that the deeply-rooted cause of anti-Semitism can be correctly diagnosed, and through such diagnosis, present a direction toward its solution.

Many people who hold this grudge against Jews have a clear feeling that the Jews are the cause of their problems, and are ready to leap on the next opportunity to blame the Jews for some kind of problem or crisis that surfaces.

Where does this hatred come from? Why do so many people hate Jews?

This is where the Kabbalistic message comes in to explain how hatred of Jews stems from a need within humanity for a critical mass of people to pioneer a process of uniting above division, in order to be a conduit for unity to spread to the world.

When a critical mass of people apply efforts to unite above division, they become a positive unifying influence upon humanity.

The Jewish people were established in Abraham’s time, when Abraham gathered people from all walks of life to realize a method of uniting above their divisions. They felt a need for unity because, in their time, they noticed how the ego was tearing human society apart. Thus, they worked to unite above the divisive human ego, and by doing so, they received positive feedback from nature, which essentially united them. Their unity made them become known as “the Jews” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Since nature functions according to laws of unity and synergy, then if people make consistent efforts to unite above their divisive drives, nature responds positively, and such people cause a positive “ripple” throughout human consciousness that spreads a unifying sentiment throughout humanity.

However, if people with the potential to unite fail to make an effort to unite above their divisive drives, then social division runs rampant, without any positive unifying regulator. As a result, human society experiences an increasing amount of problems on all scales: personal, social and global.

As problems amount, most significantly social division, anti-Semitic sentiment, crimes and threats also increase. The reason given in the wisdom of Kabbalah is that there is an inner demand upon this people — Jews — to unite (“love your friend as yourself”) above their divisive drives and by doing so, spread positive unifying energy throughout humanity (be a “light unto nations”). If these people would start implementing a unifying process, then they would spark a light within people to start feeling a more positive attitude toward others and toward life — literally feeling more enjoyment and happiness in life — just from a certain critical mass of people engaging in a process to unite above their divisive drives.

If people who have the potential to make an effort toward unity above division fail to make that effort, an inner sensation emerges in many people that the Jews are to blame for everything negative in the world. Therefore, it all depends on whether the concept of unity above division can rise to become the most important social and cultural value, above our competitive, individualistic and divisive drives. If it does, then the spirit of unity — a positive, connected atmosphere of more similarity to nature’s bestowing quality — will fill the space between us, and we will feel a new kind of happiness and confidence enter the social atmosphere.