This is not a post about Kanye West

But I’ve been targeted because I’m Jewish, so let’s talk about it.

Fearless reporting, a behind-the-curtains look at how journalism is made — and an unabashed point of view. Welcome to Chills.

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Protesters march against the far-right’s “Unite the Right” rally in 2018. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)

This is not a post about Kanye West. But, in a weird way, his disgusting rhetoric is why I’m writing this. If you haven’t heard, he stupidly malapropped  “defcon” recently when he declared “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” (Does he even know what “defcon” means? Does he know what “three” means?) Part of me — perhaps crazily, but hear me out — is glad he said the horrifying things he did this month about Jews. His twisted words have pushed such hatred into the spotlight. 

Antisemitism is a noxious and ever-smoldering ember in this country. Occasionally, it flares, and sometimes it catches into a frenzied wildfire.

I was singed recently by this wildfire: Someone had created a Wikipedia page about me, and there was something on there that made my stomach clench. I was caught off-guard. I’ll explain.

A couple weeks prior to the page’s creation, I’d tweeted that I found it sad that so many men half my age, and with a quarter of my career, had Wikipedia pages, yet neither I nor many of my female or people-of-color colleagues had ones (see: NPR’s incredible TV critic, Eric Deggans). Maybe someone heard me, because my page appeared a couple weeks later.

It’s all accurate. Minus the fact that I was not born at Wesleyan University, although I guess that’s debatable. (See: “Early life”).

In the “Personal life” section, someone had written: “Wolfe lived in New York City before moving to Seattle, Washington, in 2021.[12] She was diagnosed with PTSD stemming from her reporting.[13] She identifies as queer.[14] She has dogs as pets.”

All true! Although I sound like a homebound old lady with “dogs as pets.” But I’m okay with that. Few people who know your name as a byline truly know you.

But there was something else in that section, something unsettling.

There was a line that said, “She identifies as Jewish.”

I stared at it in confusion, and quickly realized that this had been written deliberately — someone had placed a target on me purposefully, and very, very publicly.

To clarify: I was born Jewish; I identify as Jewish culturally. But I do not practice the religion, nor have I ever said anything publicly about doing so. In fact, I’ve also tried to avoid expressing thoughts on the Israel/Palestine issue so as not to draw more death threats than I already do. Similarly, I have avoided talking about my bisexuality; I am not ashamed — I am out — but, in both cases, I am mitigating violence toward myself.

Palestinians have been treated like dirt, so there it is. I do have an opinion, and perhaps you will call me a coward for not being quite so clear publicly before now. What would you do if you were already being constantly being threatened with murder in “the ovens” while covering crimes against humanity around the world? My public opinions have said little if anything about Israel’s right to exist — it is not what I report on, hence, nobody’s business.

So it was definitely strange that someone would put that I “identified as Jewish” in Wikipedia’s “Personal life” section.

Because it made me uncomfortable, I asked a Twitter friend to remove the line as a kind of self-protection. Until you’ve been bombarded with such threats, maybe you don’t understand the need to do what you can to limit them. It’s hard to explain what it’s like to be doxxed, and to receive twisted, horrific sexualized murder fantasies on every email and social media platform you visit.

My friend removed the line. Done, I thought. But no.

A couple weeks later, I looked at the page again. The line was back. Someone had gone in and deliberately put it back in.

A target, as I said, in case you’d had any doubt. A signal to the antisemites who think Jews control the media.

My friend again removed the line, and, for now, it remains deleted. I can only imagine that this post will create more problems than I need, but I will not be silent about antisemitism, bigotry, racism, or hatred toward any group or person.

I’ll let you know how my inbox fares after this.

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