No shame in Antisemitism, Elie Wiesel (Interview with Ynet, 28th January 2014)
I thought that the memory of the Holocaust would shame those boasting anti-Semitic opinions. I was wrong ... it seems people are no longer ashamed to be anti-Semitic.
I thought that the memory of the Holocaust would shame those boasting anti-Semitic opinions. I was wrong ... it seems people are no longer ashamed to be anti-Semitic.
Discussion
How do you think Antisemitism became mainstream?
Why is it no longer stigmatized?
The Clueless Antisemite, Deborah E. Lipstadt (Antisemitism: Here and Now)
The clueless antisemite is an otherwise nice and well-meaning person who is completely unaware that she has internalized antisemitic stereotypes and is perpetuating them. The only proper response, however hard it may be for you, is to politely tell this person that what she said comes under the category of an insidious and insulting ethnic stereotype.”
To try to defeat an irrational supposition – especially when it is firmly held by its proponents – with a rational explanation is virtually impossible.
The clueless antisemite is an otherwise nice and well-meaning person who is completely unaware that she has internalized antisemitic stereotypes and is perpetuating them. The only proper response, however hard it may be for you, is to politely tell this person that what she said comes under the category of an insidious and insulting ethnic stereotype.”
To try to defeat an irrational supposition – especially when it is firmly held by its proponents – with a rational explanation is virtually impossible.
Discussion
Have you ever met a clueless antisemite? I.e. someone, well-meaning who harbors anti-semitic beliefs?
The Mutation of Antisemitism, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (https://www.rabbisacks.org/videos/the-mutation-of-antisemitism)
Within living memory of the Holocaust, after which the world said it would never happen again, antisemitism has returned.
But what is antisemitism and why should its return be cause for grave concern, not only for Jews but for all of us?
Before the Holocaust, Jews were hated because they were poor and because they were rich; because they were communists and because they were capitalists; because they kept to themselves and because they infiltrated everywhere; because they clung to ancient religious beliefs and because they were rootless cosmopolitans who believed nothing.
So what is antisemitism? Not liking people because they’re different isn’t antisemitism. It’s xenophobia. Criticising Israel isn’t antisemitism: it’s part of the democratic process, and Israel is a democracy.
Antisemitism is something much more dangerous – it means persecuting Jews and denying them the right to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.
It’s a prejudice that like a virus, has survived over time by mutating.
So in the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were reviled because of their race. Today, Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.
And just as antisemitism has mutated, so has its legitimisation. Each time, as the persecution descended into barbarity, the persecutors reached for the highest form of justification available.
In the Middle Ages, it was religion. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science: the so called scientific study of race. Today it is human rights.
Whenever you hear human rights invoked to deny Israel’s right to exist, you are hearing the new antisemitism.
So, why has it returned? There are many reasons but one root cause is the cognitive failure called scapegoating.
When bad things happen to a group, its members can ask one of two questions: “What did we do wrong?” or “Who did this to us?” The entire fate of the group will depend on which it chooses.
If it asks, “What did we do wrong?” it has begun the process of healing the harm. If instead it asks, “Who did this to us?” it has defined itself as a victim. It will then seek a scapegoat to blame for all its problems.
Classically this has been the Jews, because for a thousand years they were the most conspicuous non-Christian minority in Europe and today because Israel is the most conspicuous non-Muslim country in the Middle East.
The argument is always the same. We are innocent; therefore they are guilty. Therefore if we are to be free, they – the Jews or the state of Israel – must be destroyed. That is how the great evils begin.
Why then should we all care about this? After all, if we’re not Jewish, what has it got to do with us?
The answer is that antisemitism is about the inability of a group to make space for difference.
And because we are all different, the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.
It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Hitler. It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Stalin. It isn’t Jews alone who suffer under the radical Islamists and others who deny Israel’s right to exist.
Antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference.
It matters to all of us. Which is why we must fight it together.
Within living memory of the Holocaust, after which the world said it would never happen again, antisemitism has returned.
But what is antisemitism and why should its return be cause for grave concern, not only for Jews but for all of us?
Before the Holocaust, Jews were hated because they were poor and because they were rich; because they were communists and because they were capitalists; because they kept to themselves and because they infiltrated everywhere; because they clung to ancient religious beliefs and because they were rootless cosmopolitans who believed nothing.
So what is antisemitism? Not liking people because they’re different isn’t antisemitism. It’s xenophobia. Criticising Israel isn’t antisemitism: it’s part of the democratic process, and Israel is a democracy.
Antisemitism is something much more dangerous – it means persecuting Jews and denying them the right to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.
It’s a prejudice that like a virus, has survived over time by mutating.
So in the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were reviled because of their race. Today, Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.
And just as antisemitism has mutated, so has its legitimisation. Each time, as the persecution descended into barbarity, the persecutors reached for the highest form of justification available.
In the Middle Ages, it was religion. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science: the so called scientific study of race. Today it is human rights.
Whenever you hear human rights invoked to deny Israel’s right to exist, you are hearing the new antisemitism.
So, why has it returned? There are many reasons but one root cause is the cognitive failure called scapegoating.
When bad things happen to a group, its members can ask one of two questions: “What did we do wrong?” or “Who did this to us?” The entire fate of the group will depend on which it chooses.
If it asks, “What did we do wrong?” it has begun the process of healing the harm. If instead it asks, “Who did this to us?” it has defined itself as a victim. It will then seek a scapegoat to blame for all its problems.
Classically this has been the Jews, because for a thousand years they were the most conspicuous non-Christian minority in Europe and today because Israel is the most conspicuous non-Muslim country in the Middle East.
The argument is always the same. We are innocent; therefore they are guilty. Therefore if we are to be free, they – the Jews or the state of Israel – must be destroyed. That is how the great evils begin.
Why then should we all care about this? After all, if we’re not Jewish, what has it got to do with us?
The answer is that antisemitism is about the inability of a group to make space for difference.
And because we are all different, the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.
It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Hitler. It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Stalin. It isn’t Jews alone who suffer under the radical Islamists and others who deny Israel’s right to exist.
Antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference.
It matters to all of us. Which is why we must fight it together.
Discussion:
Do you think there is any logic behind antisemitism?
Have you ever experienced antisemitism?
Valid Antisemitism vs. Criticism of Israel, Future Tense, Rabbi Sacks
A set of criteria distinguishing antisemitism from criticism of Israel was set out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. It includes the following:
A) denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour,
B) applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,
C) using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis,
D) drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, or
E) holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Such claims have become standard fare in Arab and (some) Western media and on websites.
A set of criteria distinguishing antisemitism from criticism of Israel was set out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. It includes the following:
A) denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour,
B) applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,
C) using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis,
D) drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, or
E) holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Such claims have become standard fare in Arab and (some) Western media and on websites.
Discussion
How is Antisemitism distinguished from valid criticism of Israel?
Discussion Prompt
What do Antisemitism and Racism have in common? How do they differ?
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility (Address the American Jewish Committee convention in 1958).
There are Hitlers loose in America today, both in high and low places… As the tensions and bewilderment of economic problems become more severe, history(‘s) scapegoats, the Jews, will be joined by new scapegoats, the Negroes. The Hitlers will seek to divert people’s minds and turn their frustration and anger to the helpless, to the outnumbered. Then whether the Negro and Jew shall live in peace will depend upon how firmly they resist, how effectively they reach the minds of the decent Americans to halt this deadly diversion… (Address to the National Biennial Convention of the American Jewish Congress, 14th May 1958).
When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism! (Response to a student criticising Zionists following the Six Day War, at a dinner at Harvard University, on 27th October 1967).
My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility (Address the American Jewish Committee convention in 1958).
There are Hitlers loose in America today, both in high and low places… As the tensions and bewilderment of economic problems become more severe, history(‘s) scapegoats, the Jews, will be joined by new scapegoats, the Negroes. The Hitlers will seek to divert people’s minds and turn their frustration and anger to the helpless, to the outnumbered. Then whether the Negro and Jew shall live in peace will depend upon how firmly they resist, how effectively they reach the minds of the decent Americans to halt this deadly diversion… (Address to the National Biennial Convention of the American Jewish Congress, 14th May 1958).
When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism! (Response to a student criticising Zionists following the Six Day War, at a dinner at Harvard University, on 27th October 1967).
Israel and Antisemitism, Bret Stephens (Antisemitism: A Guide for the Perplexed, NY Times)
To the 19th-century German antisemite, Jews were impostors and swindlers — impostors, because they claimed to be citizens of Germany when antisemites claimed they were “Semites”; swindlers, because they were in the business of swindling “true” Germans out of their patrimony. To the 21st-century anti-Zionist, Jews are impostors and swindlers — impostors, because they claimed to have ancestral ties to the Holy Land when anti-Zionists claim they are colonizers from Europe; swindlers, because they were swindling Palestinians out of their patrimony.
In both cases, Jews are “the other.” The only difference is that past generations of antisemites accused Jews of being Middle Easterners while today’s anti-Zionists accuse Jews of being Europeans.
To the 19th-century German antisemite, Jews were impostors and swindlers — impostors, because they claimed to be citizens of Germany when antisemites claimed they were “Semites”; swindlers, because they were in the business of swindling “true” Germans out of their patrimony. To the 21st-century anti-Zionist, Jews are impostors and swindlers — impostors, because they claimed to have ancestral ties to the Holy Land when anti-Zionists claim they are colonizers from Europe; swindlers, because they were swindling Palestinians out of their patrimony.
In both cases, Jews are “the other.” The only difference is that past generations of antisemites accused Jews of being Middle Easterners while today’s anti-Zionists accuse Jews of being Europeans.
Irrationality of Antisemitism, Paul Johnson
Hatred of Jews is not only irrational, it is self-destructive, of nations as well as of individuals.
I would call it [antisemitism] an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive. It is a disease to which both human individuals and entire human societies are prone.
What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis makes sense. In the whole of history, it is hard to point to a single occasion when a wave of anti-Semitism was provoked by a real Jewish threat (as opposed to an imaginary one). In Japan, anti-Semitism was and remains common even though there has never been a Jewish community there of any size.
Asked to explain why they hate Jews, anti-Semites contradict themselves. Jews are always showing off; they are hermetic and secretive. They will not assimilate; they assimilate only too well. They are too religious; they are too materialistic, and a threat to religion. They are uncultured; they have too much culture. They avoid manual work; they work too hard. They are miserly; they are ostentatious spenders. They are inveterate capitalists; they are born Communists. And so on. In all its myriad manifestations, the language of anti-Semitism through the ages is a dictionary of non-sequiturs and antonyms, a thesaurus of illogic and inconsistency.
As an example of the self-destructive force of anti-Semitism, the case of Hitler and Nazi Germany is paralleled only by what has happened to the Arabs over the course of the last century.
In Europe, too, anti-Semitism has returned after being supposedly banished forever in the late 1940’s. Fueled by large and growing Muslim minorities, whose mosques and websites propagate hatred of Jews, it has also been nourished by indigenous elements, both intellectual and political. It has even penetrated mainstream parties anxious to garner Muslim votes—New Labour in Britain being a disturbing example.
Hatred of Jews is not only irrational, it is self-destructive, of nations as well as of individuals.
I would call it [antisemitism] an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive. It is a disease to which both human individuals and entire human societies are prone.
What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis makes sense. In the whole of history, it is hard to point to a single occasion when a wave of anti-Semitism was provoked by a real Jewish threat (as opposed to an imaginary one). In Japan, anti-Semitism was and remains common even though there has never been a Jewish community there of any size.
Asked to explain why they hate Jews, anti-Semites contradict themselves. Jews are always showing off; they are hermetic and secretive. They will not assimilate; they assimilate only too well. They are too religious; they are too materialistic, and a threat to religion. They are uncultured; they have too much culture. They avoid manual work; they work too hard. They are miserly; they are ostentatious spenders. They are inveterate capitalists; they are born Communists. And so on. In all its myriad manifestations, the language of anti-Semitism through the ages is a dictionary of non-sequiturs and antonyms, a thesaurus of illogic and inconsistency.
As an example of the self-destructive force of anti-Semitism, the case of Hitler and Nazi Germany is paralleled only by what has happened to the Arabs over the course of the last century.
In Europe, too, anti-Semitism has returned after being supposedly banished forever in the late 1940’s. Fueled by large and growing Muslim minorities, whose mosques and websites propagate hatred of Jews, it has also been nourished by indigenous elements, both intellectual and political. It has even penetrated mainstream parties anxious to garner Muslim votes—New Labour in Britain being a disturbing example.
Discussion Prompt
How does antisemitism revealed in the Muslim world?
Five ex-Muslims speak of growing up to hate Jews and Israel, Bari Weiss, The Free Press
Yasmine Mohammed
I was 17 and living in Vancouver, Canada, when a teenage boy came up to me at school and pointed to my black hijab.
“You’re Muslim?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied, a little surprised he knew, since Muslims and women in hijabs weren’t a common sight in Vancouver at the time.
He smiled at me and said, “I’m Jewish! We’re cousins.”
I remember recoiling and scrunching my face in disgust. He was understandably shocked. I’m ashamed of this reaction, but it was involuntary. It’s how my Islamist mother and her extremist Sunni husband raised me.
Antisemitism was part of my Islamic education, and it was part of the colloquial discourse when I lived in Egypt for two years in my teens. It was infused into my family’s culture. How often did I encounter antisemitism? It’s like asking me how often I drink water.
One time at the market, when I was about eight, my aunt picked up a cucumber and said, “Gosh, the cucumbers are so small this year. The Jews are putting cancer in the vegetables.” I told her that was impossible, but she insisted that “Jews can do anything.”
Rana Mallah
“The last hour will not come about until the Muslims fight the Jews, killing the Jews, such that the Jew will hide behind a stone or tree and a stone or a tree would say O Muslim, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. . .”
I first heard this hadith—an instructional Islamic text passed down from the Prophet Muhammad—echoing throughout my neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq, from the minaret’s speakers during a Friday sermon. I lived in a neighborhood where most people practiced a strict, fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam called Salafism.
Growing up, I heard only negative things when it came to Jewish people and Judaism. The word Jew was an insult—a person might call someone a Jew if they did something wrong or were being cruel and uncaring.
Yasmine Mohammed
I was 17 and living in Vancouver, Canada, when a teenage boy came up to me at school and pointed to my black hijab.
“You’re Muslim?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied, a little surprised he knew, since Muslims and women in hijabs weren’t a common sight in Vancouver at the time.
He smiled at me and said, “I’m Jewish! We’re cousins.”
I remember recoiling and scrunching my face in disgust. He was understandably shocked. I’m ashamed of this reaction, but it was involuntary. It’s how my Islamist mother and her extremist Sunni husband raised me.
Antisemitism was part of my Islamic education, and it was part of the colloquial discourse when I lived in Egypt for two years in my teens. It was infused into my family’s culture. How often did I encounter antisemitism? It’s like asking me how often I drink water.
One time at the market, when I was about eight, my aunt picked up a cucumber and said, “Gosh, the cucumbers are so small this year. The Jews are putting cancer in the vegetables.” I told her that was impossible, but she insisted that “Jews can do anything.”
Rana Mallah
“The last hour will not come about until the Muslims fight the Jews, killing the Jews, such that the Jew will hide behind a stone or tree and a stone or a tree would say O Muslim, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. . .”
I first heard this hadith—an instructional Islamic text passed down from the Prophet Muhammad—echoing throughout my neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq, from the minaret’s speakers during a Friday sermon. I lived in a neighborhood where most people practiced a strict, fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam called Salafism.
Growing up, I heard only negative things when it came to Jewish people and Judaism. The word Jew was an insult—a person might call someone a Jew if they did something wrong or were being cruel and uncaring.
To Fight Anti-Semitism, Be a Proud Jew, NY Times, Bari Weiss (September 6, 2019)
The long arc of Jewish history makes it clear that the only way to fight is by waging an affirmative battle for who we are. By entering the fray for our values, for our ideas, for our ancestors, for our families, and for the generations that will come after us. This is not an exhortation to embrace religion in all its strictures. It is a reminder that Judaism contains multitudes, and that those who point the finger at other Jews as a way to keep the target off their own backs — insisting that the real problem are those with their kippot or their Zionism — at once distorts our history and the fact of our peoplehood.
In these trying times, our best strategy is to build, without shame, a Judaism and a Jewish people and a Jewish state that are not only safe and resilient but also generative, humane, joyful and life-affirming. A Judaism capable of lighting a fire in every Jewish soul — and in the souls of everyone who throws in his or her lot with ours.
The long arc of Jewish history makes it clear that the only way to fight is by waging an affirmative battle for who we are. By entering the fray for our values, for our ideas, for our ancestors, for our families, and for the generations that will come after us. This is not an exhortation to embrace religion in all its strictures. It is a reminder that Judaism contains multitudes, and that those who point the finger at other Jews as a way to keep the target off their own backs — insisting that the real problem are those with their kippot or their Zionism — at once distorts our history and the fact of our peoplehood.
In these trying times, our best strategy is to build, without shame, a Judaism and a Jewish people and a Jewish state that are not only safe and resilient but also generative, humane, joyful and life-affirming. A Judaism capable of lighting a fire in every Jewish soul — and in the souls of everyone who throws in his or her lot with ours.