Difference between revisions of "Anti-Semitism"

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Community Security Trust.
Nov. 2004: The Aldershot Cemetery.

Anti-Semitism (or antisemitism) is discrimination, hatred, or criticism of Jews, Jewish culture, or the state of Israel. As a word it is first recorded in the English language in 1882^[1], but as an idea and argument of hatred examples exist from much earlier times.

Origins of Anti-Semitism

The first Christians were Jews, as Jesus Christ was. The story of Jesus was remembered and retold in the synagogues. Splits appeared very soon after the death of Jesus between the Pharisees and the Revisionist Jews. The Gospel of John was written quite soon after he and other revisionist Jews were barred from the synagogue by the Orthodox party. The references to Jews in the Gospel according to St John does not refer to Jews as a whole, but to the Pharisees. However, this was not well understood by later readers, and once the early generations of Jews had died out John's gospel was often used to justify acts of anti-Semitism.

Early Anti-Semitism

One of the oldest instances of anti-Semitic claims was made in the first century AD by Apion who claimed Jews sacrificed Greeks in their temple in a ritual known as a blood libel. Christianity later brought this up again in England in 1144, after William of Norwich was found murdered. William was called a martyr and created a second wave of anti-semitism, this time in Europe. It was mostly popularized with the story of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, and was even present in the Canterbury Tales. This continued on for many centuries until modern times. This "blood libel" accusation has survived the centuries and is today seen in Muslim anti-Semitic propaganda.

In the Middle Ages, misplaced blame on Jews for the death of Jesus Christ, despite the fact that Jesus Himself was obviously Jewish and died by His choice for the sins of all mankind, led to Christian antipathy against Jews in parts of Europe. This also led to rumors that Jews "desecrated the host" (tortured communion bread as per the Catholic doctrine of transubstination, and that they "poisoned the wells", leading to the Black Death.

Anti-semitism was rife in Europe well into the twentieth century. Anti-Semitic references were common in the popular literature of both the 19th and early 20th centuries. It became more "scientific", and often connected with psuedo-scientific racial theories. Well known 19th-century anti-Semites include Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Karl Marx, and Richard Wagner. In Russia, pogroms (mass slaughter) were carried out against the Jews. When Adolf Hitler needed a scapegoat on which to blame the inflationary problems of Germany and losing World War I, he built on a bedrock of anti-Semitism that was already there. The consequence was the Holocaust, called by Hitler the Final Solution to the 'Jewish problem'.

1890-1945

Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a Jewish officer in the French Army falsely accused of spying in the 1890s. The Dreyfuss Affair became a central issue in French politics, with critics like Émile Zola --who creed "J'accuse"--insisting it was a miscarriage of justice brought by a conspiracy of Catholic army officers. Dreyfuss was proven innocent and released in 1899.

Anti-Semitism was the core belief of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, helping them gain power in germany in 1933 and leading to their murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocause of World War II.

In the 1920s Henry Ford's newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, reprinted the false The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Ford publicly apologized to jews.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh disparaged Jews at a critical debate over intervention in the war in Europe in 1940. He led the "America First" movement opposed to war. He suggested the drive to war was orchestrated by Jews and would hurt the U.S.

Post 1945

Anti-Semiitism was in total disrupe after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Republican President Richard Nixon hurt his reputation after recordings of informal conversations laden with racial slurs and invective known as the Watergate Tapes were made public. These informal comments about Jewish control of the media and calling Robert Vesco "a cheap kike" among other comments suggested to Nixon critics that his views were informed by a mistrust of Jewish culture. ^[2] Nixon defenders note his support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War and his many Jewish friends and associates such as Henry Kissinger, Herb Stein and others. ^[3]

In 1984 Democratic Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson is said to have uttered anti-Semitic comments to reporter for the Washington Post when discussing the state of African-American and Jewish relations, which had been a key New Deal coalition for half a century. Jackson is reported to have referred to Jews as "Hymie's", and to New York City as "Hymietown". Jackson is alleged to have apologized for the incident.^[4] It was dropped relatively quickly at the time as Jackson's following was limited, but came back to haunt him in 1988 when he again ran for the Presidency and was doing much better in the polls and the issue resurfaced. Mayor Ed Koch even said that any Jews who vote for Jackson were "crazy".

Modern anti-Semitism

During the Gulf War of 1991 anti-Semites alleged the United States was being used to fight Israel's wars.^[5]

The U.S. State Department Report on Global Anti-Semitism in 2005 said this about the current state of anti-Semitism worldwide:

Beginning in 2000, verbal attacks directed against Jews increased while incidents of vandalism... surged. Physical assaults including beatings, stabbings and other violence against Jews in Europe increased markedly, in a number of cases resulting in serious injury and even death. Also troubling is a bias that spills over into anti-Semitism in some of the left-of-center press and among some intellectuals.

The United States is frequently included as a target of such attacks, which often assert that U.S. foreign policy is made in Israel or that Jews control the media and financial markets in the United States and the rest of the world. ...Similarly, allegations that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks were widely disseminated, especially in the Muslim world. ^[6]

In the United States, Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings was recently ostracized for public criticism of the Bush Administration ^[7] considered to be anti-Semitic. ^[8] On March 3, 2003 Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) said, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this". ^[9] Moran has since made further anti-semitic comments. ^{[10] [11]} Some supporters of the anti-Iraq War movement have been accused of anti-Semitism, including a group known as ANSWER-Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, one of the first organizations formed to protest the policies of the Bush administration after 9/11. ^{[12] [13]}

Liberal activist Cindy Sheehan, though she found popular support among leftists and the mainstream media, was condemned for her outspoken anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. ^[14] Sheehan traveled to Venezuela ^[15] to appear with Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez to denounce U.S. foreign policy which she blames as responsible for the death of her son.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has recently come under much criticism for his writings and comments that have been viewed as anti-semitic. In his book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid", Carter endorsed Islamic terrorism against Israel as a tactic to achieve political ends. The sentiment was widely criticized by people across the political spectrum. In early 2007, it was revealed that Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the U.S. government's Holocaust Memorial Council. The council's former executive director, Monroe Freedman, also revealed that a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish." ^[16]

While the contempory American left's hatred for Jews and Jewish traditions has been documented, others who were on the right have been ostracized by conservative commentators. William F. Buckley, Jr., founder and publisher of the National Review said of Reform Party presidential candidate and former Nixon speechwriter Patrick Buchanan, "I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism…" refering to comments Buchanan made regarding the U.S. involvement in the first Gulf War which lead to military action against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. ^[17]

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain increased by 34 percent in 2006. ^[18]

Swastikas have been carved into several cornfields in the United States. A 130-foot-square swastika was carved into a field in July 1998. A bigger 600-by-600 foot version of the Nazi symbol was found in a nearby cornfield almost a year later. In September 2007, a giant swastika covering several acres was discovered. ^[19]

Anti-Semitism and the Left

Anti-semitism has been growing rapidly at a phenomenal rate in Liberal countries, especially European countries.

It has also been growing amongst liberals in the United States of America, The Institute for Jewish & Community Research, did a study of who is anti-semitic, and found that people who identify as being Democrat are consistenly more likely to believe any anti-semitic belief than a Republican. The data from the survey also revealed a connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. This is important since liberals are more likely to be anti-Zionist than conservatives. The study found that the young, who are more likely to be liberal, are also more likely to be Anti-semites than people over age 35. The study found that more than 75% of Democrats hold at least one anti-semitic belief. According to the study 20% of Democrats believe Jews care only about themselves^[20]

Recently, liberal atheist Richard Dawkins came under criticism for saying that the Religious Jews monopolize control over the American government.

See also

• Wandering Jew
• Blood Libel
• Jules Isaac
• Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christianity's Anti-semitism
• Theory of Fundamentalist anti-Semitism

Further reading

• Antisemitism, Hannah Arendt, 1968, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
• How Catholics Look at Jews: Inquiries into Italian, Spanish, and French Teaching Materials, Claire Huchet Bishop, New York/Paramus/Toronto: Paulist Press, 1974
• The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, John G. Gager, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983
• Uncivil Religion: Interreligious Hostility in America (Part I: Jewish-Christian Tensions pp.1-37), Robert N. Bellah and Frederick E. Greenspahn (Eds.), 1987, New York: Crossroad Publishing Company

References

External Links

• DiscoverTheNetworks.org - Anti-Semitism in Academia