Some Thoughts On Anti-Semitism

Recently, I attended a reception for Jewish students and instructors who were part of an ongoing adult education program. Drink in hand, I stood on the periphery of a small circle of students as a local “expert” on antisemitism was treating those assembled to his opinions which held that “antisemitism has been around for two thousand years and is best represented today by the views of those who criticize the world’s only Jewish state.” Yes, that’s right…apparently the poster children for the “new antisemitism” are young artists such as Irish novelist Sally Rooney and actor Emma Watson, both of whose apparent “crime” was to declare their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the midst of a brutal occupation of Arab lands by the Israeli military. Ms. Rooney and Ms. Watson join an ever-growing list of “antisemites” such as Susan Sarandon, Roger Waters, Richard Gere, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis, Lena Headley, and Natalie Portman. All of these artists and actors have publicly taken a stand to oppose the Israeli military occupation. When Desmond Tutu, a valiant crusader against South African Apartheid, died recently, several local Israel backers condemned the Bishop’s critical comments about Israel as an apartheid state. No, antisemitism is not two thousand years old. The term “antisemitism” was coined in the year 1891 by a German racist named Friedrich Wilhelm Adolph Marr (1819-1904). Marr was heavily influenced by the Eugenics movement in the United States as well as by the books of such advocates of Nordic superiority as Arthur de Gobineau, Madison Grant, and Houston Chamberlain. This was an age of “scientific” theories about race and language. Friedrich Marr sought to place hatred of Jews within this spectrum by repudiating hatred of Jews based on religion and replacing it with hatred of Jews based on race. According to Marr and his followers, Jews were a stain on the purity of Nordic culture and this stain could not be eradicated through conversion to Christianity. No, instead, Marr argued that the Jews of Imperial Germany should be banned from all public life and from the professions. Marr was vocal about the need to remove all Jewish presence from the life of the Reich. Marr did not specify just how this was to be done. Forty years later, Adolph Hitler would fill in the blank as to the method. This was the birth of “antisemitism.” This was a term used by Marr because he felt that it implied that this type of Jew-hatred had a “scientific” basis and was therefore “respectable.” Antisemitism was the name used to apply to the hatred of Jews based on their “racial inferiority.” To promote this new ideology of hatred, Marr founded and led the ALD (German Antisemitic League) which pushed for the Jews of Imperial Germany to lose their citizenship rights and to be excluded from what passed for civil society in Wilhelmine Germany. About 150 years ago, the term antisemitism was born…not 2,000 years ago according to some writers. Jew hatred (with a variety of motivations) has a long lineage. However, the specific doctrine of antisemitism is a product of the culture of pseudo- scientific racial theorizing so popular in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. It was never intended to serve as the cudgel to be welded by those who support every action of the state of Israel. However that is precisely what it has become. The Term "Anti-Semitism" Expands in Scope Today, much has changed. Since 1948 with the creation of the state of Israel, the term antisemitism has been greatly expanded in scope to include criticism of the state of Israel and especially criticism of the state of Israel. This criticism motivated by Israel’s brutal occupation of the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza. The criticism also stems from the violent attacks on Palestinians caused by gangs of armed Jewish settlers who are often under the protection of the Israeli Army. Then in 2005, about 150 Palestinian civil society organizations signed a call for an international boycott of Israel often called BDS or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. Israel and its formidable lobby in the United States responded by pressuring state lawmakers for legislation to criminalize the advocacy of BDS at state institutions such as schools and colleges. These laws have been passed in more than half of the states. Such laws vary in their specific content but in general they force entities doing business with a given state to sign an anti-BDS pledge. A few of these laws in some states require job applicants with the state to sign an anti-BDS pledge as a condition of employment. I am old enough to remember the loyalty oaths of the McCarthy Era. Apparently those days have returned when it comes to even the mildest criticism of Israel. Of course, false accusations of antisemitism are meant to deflect attention away from the oppression of Palestinian Arabs through the military occupation by focusing on the motives of Israel’s critics…such as Emma Watson or Sally Rooney. Since they are unable to defend what is actually happening on the West Bank and Gaza, Israel’s defenders resort to lies, innuendo, and intimidation. However, while verbal attacks on those who have the courage stand up and challenge what is happening to the Palestinians is one result, there are two other dangers that lie hidden just below the surface of what passes for public discourse. 1. There is the claim by many of Israel’s supporters that Israel is the “nation state of the Jewish people.” It is, they tell us, the nation state that realizes the Jewish dream of self determination. Hebrew is the language of this state. The 2018 Nation-State law makes this very clear. The promoters of Israel endlessly harp on the contention that Israel is THE Jewish state and that support for this Jewish state is one of the core tenets of Jewish identity. The general public, after a while, makes a connection between the two. 2. The second issue, which is a problem for all Jews the world over, is this: When Zionists trumpet Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and when Israel continues to engage in a violent occupation of Arab lands and the blockade of Gaza, many in the world make the connection that Jews all over the world and Israeli oppression are somehow linked. There is no doubt that some of the hatred expressed toward Jews in various parts of the world is stoked by anger over the brutal policies of Israel toward indigenous Palestinians. One important solution for this deadly dilemma is to break this false connection between Israel and Jewish identity. Israel is a settler colonial enterprise that has no relationship to the important ethical teachings of Judaism. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. There are different ways to practice this religion. However, whatever religious expression of Judaism one chooses, ruling over and taking the land of indigenous people should NOT be part of it. Emma Watson and Sally Rooney are the latest young people to publicly proclaim their solidarity with the long-suffering Palestinian people. What these people are saying is that all people everywhere should have basic human rights and political democracy. Palestine is not the only place where people are under military occupation. However, it is a place that demands our attention…… now.

Mark W. Weber received a B.S. in History from the University of Wisconsin, an M.A. in History and Education from Colgate University and an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin. He served as Dean of Libraries and Media Services at Kent State University and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council for Judaism. laboraction2000@gmail.com.