FYI, Sarah Hurwitz's latest book, "As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us," has a good discussion of the history of antisemitism and where it came from.
Prior to 9/11 I was urging friends to take the hate and hostility towards Israel (and the West) seriously since it is often "the Jews" first, but then everyone else. One good friend, an Irish Catholic who felt very far removed from these problems as he had no connection to Israel or the Jewish people, suffered a terrible personal loss on 9/11 when his fire-fighter brother died in the world trade center collapse. Since then it was clear to him that "our problems" are his problems as well. Obsessing about antisemitism or outright Jew-Hatred is not a sign of a problem, instead it is a sign of a solution to the problem.
It is not obsessive to care about antisemitism. Antisemitism is a feature of a society in decline and if it is the society you live in, you should be concerned. Would people chastise those who are obsessed with racism, homophobia, or any other form of hatred? That people need to be antisemitic about antisemitism is par for the course though.
“It’s a self-sealing belief: evidence against it becomes evidence for it.” Conspiratorial thinking is frightening, and I’ve seen it amongst the more rabid followers of Donald Trump (including QAnon). It’s all over the political landscape these days wherever antisemitism appears, whether in the false charge that Israel “buys” the government or in the blood libels of commentators like Candace Owens.
As you’ve implied, fighting antisemitism isn’t really altruistic. I’m sure that a society that turns against Jews will turn against me too, so I really want to help prevent that.
Your focus on antisemitism stands in splendid contrast to the silence and by standing of so many highly educated people who one expects should be saying the kind of things that you do--but for some reason they do not. Thank you! You remind us that human beings have free choice. Why was Newton obsessed with understanding the movements of the planets around the earth? Because this is what truth-seeking people do when confronted with a certain body of empirical observations that strikes them as significant to analyze.
Merry Christmas, Pat! I personally think antisemitism is a lot more rational than many people suggest. In fact, I recently submitted a manuscript on antizionism as strategic antisemitism, arguing that the idea that it's irrational is incorrect. There have always been strategic reasons why Jews have been targeted. This does not mean that every act of Jew animus is rationally motivated. The frontline perpetrators often have deep psychological problems and are manipulable (useful idiots, as Lenin called them). Still, the drivers -- the Soviet Union, the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Iran, the cultural Marxists, and the emergent Jew-hating segment of the so-called conservative movement in the US, to name some key players, all have strategic reasons for their preoccupation with Jews and Israel.
Pat, we sure others chose your form of fixation over the twisted obsessions they currently keep.
From where we sit, your "fixation" is the sign of a healthy moral compass, not just because you recognize the encroaching danger for Jews, but for society as a whole. I do NOT understand how humanity keeps recycling this psychosis when there is so much historical evidence of its mass destruction of everything.
I guess since Western societies have stewed in so much self-loathing that they can't seem to even stand up for themselves anymore, we can't expect them to care about Jews, or that the destruction rolling toward us it ultimately coming for them.
Why are we Jews the target in the first place? My theory is that it’s because we have stayed true to our roots and our relationship with G-d. That we did not accept the Jesus or the Mohammad/Allah versions led to jealousy, animosity, the continuous campaigns to get us in line, and to sever our direct connection with the power of the universe. I’m not even particularly religious, but I see this plain as day. Since we refuse to get with the program, we are demonized. Of course, Islam claims to supersede both Judaism and Christianity, and Islam is by definition intolerant of both and is unchangeable and prone to one-way extremism, such as a world caliphate under which non-Muslims are either slaughtered or have Dhimmi status. Our misunderstood “chosen-ness” is not a superiority complex that needs to be knocked down. Our history is that G-d chose us, and we chose G-d, to observe the commandments/laws on this earth as partners to build a world under that framework. Both Christianity and Islam contain much of Judaism at their base, but we have refused to worship a human as G-d, and this is what separates us and has caused the friction.
Someone I know, non-Jewish, but married to a Jewish woman, once said to me that Jews are the target because we've never been completely successfully colonized. We are despised simply because we have resisted complete erasure. Nothing pisses off the colonizing majority than a minority that has many times over chosen authenticity even it meant death, over self-erasure.
I struggle with your interpretation because for many of the millions of Jews around the world, Judaism is far more a peoplehood than a religious set of observances. Nevertheless, I find credence in what you say.
I agree; we are a nation, a people, and whether religious or secular or in-between (I’m mostly secular but value, respect, appreciate, and dabble in Jewish tradition), we are one people. Jews are the people; Judaism is the religion. Not all Jews embrace religious observance. Jews really pre-date race, ethnicity, religion. That’s another reason non-Jews obsess about us and, really irritating, try to define what and who we are, and even worse, what Jew hate is and is not. People often fear and distrust what they don’t understand and which doesn’t fit into prescribed boxes. Fear and distrust lead to hate and lies. Also, my initial comment was about my theory on how Jew hate began. It has since been passed down and morphed for 2,000 years.
Merry Christmas, Pat! Going with the premise that the Jews are the canary in the coal mine, or the "after Saturday comes Sunday", the conversation is really about the West's collective problem and not just Jews or antisemitism. And that isnrapidly becoming an existential question in many aspects. For example, see here: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/elite-thought-free-speech-preserve-195700050.html
What are we dealing with when we speak of this epidemic of antisemitism? We are dealing with a subject that reminds me of the old story of the blind men and the elephant. One of the blind men grabs the tail and says that an elephant is like a rope. Another touches the side and proclaims that it’s like a wall. A third touches a tusk and says it’s like spear. A fourth grabs a leg and says it’s like a tree trunk, and so on.
At least the blind men were being rational, so they are closer to the truth than the antisemites who feel the leg and scream out that it’s a Zionist. I will be more irrational on this than most. Since we are dealing with an irrational illness, my guess is that we cannot get at this through rational, material explanations. If I watch someone like Candace Owens, and one needs a strong stomach to watch her, I see someone who does not look fully human. By that I mean the feeling I get is of someone who is demonically possessed. I have my own perhaps eccentric belief in demons, that they do exist. That’s what I see. It’s what I see in the mobs of Jew haters with their conformist chants. It’s what I see in university encampments of hysterical students. It’s what I see in people with rifles casually shooting, reloading and shooting other people as if they were inanimate targets rather than human beings.
Then there are the responses of government officials, university bureaucrats and all the rest. After the slaughter in Sydney, I saw government leaders blame it on guns. I saw others who said that the government would act to make sure that all Australians feel safe. Note what they are avoiding. That’s an illness of a different kind, but it still needs curing.
FYI, Sarah Hurwitz's latest book, "As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us," has a good discussion of the history of antisemitism and where it came from.
Prior to 9/11 I was urging friends to take the hate and hostility towards Israel (and the West) seriously since it is often "the Jews" first, but then everyone else. One good friend, an Irish Catholic who felt very far removed from these problems as he had no connection to Israel or the Jewish people, suffered a terrible personal loss on 9/11 when his fire-fighter brother died in the world trade center collapse. Since then it was clear to him that "our problems" are his problems as well. Obsessing about antisemitism or outright Jew-Hatred is not a sign of a problem, instead it is a sign of a solution to the problem.
It is not obsessive to care about antisemitism. Antisemitism is a feature of a society in decline and if it is the society you live in, you should be concerned. Would people chastise those who are obsessed with racism, homophobia, or any other form of hatred? That people need to be antisemitic about antisemitism is par for the course though.
Merry Christmas Pat !
“It’s a self-sealing belief: evidence against it becomes evidence for it.” Conspiratorial thinking is frightening, and I’ve seen it amongst the more rabid followers of Donald Trump (including QAnon). It’s all over the political landscape these days wherever antisemitism appears, whether in the false charge that Israel “buys” the government or in the blood libels of commentators like Candace Owens.
As you’ve implied, fighting antisemitism isn’t really altruistic. I’m sure that a society that turns against Jews will turn against me too, so I really want to help prevent that.
Your focus on antisemitism stands in splendid contrast to the silence and by standing of so many highly educated people who one expects should be saying the kind of things that you do--but for some reason they do not. Thank you! You remind us that human beings have free choice. Why was Newton obsessed with understanding the movements of the planets around the earth? Because this is what truth-seeking people do when confronted with a certain body of empirical observations that strikes them as significant to analyze.
Merry Christmas, Pat! I personally think antisemitism is a lot more rational than many people suggest. In fact, I recently submitted a manuscript on antizionism as strategic antisemitism, arguing that the idea that it's irrational is incorrect. There have always been strategic reasons why Jews have been targeted. This does not mean that every act of Jew animus is rationally motivated. The frontline perpetrators often have deep psychological problems and are manipulable (useful idiots, as Lenin called them). Still, the drivers -- the Soviet Union, the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Iran, the cultural Marxists, and the emergent Jew-hating segment of the so-called conservative movement in the US, to name some key players, all have strategic reasons for their preoccupation with Jews and Israel.
Pat, we sure others chose your form of fixation over the twisted obsessions they currently keep.
From where we sit, your "fixation" is the sign of a healthy moral compass, not just because you recognize the encroaching danger for Jews, but for society as a whole. I do NOT understand how humanity keeps recycling this psychosis when there is so much historical evidence of its mass destruction of everything.
I guess since Western societies have stewed in so much self-loathing that they can't seem to even stand up for themselves anymore, we can't expect them to care about Jews, or that the destruction rolling toward us it ultimately coming for them.
Why are we Jews the target in the first place? My theory is that it’s because we have stayed true to our roots and our relationship with G-d. That we did not accept the Jesus or the Mohammad/Allah versions led to jealousy, animosity, the continuous campaigns to get us in line, and to sever our direct connection with the power of the universe. I’m not even particularly religious, but I see this plain as day. Since we refuse to get with the program, we are demonized. Of course, Islam claims to supersede both Judaism and Christianity, and Islam is by definition intolerant of both and is unchangeable and prone to one-way extremism, such as a world caliphate under which non-Muslims are either slaughtered or have Dhimmi status. Our misunderstood “chosen-ness” is not a superiority complex that needs to be knocked down. Our history is that G-d chose us, and we chose G-d, to observe the commandments/laws on this earth as partners to build a world under that framework. Both Christianity and Islam contain much of Judaism at their base, but we have refused to worship a human as G-d, and this is what separates us and has caused the friction.
Someone I know, non-Jewish, but married to a Jewish woman, once said to me that Jews are the target because we've never been completely successfully colonized. We are despised simply because we have resisted complete erasure. Nothing pisses off the colonizing majority than a minority that has many times over chosen authenticity even it meant death, over self-erasure.
I struggle with your interpretation because for many of the millions of Jews around the world, Judaism is far more a peoplehood than a religious set of observances. Nevertheless, I find credence in what you say.
I agree; we are a nation, a people, and whether religious or secular or in-between (I’m mostly secular but value, respect, appreciate, and dabble in Jewish tradition), we are one people. Jews are the people; Judaism is the religion. Not all Jews embrace religious observance. Jews really pre-date race, ethnicity, religion. That’s another reason non-Jews obsess about us and, really irritating, try to define what and who we are, and even worse, what Jew hate is and is not. People often fear and distrust what they don’t understand and which doesn’t fit into prescribed boxes. Fear and distrust lead to hate and lies. Also, my initial comment was about my theory on how Jew hate began. It has since been passed down and morphed for 2,000 years.
Merry Christmas Pat, thank you for your support.
Merry Christmas, Pat! Going with the premise that the Jews are the canary in the coal mine, or the "after Saturday comes Sunday", the conversation is really about the West's collective problem and not just Jews or antisemitism. And that isnrapidly becoming an existential question in many aspects. For example, see here: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/elite-thought-free-speech-preserve-195700050.html
Very nicely said, as always. I so appreciate your voice!
Your support means more than I can possibly say. Keep “obsessing”!
Thank you!
What are we dealing with when we speak of this epidemic of antisemitism? We are dealing with a subject that reminds me of the old story of the blind men and the elephant. One of the blind men grabs the tail and says that an elephant is like a rope. Another touches the side and proclaims that it’s like a wall. A third touches a tusk and says it’s like spear. A fourth grabs a leg and says it’s like a tree trunk, and so on.
At least the blind men were being rational, so they are closer to the truth than the antisemites who feel the leg and scream out that it’s a Zionist. I will be more irrational on this than most. Since we are dealing with an irrational illness, my guess is that we cannot get at this through rational, material explanations. If I watch someone like Candace Owens, and one needs a strong stomach to watch her, I see someone who does not look fully human. By that I mean the feeling I get is of someone who is demonically possessed. I have my own perhaps eccentric belief in demons, that they do exist. That’s what I see. It’s what I see in the mobs of Jew haters with their conformist chants. It’s what I see in university encampments of hysterical students. It’s what I see in people with rifles casually shooting, reloading and shooting other people as if they were inanimate targets rather than human beings.
Then there are the responses of government officials, university bureaucrats and all the rest. After the slaughter in Sydney, I saw government leaders blame it on guns. I saw others who said that the government would act to make sure that all Australians feel safe. Note what they are avoiding. That’s an illness of a different kind, but it still needs curing.