It would be interesting to research the idea: who are those non-Jewish people who support Zionism and Israel, and want to support Jews? What common do they have amongst each other? If you are progressive and gay etc. and I am not, what unites us against antisemitism? Antiracist is another interesting concept: are those who claim to be one really antiracists or something else presented as antiracism?
If we believe Jung how genetic memory is a thing in humans than the racism and antisemitism of the past is hard wired into our dna. But of course it doesn't mean that we have to ever give in to it. But it is quite fascinating how easy it was for the world to go full antisemite within a matter of days after October 7.
Meanwhile, the ADL said that half of the adults in the world could be called antisemitic. To be called that they need to believe 6 of 10 antisemitic tropes. In my opinion if you believe simply 1 antisemitic trope you are an antisemite (harsh maybe but being Jewish I think I get to decide this question for myself), that unfortunately, would make the vast majority of the world antisemitic then?
I agree you will never be able to eradicate antisemitism especially when people give themselves an out for being so hateful, be it religious or some kind of perverted political dogma. You would have to change human nature itself. Is this pessimistic? Perhaps, but as I mentioned above you do not have to give in to hatred. It is the weak minded that does not fight against dehumanizing others.
I get where you're coming from. But a big point here is that it is not conscious. Hatred is, I think, conscious. A big problem is that it is carried as inherent bias and so I do not think the part of the iceberg underwater is "Jew hatred" exactly. But ... I don't know.
My wife and I discussed this over my coffee this morning and she said its not going to go away its going to be with us for ever. And she then followed up by saying why worry about it. And i replied by saying that it easy for us to stop worrying about it but the fact is that some Jewish people are being physically harrassed. And thats not good. Agreed she said but lets consider the Catholic / Protesstant thing. This not a big deal today is it ? Well it still is in Ireland i said. Fair enough so maybe we can look at why its not a big deal here but still is in Ireland. Could learn something. In fact lets look at the way the Muslims deal with their victimisation. How so i said. Well they deal with it quite differently. Every incident that offends they have people in power to point it out. And they phrase it as being racist. They dont say the perpetrators are animals or deranged .. no they say that they are racists. . Which we all know is the worst. And if a particular incident occurs that causes injury or worse the (Muslim) perpetrators are labelled as not true followers of Islam. Ok but whats your point. And she says well they seem to deal with it differently and they appear to have success.
Antisemites ain’t just “anti” vs “semites” (whatever or whoever they might be… I’m a Jew, not a notion coined by a 19th century gentile German anthropological theorist).
They are Jew haters who hate Jews. Let’s drop the euphemistic a-s term. It’s inadequate to the formidable task at hand.
I think that the fight against antisemitism begins with an introspection of the "Good Guys" (Jews and their non-Jewish allies). Are the Good Guys doing all they can to fight antisemitism? Are they united? Do they have a united strategy? Or are they split into many organizations that do their own thing? Do the organizations have accountability? How are the resources spent to fight antisemitism? Are the leaders and the large organizations cost-effective? Are the leaders partisan? Are they part of a swamp of good old boys who care more for power than actually getting things done?
This is a PR war, and before we can truly defeat the enemy, we have to look at what we are fighting them with, who leads, and what the strategies are.
Frankly, I think we have a shit army of basically do nothings, with no accountability and no unified strategy, each organization doing their own thing except begging for money. Begging for money seems to be the unified strategy, and I bet in that one area, the amount of money they collect as a whole would be astounding.
Before I end this rant, I want to give an example .......
One of our main weaknesses, in my opinion, is that as a group, Jews dont know how to physically defend themselves. They know how to talk, how to debate, how to sue someone but they dont know how to kick ass. In other words, they are easy prey to violence. My suggestion was that every Jewish school and every Jewish organization should offer a self-defence course. In fact, the schools should make it mandatory as part of the curriculum. You dont pass you dont graduate. Nothing is better for a kid than the knowledge that he/she knows how to take care of themselves.. What possibly could be wrong with that? It could only be a good thing.
I wrote many of the large Jewish organizations and guess what ..... the unanimous response was either a no response or a request for a donation.
People, it all begins with us and not with the enemy. We are winning the military war in Israel because Israel is united, it has one leading structure and it has organization and objectives and goals. We are losing because the Diaspora has none of that.
Thank you! Well said. Just because you smell flowers and look for a funeral, it does not mean you are wrong.
“Am I hopeful? I’ve noted before that I am someone who smells flowers and looks for a coffin.”
More brilliant insight , I haven’t heard!
Haha. Thanks. Not original. Oscar Wilde maybe?
Thank you for being a true warrior and heeding Rabbi Tarfon’s call!
Spot on.
This is something I'd vaguely understood for years but you expressed it more cogently than I ever could.
It would be interesting to research the idea: who are those non-Jewish people who support Zionism and Israel, and want to support Jews? What common do they have amongst each other? If you are progressive and gay etc. and I am not, what unites us against antisemitism? Antiracist is another interesting concept: are those who claim to be one really antiracists or something else presented as antiracism?
Thanks Nino. In my capacity in one of my other hats, that is a project we are working on right now!
If we believe Jung how genetic memory is a thing in humans than the racism and antisemitism of the past is hard wired into our dna. But of course it doesn't mean that we have to ever give in to it. But it is quite fascinating how easy it was for the world to go full antisemite within a matter of days after October 7.
Meanwhile, the ADL said that half of the adults in the world could be called antisemitic. To be called that they need to believe 6 of 10 antisemitic tropes. In my opinion if you believe simply 1 antisemitic trope you are an antisemite (harsh maybe but being Jewish I think I get to decide this question for myself), that unfortunately, would make the vast majority of the world antisemitic then?
I agree you will never be able to eradicate antisemitism especially when people give themselves an out for being so hateful, be it religious or some kind of perverted political dogma. You would have to change human nature itself. Is this pessimistic? Perhaps, but as I mentioned above you do not have to give in to hatred. It is the weak minded that does not fight against dehumanizing others.
I resent the pseudo intellectual use of the word antisemitism let’s cut to the chase it’s Jew hatred sounds ugly because it is ugly.
I get where you're coming from. But a big point here is that it is not conscious. Hatred is, I think, conscious. A big problem is that it is carried as inherent bias and so I do not think the part of the iceberg underwater is "Jew hatred" exactly. But ... I don't know.
I understand what you’re getting at Pat but I find most people give too much credit to intent and intention, I don’t same difference to my lights.
My wife and I discussed this over my coffee this morning and she said its not going to go away its going to be with us for ever. And she then followed up by saying why worry about it. And i replied by saying that it easy for us to stop worrying about it but the fact is that some Jewish people are being physically harrassed. And thats not good. Agreed she said but lets consider the Catholic / Protesstant thing. This not a big deal today is it ? Well it still is in Ireland i said. Fair enough so maybe we can look at why its not a big deal here but still is in Ireland. Could learn something. In fact lets look at the way the Muslims deal with their victimisation. How so i said. Well they deal with it quite differently. Every incident that offends they have people in power to point it out. And they phrase it as being racist. They dont say the perpetrators are animals or deranged .. no they say that they are racists. . Which we all know is the worst. And if a particular incident occurs that causes injury or worse the (Muslim) perpetrators are labelled as not true followers of Islam. Ok but whats your point. And she says well they seem to deal with it differently and they appear to have success.
Antisemites ain’t just “anti” vs “semites” (whatever or whoever they might be… I’m a Jew, not a notion coined by a 19th century gentile German anthropological theorist).
They are Jew haters who hate Jews. Let’s drop the euphemistic a-s term. It’s inadequate to the formidable task at hand.
I think that the fight against antisemitism begins with an introspection of the "Good Guys" (Jews and their non-Jewish allies). Are the Good Guys doing all they can to fight antisemitism? Are they united? Do they have a united strategy? Or are they split into many organizations that do their own thing? Do the organizations have accountability? How are the resources spent to fight antisemitism? Are the leaders and the large organizations cost-effective? Are the leaders partisan? Are they part of a swamp of good old boys who care more for power than actually getting things done?
This is a PR war, and before we can truly defeat the enemy, we have to look at what we are fighting them with, who leads, and what the strategies are.
Frankly, I think we have a shit army of basically do nothings, with no accountability and no unified strategy, each organization doing their own thing except begging for money. Begging for money seems to be the unified strategy, and I bet in that one area, the amount of money they collect as a whole would be astounding.
Before I end this rant, I want to give an example .......
One of our main weaknesses, in my opinion, is that as a group, Jews dont know how to physically defend themselves. They know how to talk, how to debate, how to sue someone but they dont know how to kick ass. In other words, they are easy prey to violence. My suggestion was that every Jewish school and every Jewish organization should offer a self-defence course. In fact, the schools should make it mandatory as part of the curriculum. You dont pass you dont graduate. Nothing is better for a kid than the knowledge that he/she knows how to take care of themselves.. What possibly could be wrong with that? It could only be a good thing.
I wrote many of the large Jewish organizations and guess what ..... the unanimous response was either a no response or a request for a donation.
People, it all begins with us and not with the enemy. We are winning the military war in Israel because Israel is united, it has one leading structure and it has organization and objectives and goals. We are losing because the Diaspora has none of that.
papa j