Resurgent anti-Semitism source of worry for all As a new year begins, there are many reasons for people in this country to be grateful and hopeful. For most Americans, life is generally safe and secure. That’s not necessarily the case elsewhere. As every day’s news indicates, a politics of hatred is spreading across the globe, threatening the lives and well-being of many people. A prominent feature of such hatred is anti-Semitism, which was relatively quiescent for a time but has now reawakened. Most of us in Indiana are unlikely to encounter it in our daily lives, but elsewhere hostility to Jews has increased significantly over the past 15 years and needs to be taken seriously – and not only by Jews. This point was made clear in a telling statement issued July 22 by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy. They condemned “the anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility towards Jews (and) attacks on people of the Jewish faith and synagogues” that were taking place almost daily in their countries and elsewhere in Europe. Recognizing the ominous nature of these occurrences, they pledged to do “everything we can to ensure that our citizens can continue to live in peace and security, free from anti-Semitic hostility.” The foreign ministers’ statement was both necessary and timely, for anti-Semitism has been escalating in European societies, with hundreds of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions taking place each year. Jews have been physically assaulted, sometimes fatally, in Toulouse, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, London, Antwerp, Malmö and other cities. Their schools, synagogues, and shops have been attacked and vandalized. Holocaust memorials and Jewish cemeteries have been repeatedly defaced. And attitudes toward Israel and its supporters at some universities have turned ugly and have created an often-hostile climate for Jewish students and professors. Feeling uneasy and at times unsafe in the cities where they have long lived, growing numbers of Jews have given serious thought to leaving Europe. Thousands have already done so. What accounts for these troubling developments? The taboos that formerly held Jew-hatred in check have weakened and, in some circles, fallen altogether, and charges about Jewish “control” of the media, international finance and political power, which not long ago were considered unacceptable in mainstream society, are now openly expressed. Passions are especially intense when the focus shifts to Israel, a country now firmly demonized in some quarters and regularly and unfairly condemned for an array of human rights violations of the worst sort, including racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and even genocide. Charges of this extreme kind follow a script that was drafted at the notoriously biased United Nations Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in the summer of 2001 and have been repeated almost non-stop since then. The cumulative effect of these damning accusations has been, in effect, to criminalize Israel, hold its supporters guilty of complicity in “Zionist crimes” and, thereby, offer justification for today’s anti-Semitism. In parts of the Muslim world, the situation is worse still, with anti-Jewish vilification and openly declared threats against Jews now a familiar part of public rhetoric. Consider the following, excerpted from a sermon given in late November by a prominent preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem: “I say to the Jews loud and clear: The time for your slaughter has come. The time to kill you has come. Allah willing, we are ready for the task. ... Please do not leave in our hearts a single grain of mercy towards you, oh Jews, because when the day of your slaughter arrives, we shall slaughter you without mercy.” This vicious sermon, posted on the Internet following its delivery during prayer services at one of Islam’s most revered mosques, is typical of the anti-Jewish incitement now commonly broadcast in certain Arab countries and Iran. Such murderous preachments are now heard by millions, some of whom could easily become inflamed by the passions of Jew-hatred and be moved to act on them. And it is emphatically hatred of Jews, and not “Zionists,” that is being propagated here, for those who are being targeted for slaughter are specifically named as Jews and not Israelis (which would be bad enough). The recent meat-cleaver murder of several elderly rabbis at prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue illustrates all too graphically the savage deeds that can follow anti-Semitic incitement. Anti-Semitism dates back many centuries and has been called “the longest hatred.” It culminated during World II with the Nazi genocide of the Jews. What can we do about its resurgence in our own day? Anti-Semitism is always a potentially destructive force, and it should never be granted sanction or justification. Its ideas have been discredited time and again, and those who promote them are usually linked to political and religious currents of thought that most people find noxious. Nevertheless, under one guise or another, anti-Semitism is a dynamic and growing force today. The pathologies that animate it do not focus their destructive energies only on Jews. If unrestrained, they inevitably end up targeting others as well and can create social chaos and large-scale destruction. Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Great Britain, expanded on this latter point in these terms: “Anti-Semitism has been the early warning signal of a society in danger. ... The politics of hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews. ... Ultimately, this campaign amounts to an attack on Western democratic freedoms as a whole.” These freedoms define us and shape the societies in which we want to live. To protect them from the designs of hateful people is among the most critical tasks we face. If we can summon the strength and resolve to meet these challenges successfully, the new year and the years ahead can be good for all of us. The alternative is almost unthinkable. source: journalgazette
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:02:06 +0000
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