Is a “new anti-Semitism” arising through the world today? Or is old anti-Semitism finding new rationalizations and new strength? And how truly pervasive and threatening is anti-Semitism today, regardless of its label?
Three books that contemplate these questions have come to The Chronicle this summer. Naturally, they thoroughly disagree with each other.
Feminist and psychologist Phyllis Chesler has no doubt that a new anti-Semitism has been born, and she proclaims it in her title: “The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It” (John Wiley & Sons, 307 pages, $24.95 hardcover).
Paul Iganski and Barry Kosmin, the social scientist editors of an anthology published by the British-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, are less certain. Their title, “A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st Century Britain” (318 pages, $29.95 paperback), reflects that.
Conservative columnist and broadcaster Dennis Prager and renowned Judaica author Rabbi Joseph Telushkin don’t think today’s anti-Semitism is new; but they do believe its power and pervasiveness have carried us back to the 1930s. That, therefore, justifies to them a re-write and reissue of their 1983 book “Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism” (Simon and Schuster, 244 pages, $14 paperback).
All these books recognize that the new outbreak of anti-Semitism in recent years and months, in Europe and the United States, is linked to a new sympathy for the Palestinian Arabs, a new willingness to deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and new use of both of those as excuses to attack Jews. All three books contain valuable information and ideas about this phenomenon mixed with diverse weaknesses.
Chesler’s book is personal to the point of egocentric. A more appropriate title would be “The New Anti-Semitism and Me.” She spends pages establishing her “the personal is political” bona-fides (her second husband is an Israeli Jew; her first was a Muslim from Afghanistan) and justifying herself.
“I am not recanting my ideals as a civil rights worker, as a member of the antiwar movement, or as a feminist; nor have I gone over to the dark side,” she writes. “And yet, and yet, I must now calmly part company with many of my former friends and comrades.”
Yes, this is a common experience today; and many Jews, including this writer, have been there and know exactly how she feels. Still, she writes this kind of thing so often that one is tempted to respond, “What do you want, a medal?”
Nevertheless, Chesler also presents solid analysis and chronologies of Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States, Israel and Jews worldwide. Most valuable is her last chapter of “Questions and Answers,” which cogently summarizes her points and defends Israel’s existence.
Narrow perspective
American readers may shy away from “A New Antisemitism?” because of its British provenance. Some of the individual essays do narrowly focus on British conditions and history.
But enough of the other essays have broader applicability sufficient to make this anthology well worth a look. Some — like Rabbi Jonathan Sacks “A new antisemitism?”
and Howard Jacobson’s “Wordsmiths and atrocities against language: the incendiary use of the Holocaust and Nazism against Jews” — contain well-presented ideas and information relevant anywhere.
The revised Prager-Telushkin book, like its first edition, is far better in parts than as a whole. It contains excellent individual chapters, particularly on anti-Semitism in the Muslim world (which long pre-dated Israel’s founding) and why anti-Zionism is truly a form of anti-Semitism in theory, practice and probable results. It includes a new chapter on “Eight Lies about Israel” that does a wonderful job of discussing anti-Israel libels.
But “Why the Jews?” still pushes a deplorable overall thesis. It contends that anti-Semitism is unique among all the hatreds humanity has ever known; that its primary cause is disagreement with Judaism, particularly Judaism’s message of ethical monotheism; and the only true solution for it is for Jews to convert everybody in the world to ethical monotheism.
It would require a long essay to detail why this idea is so wrong. But the key is Prager-Telushkin’s narrow perspective. For all their updated data, it seems that in 20 years they haven’t bothered to look beyond the Jewish community to learn anything about the rest of the world.
History, psychology and cultural anthropology all demonstrate that anti-Semitism is not that different from other hatreds and prejudices; and that the causes of all such biases are found in, and are the responsibility of, the haters, not the hated.
Nevertheless, I tend to agree with Prager-Telushkin on one point: The anti-Semitic manifestations seen recently do not express a “new anti-Semitism.” They express the anti-Zionist anti-Semitism that Prager-Telushkin described in their book’s first edition.
I sense that this old anti-Semitism has received new impetus by a combination of fatigue and frustration over the intractability of the Israel-Arab conflict plus the visceral antipathy so many in the West have for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Likud Party.
But I am not so certain that I will automatically reject other interpretations. In fact, I have learned a lot from all three of these books, and I think others will, too.
Loading ...