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Hatreds Ancient and New
There is and will always be anti-Semitism. But has it really remained unchanged from medieval times to fin-de-siècle Europe to today?
In January 1882, a physician in the Ukraine published a pamphlet harshly assessing what he called “the Jewish question” and recommending a radical solution. The publication struck the massive Jewish community of the Russian empire like an electric jolt and helped spur the mass Jewish exodus to America and Palestine. “Among the living nations of the earth the Jews are as a nation long since dead….” the author wrote. “[A] burden to the rest of the population, parasites who can never secure their favor,” and “as such can neither assimilate nor be readily digested by any nation.”
Jews, he wrote, have the “[g]hostlike apparition of a living corpse.” And “if the fear of ghosts is something inborn, and has a certain justification in the psychic life of mankind, why be surprised at the effect produced by this dead but still living nation?” Therefore, he wrote, “the solution lies in finding a means of so readjusting this exclusive element to the family of nations, that the basis of the Jewish question will be permanently removed.” Translation: Get out.
The essay, Auto-Emancipation, was not the raving of an anti-Semite. The anonymous author, Leon Pinsker, was a prominent figure in the Russian Jewish community, and his treatise was one of the founding manifestos of modern Zionism. Pinsker’s diagnosis of the causes of anti-Semitism led him to urge that his fellow Jews seize their collective fate in their own hands and remake themselves as a nation in a land of their own.
Auto-Emancipation took the Jewish community by storm. Legions of followers adopted Pinsker’s analytic approach to anti-Semitism to develop their own diagnoses. Some cited the economic middleman role into which Jews were frequently thrust, putting them in the crossfire of class conflict. Others blamed the obsequious pose that Jewish minorities tended to adopt toward their non-Jewish neighbors and urged a more assertive, even militant stance. Many agreed with Pinsker’s prescription of emigration and Jewish territorial independence. Many others looked toward democracy, socialism, or anarchism at home.
What they shared was a revulsion for the traditional Jewish stance of helpless passivity in the face of hostility. In Pinsker’s words, “We are no more justified in leaving our national fortune in the hands of the other peoples than we are in making them responsible for our national misfortune.”
Lately, it appears, that classical Zionist approach has fallen out of favor. In part this is due to the emergence after World War II of a stubborn new militancy that views any cause-and-effect analysis of prejudice as “blaming the victim.” During the Holocaust the Nazis’ genocidal hatred allowed for no rational explanation, no option of negotiation or compromise, no possible response except victory or death. In the decades since, many have learned the lesson of that era all too well: For them all criticism is bigotry, every enemy is a Nazi, and every compromise is surrender—or worse, collaboration.
A critical element in the new Jewish militancy, though, lies in the failure of Zionism. Of course, Pinsker, Theodor Herzl, and the rest were spectacularly successful in their immediate goal of creating an independent Jewish homeland. But Jewish independence has so far failed to cure the disease for which it was first prescribed: anti-Semitism. On the contrary, there is a growing conviction among Jewish thinkers and activists, in Israel and internationally, that since 1967 and the occupation, Israel has simply become the focus of a new breed of anti-Semitism. Hatred of the Jews has morphed into hatred of the Jewish state. And over time, these analysts argue, the new anti-Semitism is recombining with the old anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews wherever they live, yielding a worldwide pathology that some say is more virulent than ever before.
There’s genuine evidence, it must be said. In Palestinian and broader Muslim religious discourse, Jews are routinely described today in dehumanizing, even demonic terms. Europe has witnessed a startling reappearance of anti-Jewish street violence, mostly by Muslim youth. Both phenomena are real and worrisome. Then, too, it’s become common for intellectuals in the West and elsewhere to speak of pro-Israel advocacy in Washington in terms that can border, to some ears, on conspiracy-mongering—particularly in the wake of the Iraq War and the widespread, exaggerated focus on the pernicious influence of the “Israel lobby.” And some countries are experiencing a noticeable resurgence of far-right xenophobia. For the doomsayers of the new anti-Semitism, these are all symptoms of a single, deadly ailment: a rebirth in a new guise of the old plague of anti-Semitism that’s infected Europe and the Middle East for millennia—and should have died out after the Nazi Holocaust.
In fact, it’s not self-evident how closely these trends are interrelated, much less integral to a larger whole. The ancient scourge of anti-Semitism—the demonization and persecution of a powerless minority—was largely buried in the ashes of the Holocaust. In the past half-century the Catholic Church has declared anti-Semitism a sin, the European Union has outlawed defamation of Jews, and the United Nations has established an annual day for worldwide Holocaust remembrance. Most important, Jews are no longer a scattered, homeless, powerless minority. Nearly every position of power is open to them as citizens in the countries where they live today, and in one nation they are a majority with a powerful army.
This review is unfair to Goldhagen's book, and its major thesis. In fact there is a global demonization of the Jewish state and the Jewish people, of an unprecedented kind. There is as part of this a singling out of Israel for delegitimization on the part of those of the Radical Left. Goldberg does not take seriously enough the rejectionism which so strongly pervades the Islamist attitude to Israel, and is part of most Islamic states propaganda networks, even those at peace with Israel. Part of this is no doubt because Goldberg buys the 'occupation myth' the Palestinian Arab version of the conflict which the Western media almost exclusively takes for granted. But anyone who has followed the conflict between Israel and the Arab world closely knows that the main theme of the story is refusal to accept Israel no matter what it does. Goldenhagen is certainly not right in every claim he makes, and here I would be more reserved about his thesis of American exceptionalism, but he has in fact seen correctly the latest transformations in one of humanity's most shameful stories.
Sep 17, 2013, 12:37 AMSplendid! Another set of books I won't have to read--anything, anything at all by Goldhagen. Cheap demagoguery I don't need.
Sep 17, 2013, 9:58 AMThis scurilous attack on Goldhagen is from a self-serving leftist anti-semite Jew. The give away is at the outset where he calls the Jewish presence in Judea/Jerusalem "the occupation." Goldhagen apparently left out mentioning the Jewish anti-semites on the left (of which the reviewer is one) who are still wielding their Stalinist shibboleth at committed Jews. How dare those Jews not accept the Jordanian army's ceasefire line in '48 as the limits of a ghetto within which they may temporarioy reside? How dare they think they have a right to live in their own land? For people like the reviewer, Jews are not entitled to any standing in the world that has not been authorized by the gentiles.
B
In Palestinian and broader Muslim religious discourse, Jews are routinely described today in dehumanizing, even demonic terms.
Religious discourse? Try children's television programs!
Sep 17, 2013, 11:48 AMIt's always nice to see an article's comments section support the article's argument in the process of denying it. Bravo, gentle readers.
Sep 17, 2013, 12:59 PMMerely to denounce the brutality of the Israeli occupation is now considered "anti-Semitism" by some fanatical circles. Demagogues like Goldhagen are in the interesting position of having to explain the supposed resurgence of anti-Semitism without referring to any of Israel's illegal military actions.
Sep 17, 2013, 3:14 PMElsewhere (via ALDAILY) appears an article (from Humanities) about Baruch Spinoza, by Steven Nadler.
It would seem that the Jewish faith missed a golden opportunity for its own enlightened reformation when, rather than incorporating the philosopher's insights, the 17th century Jewish community in the Netherlands, banished him.
It is never too late for such human development, of course, but till that glorious event I am afraid antisemitism will be around.
Leon Pinsker's 1882 comments are an echo of Spinoza's understanding, it seems to me.
Sep 17, 2013, 3:33 PM"Merely to denounce the brutality of the Israeli occupation is now considered "anti-Semitism" by some fanatical circles."
From what I see, most Jews would be happy if those who target Israel would also consider criticism of other countries whose behavior is even more egregious.
Is there the same vitriol for China or Turkey or Myanmar?
Is anyone concerned about the 3-5 million Germans who were tossed out of Poland post WWII. All of those acts and actors are not mentioned but Israel is the center of constant criticism.
What is the reason that Israel is singled out? Perhaps the writers can explain that.
What about all the Anti-Whitism we see pushed everywhere?
Sep 21, 2013, 1:58 AMI have tired of the attacks against Goldhagen's poor research. His research is far-reaching and impressive--though, occasionally, he does recur to articles that refer to works thus falling prey to sources at significant remove. I admit that THIS is a weakness--even a flaw. However, it does not weaken or marginalize his thesis. His conclusions are, sometimes, extreme, but the underlying presumptions are empirically known. Shame on those who fail to see through the torn curtain of Goldhagen's "story."
Sep 21, 2013, 10:47 AM@Lewis: Perhaps it is, in America, because our government is complicit in the crimes due to the massive military aid and the unique defense of Israel as an ally and a partner in the UN.
Israel clearly holds a special place in American foreign policy, so surely its crimes deserves a special mention by those opposing that policy.
Sep 22, 2013, 9:30 AM"anti-Semitism is the only source of opposition ot Israel"
I intended to ask why bother to even review a book with such a ridiculous premise, but I suppose the comments here explain that. There is an alarming number of people who think that Israel can do no wrong - even as it does blatant, palpable wrong.
Sep 24, 2013, 8:53 AMThis article misinterprets Goldhagen's book. The argument in the book is not that all criticism of Israeli policy must be Antisemitic. He makes that point clearly early on in the book. So, this article is basically dishonest.
On Goldhagen's telling, it matters not whether or not the Israelis are blameworthy or not in the very same way that it does not matter whether African Americans do blameworthy things or not. Everyone does blameworthy things. However, with respect to African Americans, we all know perfectly well that, deep down, there is hatred of African Americans that adds to the mix of commentary and behavior of others vis a vis African Americans. And, so it is with Jews and with Israel.
For the author of this book not to have even understood Goldhagen's book is to say that this article is fundamentally dishonest.
As for Goldhagen's book, I thought it rather interesting. Is he correct about the intensity of hatred in the world that is directed at Jews? There is some evidence of it. Then again, it is certainly the case that there are counter-currents that operate. The latest Pope - and I note this in view of Goldhagen's focus on the Catholic Church - is, judging from his recent rhetoric, a sign of that change.
As for the article's author claim that anti-Jewish agitation dates back to the Roman Empire - while Goldhagen points to Christian Antisemitism and, in particular, Antisemitism in the Catholic Church -, the fact is that hatred of all things Jewish and of Judaism has been carried forward by, among other things, Christianity. So, the author of the article's point is, frankly, idiotic. It is also to be noted that Goldhagen also notes, in some detail, the foundational hatred within Islam of Jews and Judaism. It is rather similar, in some ways, as in Christianity. And, there is strong historical evidence that 20th Century style hatred of Jews has infected Muslims, as shown by many scholars including the Bernard Lewis in his famous book Semites and Anti-Semites - and that book pre-dates the current rise of obsessive hatred of Jews among a great many Muslims, most particularly in the Arab regions. As to the special character of the hatred of Jews that arises out of both the founding myths of Christianity and Islam, see - and the author of the article evidently has not noted this book, Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, by David Nirenberg which shows that, in fact, hatred of Judaism is a central organizing feature of hatred against Jews, a force that, in appropriate circumstances, unleashes hatred of Jews.
In conclusion, the author of the article has written what is basically a hatchet job on Goldhagen's book. That book does have flaws but the article chooses instead to be dishonest.
Sep 28, 2013, 2:18 PMI made every reasonable effort to be objective while reading this review. That said, when I discovered that my expectation of rational immigration was the product of anti-Hispanic bigotry, the reviewer lost me.
Oct 5, 2013, 9:32 PMPost a Comment
J.J. Goldberg is editor at large of The Jewish Daily Forward, where he was previously editor-in-chief.
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