Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Behind the Aegis

(53,823 posts)
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 01:36 AM Feb 2017

Washington Post: Five myths about anti-Semitism

For a phenomenon often dubbed “the world’s oldest hatred,” anti-Semitism is not well understood. From top Iranian officials who blame the Talmud for the international drug trade to British political activists who claim that the Mossad is stealing their shoes, anti-Jewish bigotry can be bewildering and bizarre. But given the prejudice’s longevity, virulence and recent resurgence in Europe and America — witness the waves of bomb threats against dozens of Jewish centers nationwide in the past month and the controversy over the Trump administration’s repeated refusal to include Jews in its Holocaust memorial statement — it’s well worth debunking common misconceptions that impede our ability to fight it.

Myth No. 1

Anti-Semitism largely subsided after the Holocaust.

In my time reporting on anti-Semitism, I’ve often encountered a certain well-meaning skepticism: Didn’t the Holocaust, with its shocking horrors, finally compel society to stamp out anti-Jewish bigotry? Sophisticated people don’t write this idea down, but it’s one I hear constantly in my reporting.

This is profoundly, depressingly wrong. According to the FBI, Jews in the United States are annually subject to the most hate crimes of any religious group, despite constituting only 2 percent of the American population. The picture is considerably darker in Europe, where Jews were the target of 51 percent of racist attacks in France in 2014, even as they made up less than 1 percent of that country’s population. In recent years, synagogues and Jewish schools and museums have been subject to terrorist attacks in France, Denmark and Belgium. A 2013 E.U. survey found that nearly 40 percent of European Jews fear to publicly identify as Jewish, including 60 percent of Swedish Jews. Non-Western examples abound as well. Populations of Jews in Arab lands, which once numbered nearly 1 million, have been reduced to only a few thousand, having been persecuted to the point of expulsion or flight in the past century.

--snip--

Myth No. 2

Anti-Semitism comes predominantly from the right.

This past election season, the ascendant alt-right, a band of reactionary white nationalists with a penchant for harassing Jewish journalists, filled Twitter with neo-Nazi memes, Photoshopped reporters into gas chambers and concentration camps, and chanted anti-Semitic slogans at political rallies. (My critical reporting on Trump made me the second-most-harassed Jewish journalist on Twitter, according to an Anti-Defamation League study.) One could be forgiven for assuming that such bigotry flows from one primary political source.


But anti-Semitic outbursts were taking place on the left at the same time. At liberal Oberlin College, a writing instructor named Joy Karega shared Facebook memes about Jewish control of the global economy and media, alongside posts asserting Israeli responsibility for the Islamic State and 9/11. Yet when school officials and others criticized her conduct, the student council dismissed it as a “witch-hunt.” In New York, despite a local outcry, the hip leftist hub Brooklyn Commons hosted Christopher Bollyn, a conspiracy theorist who argued that “Zionist Jews” were behind 9/11. During the Democratic primaries, Jewish candidate Bernie Sanders was confronted by a questioner who declared that “the Zionist Jews .?.?. run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign.” Surveying this scene, TBS comedian Samantha Bee aired footage of an anti-Semite ranting at a Trump rally, then cracked, “To find anti-Semitism that rabid, you’d have to go to, well, any left-leaning American college campus.”

more...

Read a bit more about the above two myths and the other three myths are: Criticism of Israel is generally anti-Semitic.; Criticism of Israel cannot be anti-Semitic.; and, Anti-Semitism mostly threatens Jews.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Washington Post: Five myths about anti-Semitism (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Feb 2017 OP
I feel like #1 shouldn't even need to be said. EllieBC Feb 2017 #1
It should have to be said, but... Behind the Aegis Feb 2017 #2
Great read, and even better timing. herding cats Feb 2017 #3
Pat Buchanan wins! SleeplessinSoCal Feb 2017 #4
When I took a summer course in Yiddish in Vilna in 1998 ProudLib72 Feb 2017 #5
Interesting Timing for this Article rpannier Feb 2017 #6
I like your sig line. It should be flung in their faces incessantly. hvn_nbr_2 Feb 2017 #7

EllieBC

(2,959 posts)
1. I feel like #1 shouldn't even need to be said.
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 01:50 AM
Feb 2017

Thinking antisemitism subsided after the Shoah is like thinking racism is gone because there was an African American President.

Behind the Aegis

(53,823 posts)
2. It should have to be said, but...
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 02:00 AM
Feb 2017

Just like your example, I can't tell you the number of times I saw articles and even heard people claim "post-racial America" because we have a black president.

Sometimes ignorance is really just stupidity in disguise.

herding cats

(19,549 posts)
3. Great read, and even better timing.
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 02:01 AM
Feb 2017

It covers the top myths and lies anti-Semites hide behind. People need to be reminded of this in this inflamed climate of hate. Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise, again. We need to raise awareness and shine a light on the blind hate.

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
5. When I took a summer course in Yiddish in Vilna in 1998
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 03:42 AM
Feb 2017

I remember seeing anti-Semitic graffiti and thinking how these assholes wouldn't stop until every last Jew was gone. It's truly depressing.

rpannier

(24,304 posts)
6. Interesting Timing for this Article
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 03:57 AM
Feb 2017

I was reading several articles on Nazi Germany and some of the players in support and opposition
One belief among some is that Hitler was the son of Alois Rothschild
I looked that up on ixquick and got a page full of hits by people claiming it was true
I'm a history buff and read a lot about WWII and things, but that's one idiotic conspiracy theory I had never heard.
Maybe I missed it among the 10,000-million-billion Rothschild conspiracy theories out there
A really important one IMO is five, because it does so much damage to society and bigotry, like Hitler was a Rothschild, survive long beyond the time the bigot who thought it up hits the grave

hvn_nbr_2

(6,481 posts)
7. I like your sig line. It should be flung in their faces incessantly.
Wed Feb 8, 2017, 01:57 PM
Feb 2017

"I have a problem with someone waving a Confederate flag questioning my patriotism"

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Washington Post: Five myt...