Writes lawprof Noah Feldman, in "The New Antisemitism" (Time).
Much more at the link.
February 28, 2024
"The easiest way to explain why antisemitism is still with us is to blame religion."
"Scholars agree that what we call antisemitism today has its historical origins in a strain of anti-Jewish thought that grew out of early Christianity.... By failing to become Christians, Jews implicitly challenged the narrative of inevitable Christian triumph.... The problem with blaming religion is that antisemitism today is no longer driven primarily by Christianity..... Nor does antisemitism among Muslims primarily reflect the classical Islamic claims made against the Jews, such as the accusation that the Jews (and Christians) distorted Scripture.... The tropes of modern Europe’s antisemitism—of Jews’ power and avarice—mostly came to the Middle East late, through Nazi influence. Even the prevalence of antisemitism among Islamist groups like Hamas isn’t primarily driven by religion. Rather, it is part of their politically motivated effort to turn a struggle between two national groups for the same piece of land into a holy war. It emerges that far from being an unchanging set of ideas derived from ancient faiths, antisemitism is actually a shape-shifting, protean, creative force. Antisemitism has managed to reinvent itself multiple times throughout history, each time keeping some of the old tropes around, while simultaneously creating new ones adapted to present circumstances...."
Writes lawprof Noah Feldman, in "The New Antisemitism" (Time).
Writes lawprof Noah Feldman, in "The New Antisemitism" (Time).
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Feldman underplays the inherent antisemitism in Islam because he doesn't want to admit that this is a Holy War for them. It doesn't take much reading of Hamas materials to reach the conclusion that for them this isn't just a fight of two people over land, it is a desire to wipe out the Jews in Islamic lands. It's why they are proud of what they did on October 7 and why they say they will do it again and again until they succeed in killing all the Jews. "Itbah al-Yahud" doesn't mean slaughter the "Zionists", or the "settlers", or the "occupiers", or the "colonialists". And all the idiots who are out there calling for a free Palestine from the River to the Sea are along for the same Jew-killing ride. I have a crazy idea -- let's not let those kind of people into our country so we don't become like the UK or France -- it's probably too late.
IMO, antisemitism is a function of jealously and tribalism.
religion hasn't really been to blame for anti-semitism for a long time, if ever. it's often been an *excuse* for it, but nearly always the anti-semitism itself is rooted in resentment that 'people not like you and me' are [doing well with their lives, own land i want to own, have jobs or respect that i think should be min], while my life is messed up.
it's race and class resentment sometimes dressed up in or stirred up by religious stories, except for that period in the 20th century that it was based on an ideology that the entire purpose of life was racial struggle and any idea that you might have otherwise (like christianity, capitalism, or communism) must have been put there by a jew.
Says the man who made islam the state religion in afghanistan and iraq
anti-Semitism doesn't have anything to do with religion. It's just another form of racism that is enhanced by jealousy and resentment.
I read the Time piece of garbage pretending to be “analysis”. Shorter version - it’s all Christianity’s fault ( even though the author states virtually all denominations have reputed the past) and better than that - Islam is totally not to blame ( even though the Quran has the most vile and specific verses specifically targeting Jews). And Charlottesville ( echoing the Biden lie) is the modern proof of the hate ( will anyone ask the FBI plants where they got their ideology?) as the icing on the cake of gibberish.
It’s easier to see it as tribal behavior over the ages - when you have a group that isolates and has it own rules and mores ( see Jews, gypsies and the like) they are easily made to be “the other” by the powers that be. Throw in religious conformity and you get a bad mix. Sad but so human in typical behavior.
So Hamas didn’t do it for religious reasons as much as pure desire to seize land and control? Pull the other one please.
Even the Romans, who imported the bulk of the original Jews to Europe as slaves, look at the Arch of Titus and the plaque in the Coliseum, taxed them for the privilege of practicing their religion.
But read about the fall of Jericho and what the ancient Israelis did to their foes, it's in the "Old Testament" as we Christians call it, the Jewish people call it The Torah, and in Temple, read through it book by book, completing a cycle each year.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
....
And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
...
And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
Jesus was right, or was it really St Paul, to think that the world needed to move beyond this kind of thinking. I only hope that this is not the way Netanyahu thinks about it today. It's not the Bronze Age anymore.
Agree with Dave.
(explains why many leftists are in camp Hamas)
Smart groups are more successful and have more stuff. They get their stuff by stealing it from you. There's anti-Chinese expat resentment in SE Asia for the same reason.
Made it to Scholars agree…
Jewish detection of antisemitism everywhere is a way to maintain cultural alienation among the less smart portion of the Jewish population, on the flip side. Alienation among the smart Jewish population is a creative resource and leads to Jewish scholarship.
Feldman is a fool.
The easiest explanation for antisemitism is all the Noah Feldmans who insist on living among non Noah Feldmans while insisting that the non Noah Feldmans meed to stop being non Noah Feldmans because their non Noah Feldman culture is bad.
It grates after awhile, and one notices that an awful lot of Noah Feldmans insist on doing this, while promoting other Noah Feldmans and supporting laws that prohibit the non Noah Feldmans from responding in kind.
Or maybe it's some early theological talking point from 2000 years ago, who can say.
"...each time keeping some of the old tropes around, while simultaneously creating new ones adapted to present circumstances...."
Yes. Immolating oneself to show your solidarity with the new cause is now de regueur.
Islam wrote their hate of Jews and instructions to kill Jews in their passages from the very beginning. They've not ventured far from that over centuries. But that said, when you get down to the street level, it used to be that Jews and Muslims lived and worked side by side- also for centuries. All across the Middle East, even into Iran. Though the Jews have been chased out of their ancient homes across the Middle East- from Iraq to Syria, Yemen to Jordan, and on and on. Even in Israel, with all that was going on around them, inside Israel Jews and Arabs managed to live lives...many as friends. Some lifelong friends. That ended, of course, on October 7. Thank Hamas for that.
Christian antisemitism has a very long, horrible, but varied history. And it's interesting that today, at least in the US, Christians are the best friends the Jews have.
One small, but important note: Jews have not always 'succeeded' and made their way in various societies. And even when masses of Jews were poor farmers in the countryside villages of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, they were beat on, killed, chased out. So it's not always 'class resentment' that boosts antisemitism. There's a lot of just good 'ole hate for Jews passed down, like a family heirloom, from generation to generation. It is learned, and taught to the next generation. I saw it growing up with one of my friends. They seemed like normal kids. But when I got to know their family- mainly their dad- he could not contain his hate for Jews. He didn't know I was one of them. And...when I realized what he was, and he realized what I was, his sons were no longer my friends. Within a few years they were loud and proud antisemites. Dad had taught them well.
Humanity goes on and learns little.
Religious wars are never about Religion. Its about power.
Power is measured by land area and population controlled.
Only highly educated 'deep thinkers' can invent other reasons.
From the article:
"Paul’s theology was read to depict the Jews as having been replaced or superseded as God’s special favorites by the community of Christian believers."
This is a gross distortion of Pauline teaching. Here is Paul:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) - and yes, here he speaks of believers in Christ, but wait, there's more.
"Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar... Here, Paul refers to the faithlessness of the Jews through the Old Testament narratives, from Exodus on forward, and not to those who in his day did not accept his message.
"The core of this new antisemitism lies in the idea that Jews are not a historically oppressed people seeking self-preservation but instead oppressors: imperialists, colonialists, and even white supremacists. This view preserves vestiges of the trope that Jews exercise vast power. It creatively updates that narrative to contemporary circumstances and current cultural preoccupations with the nature of power and injustice."
Solid Marxism 'class struggle' all the way down.
Just because someone isn't Pro-Semitic doesn't make them Anti-Semitic. Quantum mechanics is real. There are other states of existence than strictly binary. This isn't an either/or problem. It's a both/and problem. One can be perfectly ambivalent about Jews, Judaism, and not be an anti-semite.
It is important to remember however that for some reason many Jews view ambivalence as anti-semitic. If you're not on their side, you're on the side of their enemies. You are "against them". This view is improper and illogical. Human existence is not a game of the Spanish Prisoner. Stop conflating the two.
Here, though I think Feldman gets it exactly right:
"To be clear: as a matter of human worth, a child who dies at the hands of a genocidal murderer is no different from one who dies as collateral damage in a lawful attack. The child is equally innocent, and the parents’ sorrow equally profound. As a matter of international law, however, the difference is decisive. During the Hamas attack, terrorists intentionally murdered children and raped women. Its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Yet the accusation of genocide is being made against Israel."
That article rambles around doesn't it. Not sure what the point of all of it.
See Thomas Sowell’s discussion of “middleman minorities” - Jews in Europe, Lebanese in West Africa, Indians in Kenya, Chinese in Indonesia.
OK, Noah Feldman. I wonder how the world would react if a bunch of Wealthy WASPs suddenly started nattering on constantly about Anti-Waspism, and got control of vast amounts of the media and had them do the same thing.
Anyway, lets not talk about Genocide in Gaza. Lets talk about antisemitism. Sorry, no sale. The USA needs to stop sending bombs and weapons to Israel to kill innocent arabs in Gaza. And Israel needs to stop bombing Gaza into ruins to ethnically cleanse their land.
I never want to hear another libtard crying about "warcrimes" if they've been silent on this issue.
Agreeing with otehrs:
"this is a Holy War for them"
Correct. The nice elite Western commentators do not want to confront the key issue. Muslims take their faith seriously. They think they are superior. Holy War means war. Antisemitism is a logical element, and useful in rallying Jew-hating Western allies, but the agenda is broader.
"There's a lot of just good 'ole hate for Jews passed down"
Also correct. Follows by elimination. Jews were hated when pseudo-Christian theology justified it, and when theology didn't. Jews were hated when they were mostly poor, and when some got rich. Jews were hated before they got their own country, and afterward. Jews were hated before affirmative action, and during. Jews were hated on the left as capitalist bloodsuckers, and on the right as capitalist bloodsuckers. And so on.
No wasps and white people are the problem hamas egyptian jihad
Years ago in a Comparative Economic Systems course the textbook and the Prof taught that the Nazis demonized and targeted the Jews to gain economic advantage. They were a small minority and vulnerable. Religion was not the motivating factor.
The Islamists have evidently selected Jews as the initial target for worldwide jihad (Hamas Covenant, 1988), but are finding the Israelis, though vastly outnumbered, tough as nails.
Both Islamists and Nazis relied on the ignorance and stupidity of their disciples to foment antisemitism as a step toward world domination. There appears to be more of that ignorance and stupidity today than in 1930s Germany. Secular progressive Jews in the US would do well to wise up. Decency is not winning.
RCOCEAN: "The USA needs to stop sending bombs and weapons to Israel to kill innocent arabs in Gaza. And Israel needs to stop bombing Gaza into ruins to ethnically cleanse their land."
Jeremiah 5:21: "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not."
Of course, this is from the Jewish Old Testament so it probably won't resonate with committed enablers of Islamist terrorists.
"Scholars agree ..."
Oh, we do, do we?
I wonder why there is no irrational, tribal hatred of the Amish.
In other words modern antisemitism is caused by zionism.
Howitzer Howard's "Heroes" were quite active last night on the left coast:
"Last night at @UCBerkeley, Jewish students were threatened, assaulted, and prevented from attending a speech by a Jewish speaker on campus. Campus police shut down this private event when it became clear that they could not protect the students. Multiple students reported being spat on, screamed at, called derogatory names like "dirty Jew" or "you Jew," and physically assaulted by protestors."
https://twitter.com/SFJCRC/status/1762575985843806394?t=5oUxKozyQpCuhetvYIOEbw&s=19
There’s also the very basic fundamental reality that being a minority is less safe. As the saying goes, there is safety in numbers. But the Jewish people have always remained a relatively small group because there was never a doctrine of looking for converts or spreading the religion in that way. I don’t know why Christianity and Islam developed in a totally different way, but they realized the advantages of being bigger groups. Even so there’s a long history of Christians killing each other as well as Muslims killing each other. Still, there’s so many of them that they don’t risk extinction or the disadvantages of discrimination. The conflicts among Christian groups or Muslim sects are more about control.
With small groups like the Jews, the conflicts are more about a natural fear of people who are different. There is also the need of those in power to create scapegoats and deflections.
Case in point, people in the West Bank and in Gaza are convinced that their problems are caused by the Jews and meanwhile their leaders/dictators have become billionaires and multimillionaires, and nobody does anything about that. Any dissent is suppressed. Same thing happened in Europe. When the rulers wanted to deflect the anger of the little people the rulers created blood libels against the Jews, worked every time. Of course, if you can incorporate that mechanism in your religion and identify a group or groups as targets that’s very effective. There’s nothing like religion to make hatred legitimate. See Louis Farrakhan. In the case of Islam, of course contemporary religion is partly responsible for Jew hatred. If a Muslim goes to the mosque and hears sermons every week about how horrible the Jews are what do you think people are going to believe? There are some very interesting YouTube videos by a fellow from Yemen who discusses how he was taught to hate Jews in his mosque and then finally took a trip to Israel and met amazing Yemeni Jews. It changed his life. I’ve heard that story over and over from Muslims.
Jupiter said...
"I wonder why there is no irrational, tribal hatred of the Amish."
Some folks here in S. Central PA cadge about them not paying enough taxes. Do there's that.
Dave Begley said...
"IMO, antisemitism is a function of jealously and tribalism."
It has always been political. It has always been a sop for the peasants. A much needed safety valve and distraction for the elites. "Look! There are the Jews! Kill them!" If you are poor they stole your money. If you are a tenent. They stole your land. If they are fat. They stole your food. "Get them! Kill them!". Which passifies the peasants and buys the elites some breathing room until the next time they need an excuse. "The Jews did it! They're to blame! Kill the filthy Jews."
Now a made up people, following a made up religion are being implored by their elites to ,"Kill the Jews!". And the peasants of other countries have taken up the cry . The elites must rile up the peasants.This time though the jews are defending themselves. This time the Jews are winning. And the peasants believe every word the people of the made religion say. The evangelical Palestinian Church of Death. Praise Allah.
Yes, tribalism is part of it. But Jews are not just any old tribe. They are the tribe that invented ethical monotheism, and that was unforgivable.
Leave the Jews alone.
As for Islam, compared to Judaism and Christianity, it was 600 years late to the party.
'Jewish detection of antisemitism everywhere is a way to maintain cultural alienation among the less smart portion of the Jewish population...'
The ones with 'only' a 100 IQ, like average whites?
"I wonder why there is no irrational, tribal hatred of the Amish."
There is. The left have referred to them as "the American Taliban" and the "Luddite Taliban" multiple times, but they're so peaceful and the fish they need to fry are so much bigger than them that they're not a priority for persecution...yet.
Religion is a behavioral protocol or model: social justice, DEI, political congruence, human rites, redistributive change, toxic masculinity, etc. Judge a philosophy by the character of its principles.
Shorter version - it’s all Christianity’s fault...
I've noticed this before when in reality no mainstream Christian church had an antisemitic bent , and then it was really only virulent in Rome. The media like to conflate the views of the Vatican with "all Christians" when it increasingly doesn't even reflect the views of all Catholics.
Ironclad and others note how they elide the actual text of the Koran to absolve Muslims of the hate, implying they only "caught it" like a cold, "from the Nazis in WW2." Oh the Nazis that Palestinians and some Arab states partnered with, those Nazis?
It's pretty hard to picture Noah Feldman seeing himself as a superior atheist, but he talks a good game.
Islam is a religion, but it is a religion that preaches conquering, hate, rape, and murder. It seem a pretty big portion of them believe in that. Israel, college campuses, America, the Twin Towers, non-co-religionists are all targets. It really isn't that complicated. It's usually a good idea to believe people when they tell you their god told them to kill you.
Ah, Time magazine. It used to be four times as thick with 400% more content. Feldman may as well have tried covering 2,000+ years of all of human history in a haiku.
It's not complicated. Two groups who don't look alike fighting over territory.
Other things play a part, but that's the permanent foundation of the conflict.
“From a Jewish perspective, two main issues divide contemporary Jews and Muslims. The first is widespread Muslim rejection of Jewish political control over land–in this instance the State of Israel–considered part of dar al-islam, an Arabic term denoting territory that Muslims consider rightfully theirs because of it having once been under their rule. The second issue is Islam’s theological insistence that it has replaced Judaism as God’s favored religious expression because of Jewish transgressions–a belief that Jewish sources say is fueled by the political conflict over Israel. (Islam also claims to have similarly replaced Christianity.)”
| think that, after nearly two millennia, Christians, esp here in the US, have reached an accommodation with Jews. I watched it happen, to some extent. My parents (WW II) generation were still antisemitic. I was in a fraternity that was maybe 1/4 Jewish. Living with them so closely, and you discover that they really aren’t so different. My millennial daughter often was unaware of who her Jewish classmates were. My generation still has decent Jewdar, and can pick Jews out by their names, or their looks. She really can’t. Today, religious Christians in this country are some of the strongest supporters of Israel and the Jews, even stronger than non-religious secular Jews. But Jewish toleration is coming primarily from the most conservative portions of this country. The left has long been ant-Jewish, and that has been increasing significantly in recent years. Socialists, of all stripes, tend to be antisemitic, whether they’ve Nazis or communists at heart.
But what is new in this country is its rapidly growing Muslim population, who are almost universally anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. Today, there are roughly as many Muslims as Jews in this country, and that continues to shift in favor of the Muzzies. They are, of course, DEI privileged, while Jews are DEI disfavored. So, they go to top colleges that they aren’t really qualified for scholasticly, and resent that Jews naturally excel there.
The other part of it is that Israel was part of dar al-islam, and in much of Islam, that isn’t tolerable. Once part of Islam, it must stay that way, even though much of Israel was legitimately sold to Jews with the consent of the Muslim (Turkish) rulers at the time. Throw in that the strict Wahhabi sect has been massively funding education of Muslims for several generations now, and that makes it a religious priority (despite treaties now with the Saudis, etc). I think that it is the toxic combination of the left and Wahhabi inspired Islam that is driving the current antisemitism.
"Even the prevalence of antisemitism among Islamist groups like Hamas isn’t primarily driven by religion."
That' a dangerous denial of reality.
Now let's talk about dar-al-Christendom. We want back everywhere that used to be Christian, including all the territories of the Byzantine empire. I think that leaves Islam with Saudi Arabia and change.
RCOCEAN II said
Tom Leher sang:
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_9bcQ_sgms
Jews have not always 'succeeded' and made their way in various societies. And even when masses of Jews were poor farmers in the countryside villages of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, they were beat on, killed, chased out. So it's not always 'class resentment' that boosts antisemitism.
This is a good point. There is (or was) a religious element: Christians were hostile to Jews for not accepting Jesus as the savior, especially as Jews were direct witnesses of Jesus's life. Martin Luther became a vicious antisemite because Jews didn't accept his message either. But there is also the clannishness of Jews, that they were to some extent (in places like Poland and Russia) a group that had their own separate culture and economy. I suspect it aroused suspicion and resentment even if they were poor. And of course in urban settings Jews were middlemen and money lenders, in part because they were kept out of other professions (or because the church didn't allow lending at interest, while Jews were exempt), but nonetheless these are activities that inspire resentment.
Some of those latter reasons would apply to other groups too, like the Chinese, but there are a billion+ Chinese, whereas there are only 15 million or so Jews, so it's easier to direct hate and violence at a small group.
In other words modern antisemitism is caused by zionism.
Bullshit hateful rhetoric. Zionism is simply the belief that Israel has the right to exist. An idea endorsed by both the Torah and the Bible, so therefore every major Western Religion as well as the UN and every founding member of it. If you think the very existence of Israel causes antisemitism, ancient or modern, you might just be an anti-Semite.
At least you're not alone. There's several on here. It's the one prejudice people are super proud to broadcast for some reason.
Can we have a term that is more precise in this context than "antisemite?" "Semite" refers to a linguistic or ethnic group to which both ethnic Jews and Arabs belong.
As to the article, seems like a nothing-burger. With the exception of Hindus and Buddhists, populations of any and all religious majorities are prone to subjugate a minority population.
Oh. Wait. Forgot about the Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. With the exception of Jains...
Oh, fukkit. Lets just gird our loins and collect the foreskins of some Philistines.
why term Semitism does not include Arabs?
if Arabs are 'hateworthy' [and more numerous than Jews] then anti-Semitism = good feelins?
Why are so many "elites" antisemitic? Well, this is not a bad origin from 1910
I should perhaps add another reason why interest was so disliked in early England: There was very little money in early England; and it mostly belonged to the Jews. It was a good deal as it is in Russia to-day; the Jews were persecuted in Russia as in early England, because, in the country districts of Russia, the Jews have all the money, and money-lenders are always unpopular. So in early England. The great barons had their land and their cattle and crops, but they had little money. When they wanted money they got the value of it out of their tenants. Nobody carried large sums of money around with him then, any more than a woman does to-day —she relies on her husband or father; they went to the nearest Jew. When the king wanted cash, he also extorted it from the Jews. One of the early Henrys said seriously, that he regarded the Jews as a very convenient sponge. That is, they sucked all the money in the kingdom and got it into a place whence he could easily get it out. But it made the Jews very unpopular with the masses of the people and with the Parliament; hence, their great dislike of usury. I doubt very much if they would have cared much about usury if one gentleman had been in the habit of loaning money to another; but all the money came from the Jews, who were very unpopular; and the statutes against usury were really made against them, and that is why it was so easy to pass them — they based it, doubtless, on the references to usury in the Bible. Thus they got the notion that it was wrong to charge interest, or at least extortionate interest; more than a certain definite per cent; and this is the origin of all our interest and usury statutes to-day. Although most economists will tell you that it is ridiculous to have any limit on the rate of interest, that the loan of money may well be worth only four per cent, to one man and twenty-five to another, and that the best way for everybody would be to leave it alone; nevertheless, nearly all our States have usury laws. We shall discuss that later; but here is the first statute on the subject, and it really arose because of the feeling against the Jews. To show how strong that prejudice was, there was another statute passed in the interest of liberality to protect the Jews — a statute which provided liberally that you must not take from a Jew "more than one-half his substance." .... There is no prejudice against Hebrews to-day anywhere in Europe stronger than existed even in England for the first three or four centuries after the Norman Conquest; and had it not been for the protection given them by the crown, probably they would have been exterminated or starved out, and in 1289 they were all banished to the number of 16,160, and their movables seized.
--Popular Law-making: A Study of the Origin, History, and Present Tendencies of Law-making by Statute, Frederic Jesup Stimson (1910)
@Zavier Onasses
@Narayanan
The term Semite has gotten me in trouble before because I use it in a more anachronistic fashion to refer largely to any and all people from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean Seaboard). It used to mean everyone from the Middle East. It is hardly used at all in either case because the last 150 years of European usage has pretty much focused exclusively on its use regarding Jews. And it works. It sounds more sophisticated than just using "anti-Jew" or "anti-Hebrew" etc. It sounds like an educated term. That's probably how and why it entered the lexigraphy intact with meaning so effortlessly.
In the US, most of the Anti-Semitism is from blacks and Muslims. They think the Jews exploited them. Since blacks and Muslims in the US are High Status Victims, the whites among the Far Left are also Anti-Semitic as they’ve adopted the excuses by Blacks and Muslims
In the last 20 years, over half of Jews who’ve gotten married have married non-Jewish spouses. So Jews, like the Irish, Germans, Italians etc in the US are becoming White. The mixing of white ethnicities in the US (and mixing between those ethnicities and Blacks, Browns, and Asians) makes the Race Industry obsolete.
What we’re seeing is the last throes of the Race Industry, whose Grifting Leaders and Useful Idiots will not be good sports and accept their loss graciously.
Jupiter said...
"I wonder why there is no irrational, tribal hatred of the Amish."
Fried chicken. The best fried chicken I've had has been in Amish restaurants. The South has good FC; but the Amish has been even better.
That, and the furniture. And the flowers.
Blogger RideSpaceMountain said...
"...The last 150 years of European usage has pretty much focused exclusively on the use [of the term Semite] regarding Jews. And it works. It sounds more sophisticated than just using 'anti-Jew' or 'anti-Hebrew' etc."
I was told the difference was:
- Martin Luther was stringly anti-Jewish, but (at least earlier in life) would have been overjoyed if they converted to Christianity.
- That thought of Germanified Jews would have horrified the anti-Semite Hitler, who would have seen them as corrupting the Aryan blood.
Were the Romans and, before them, the Babylonians motivated by their Christian faith to destroy the Temple and exile the Jews?....I lost interest in the article and gave up on it. It seems to me that anti-Semitism is an essential part of the Jewish faith. There are places that Jews moved to where there were no anti-Semites. Over a period of time, these Jews ceased to be Jewish. They went the way of the Huguenots. Anti-Semitism keeps the faith alive. I bet this recent flux of anti-Semitism has made a lot of Jews more observant.....In 19th century Germany there was a debate between the assimilationists and the Zionists. The Zionists were the fringe group. The majority of German Jews felt that the way to handle anti-Semitism was to assimilate into German society. Now there's a theory that didn't work out, but, at one time, German Jews intermarried at a higher rate than American Jews....Anti-Semitism has been going on for 2700 years or so and is likely to continue a while longer despite the best efforts of Noah Feldman.
Every repulsive collectivist ideology ends up hating and blaming the Jews for its failures (even when Jews have contributed to the creation of that ideology--see Leninism, other evil variants of Marxist), because simply by continuing to exist, the Jews call into question the stupid and dishonest universalism that underpins all collectivist ideologies.
The intense hatred for Israel throughout the third world was carefully nurtured and spread by Soviet propagandists and their toadies in America and Europe once Israel chose the West over the USSR. What's particularly sad is that this propaganda was so effective because it tapped into a deep reserve of resentment and blame-casting among all the peoples who had been turned into losers by the adoption of Marxist-Leninist "economics" by their self-dealing (as all communists are) leaders.
(By the way, Christians who actually know their history and doctrine should have no problem with the Jews: their relationship with God precedes that of Christians, who are supposed to trust that God will handle His people appropriately. This is why there are no Jews in Dante's Inferno. Dante and many of his contemporaries believed that God wanted Jews to continue to be Jews until it was time for the world to end, at which time they would voluntarily convert to Christianity en masse).
Tim in Vermont said...
But read about the fall of Jericho and what the ancient Israelis did to their foes, it's in the "Old Testament" as we Christians call it, the Jewish people call it The Torah...
-------------
A slight correction; The Torah is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, the entire Old Testament is called the Tanakh.
I agree about "antisemitism." "Judenhass" is shorter and more pertinent.
I like scholars. But I dislike arguments that start with "scholars agree."
Can we have a term that is more precise in this context than "antisemite?" "Semite" refers to a linguistic or ethnic group to which both ethnic Jews and Arabs belong.
Oh, please. There are dozens if not hundreds of words whose meanings have changed, narrowed, broadened, or even come to mean the opposite of the original meanings. "Apology" used to mean a defense, "awful" used to mean "full of awe," "garble" used to mean "to sift out impurities," and so on. "Antisemitism" means what it means by common usage. It has nothing to do with the Semitic language group.
I've often heard Arabs say, "How can I be an antisemite? I am Semitic!" That's frankly BS.
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