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By Mark Weber
Over the centuries, hostility against Jews has repeatedly erupted in
terrible violence. Again and again, Jews have been driven out of
countries where they had been living. Why does anti-Semitism exist?
And why has rage against Jews broken out, again and again, in the most
varied nations, eras and cultures? Closely related to this is the
broader issue of the often contentious relations between Jews and
non-Jews – a subject that many writers and scholars have called “the
Jewish question.”
All too often, discussions of anti-Semitism and the “Jewish question”
have been distorted by prejudice, bigotry and lack of candor. But this important subject deserves careful, informed and honest consideration.
Jewish leaders say that they are puzzled by the persistence of
anti-Jewish sentiment and behavior. Insisting that anti-Semitism is a
baseless and unreasonable prejudice, they often compare it to a
mysterious virus or disease.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is one of the world’s largest and
most influential Jewish-Zionist organizations. It considers itself the
foremost center for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, and
educating the public about this dangerous phenomenon. ADL national
director Abraham Foxman, writing in his book Never Again?, expressed
grave concern about what he sees as rising hostility toward Jews. “I
am convinced,” he wrote, “we currently face as great a threat to the
safety and security of the Jewish people as the one we faced in the
1930s – if not a greater one.” / 1 He also claimed to be perplexed
about the reasons for the origin and durability of discord between
Jews and non-Jews. “I think of anti-Semitism as a disease,” Foxman
writes. “Anti-Semitism also resembles a disease in being fundamentally irrational … It’s a spiritual and psychological illness.” / 2
Elie Wiesel was one of the best-known Jewish authors and community
figures of modern times. His memoir of wartime experiences, entitled
Night, has been obligatory reading in many classrooms. He was a Nobel
Peace Prize recipient, and for years was a professor at Boston
University. Although Wiesel was considered to be an authority on
anti-Semitism, he said that he’s puzzled by it. The source and
endurance of anti-Semitism in history remains a mystery, he told an
audience in Germany in 2004. / 3 In another address he described
anti-Semitism as an “irrational disease.” Speaking at a conference in
2002, Wiesel went on to say: “The world has changed in the last 2,000
years, and only anti-Semitism has remained … The only disease that has
not found its cure is anti-Semitism.” / 4
Charles Krauthammer, an influential Jewish-American writer who is a
fervent defender of Israel, has similarly been puzzled by the
endurance of anti-Jewish sentiment. “The persistence of anti-Semitism,
that most ancient of poisons, is one of history’s great mysteries,” he
wrote in a Washington Post column that also appeared in many other
newspapers across the country. / 5
Foxman, Wiesel and Krauthammer, along with other prominent
Jewish-Zionist leaders, are unable – or unwilling – to provide an
explanation for the persistence of anti-Semitism. They believe, or
claim to believe, that because it’s an entirely irrational and
baseless “disease,” there’s no connection between what Jews do, and
what non-Jews think of Jews. In their view, the strife and tension
between Jews and non-Jews that has persisted over the centuries is
unrelated to Jewish behavior.
Fortunately, a reasonable explanation for this enduring phenomenon has
been provided by one of the most prominent and influential Jewish
figures of modern history: Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern
Zionist movement. He laid out his views in a book, written in German,
entitled The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat). Published in 1896, this
work is the basic manifesto of the Zionist movement. A year and a half
later he convened the first international Zionist conference.
In his book Herzl explained that regardless of where they live, or
their citizenship, Jews constitute not merely a religious community,
but a nationality, a people. He used the German word, Volk. Wherever
large numbers of Jews live among non-Jews, he said, conflict is not
only likely, it’s inevitable. “The Jewish question exists wherever
Jews live in noticeable numbers,” he wrote. “Where it does not exist,
it is brought in by arriving Jews … I believe I understand
anti-Semitism, which is a very complex phenomenon. I consider this
development as a Jew, without hate or fear.” / 6
In his public and private writings, Herzl explained that anti-Semitism
is not an aberration, but rather a natural response by non-Jews to
alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. Anti-Jewish sentiment, he said,
is not due to ignorance or bigotry, as so many have claimed. Instead,
he concluded, the ancient and seemingly intractable conflict between
Jews and non-Jews is entirely understandable, because Jews are a
distinct and separate people, with interests that are different from,
and which often conflict with, the interests of the people among whom
they live.
Anti-Jewish sentiment in the modern era, Herzl believed, arose from
the “emancipation” of Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries, which freed
them from the confined life of the ghetto and brought them into modern
urban society and direct economic dealings with middle class non-Jews. Anti-Semitism, Herzl wrote, is “an understandable reaction to Jewish
defects.” In his diary he wrote: “I find the anti-Semites are fully
within their rights.” / 7
Herzl maintained that Jews must stop pretending – both to themselves
and to non-Jews – that they are like everyone else, and instead must
frankly acknowledge that they are a distinct and separate people, with
distinct and separate goals and interests. The only workable long-term solution, he said, is for Jews to recognize reality and live, finally,
as a “normal” people in a separate state of their own. In a memo to
the Tsar of Russia, Herzl wrote that Zionism is the “final solution of
the Jewish question.” / 8
Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, expressed a similar view. In
his memoirs, he wrote: “Whenever the quantity of Jews in any country
reaches the saturation point, that country reacts against them …
[This] reaction … cannot be looked upon as anti-Semitism in the
ordinary or vulgar sense of that word; it is a universal social and
economic concomitant of Jewish immigration, and we cannot shake it
off.” / 9
Some of the most influential Jewish figures of modern times have
privately acknowledged a link between Jewish behavior and anti-Jewish sentiment. One of the most powerful and eminent Jews in Europe during
the second half of the nineteenth century was Mayer Carl Rothschild, a
leading figure in the family known for its important role in
international finance. In a private letter of 1875 to another
influential German Jewish banker, he wrote: “As for the anti-Semitic
feelings, the Jews themselves are to blame, and the present agitation
must be ascribed to their arrogance, vanity, and unspeakable
insolence.” / 10
Hardly any Jew has played a more important role in the US government
than Henry Kissinger, who served as Secretary of State and as National
Security Advisor in two presidential administrations (1969-1977).
Unhappy over the Jewish community’s persistent efforts to bring US
foreign policy in line with its own partisan group interests,
Kissinger remarked: “If it were not for the accident of my birth, I
would be anti-Semitic.” He added: “Any people who has been persecuted
for two thousand years must be doing something wrong.” In another
transcribed telephone conversation, Kissinger declared: “I’m going to
be the first Jew accused of anti-Semitism.” / 11
Such candor is rare. Only occasionally do Jewish leaders explain
anti-Semitism as a reaction to the behavior of Jews. One of the
wealthiest and most influential figures of modern times has been
George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire financier. Generally he
avoids highlighting his ties to the Jewish community, and only rarely
attends purely Jewish gatherings. But in 2003 he addressed a meeting
in New York City of the “Jewish Funders Network.” When he was asked
about anti-Semitism in Europe, Soros surprisingly cited the
pro-Zionist policies of the US and Israel. “There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and
the Sharon administration contribute to that,” he said. “If we change
that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish,” he went on. “I
can’t see how one could confront it directly.” / 12
Jewish community leaders reacted angrily to Soros’ remarks. Elan
Steinberg, senior adviser at the World Jewish Congress (and former
executive director of that influential organization), said: “Let’s
understand things clearly: Anti-Semitism is not caused by Jews; it’s
caused by anti-Semites.” Abraham Foxman called Soros’ comments
“absolutely obscene.” The ADL director went on to say: “He buys into
the stereotype. It’s a simplistic, counterproductive, biased and
bigoted perception of what’s out there. It’s blaming the victim for
all of Israel’s and the Jewish people’s ills.” / 13
Most people readily accept that positive feelings by non-Jews toward
Jews have some basis in Jewish behavior. But Jewish leaders such as
Foxman, Wiesel and Steinberg seem unwilling to accept that negative
feelings toward Jews might similarly have a basis in Jewish behavior.
Along with all other social behavior over time, conflict between Jews
and non-Jews has an evident and understandable basis in history and
human nature. The historical record suggests that the persistence of anti-Semitism over the centuries is rooted in the unusual way that
Jews relate to non-Jews.
Israeli and Jewish-Zionist leaders affirm that Jews constitute a
“people” or a “nation” – that is, a distinct nationality group to
which Jews everywhere are supposed to feel and express a primary
loyalty. / 14 Some American Jewish leaders have been explicit about
this. Louis Brandeis, a US Supreme Court justice and a leading
American Zionist, said: “Let us all recognize that we Jews are a
distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his
station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member.” / 15 Stephen S.
Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress and of the World
Jewish Congress, told a rally in New York in June 1938: “I am not an
American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew … Hitler was right in
one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race, and we are a race.” / 16
In keeping with this outlook, Israeli leaders also say that the
Zionist state represents not just its own Jewish citizens, but Jews
everywhere. / 17
While affirming – usually only among themselves – that Jews are
members of a separate nationality to which they should feel and
express a prime loyalty, Zionists simultaneously insist that Jews must
be welcomed as full and equal citizens in whatever country they may
wish to live. While Zionist Jews in the US such as Abraham Foxman
speak of the “Jewish people” as a distinct nationality, they also
claim that Jews are Americans like everyone else, and insist that
Jews, including Zionist Jews, must be granted all the rights of US
citizens, with no social, legal or institutional obstacles to Jewish
power and influence in American life. In short, Jewish-Zionist leaders
and organizations (such as the World Jewish Congress and the American
Jewish Committee) demand full citizen rights for Zionist Jews not only
in “their country,” Israel, but everywhere.
Major Jewish-Zionist organizations, and, more broadly, the organized
Jewish community, also promote “pluralism,” “tolerance” and
“diversity” in the United States and other countries. They believe
this is useful for Jews. “America’s pluralistic society is at the
heart of Jewish security,” wrote Abraham Foxman. “In the long run,”
the ADL director went to explain, “what has made American Jewish life
a uniquely positive experience in Diaspora history and which has
enabled us to be such important allies for the State of Israel, is the
health of a pluralistic, tolerant and inclusive American society.” /
18
For some time, the ADL has promoted the slogan “Diversity is Our
Strength.” In keeping with this motto, which it claims to have
invented, the ADL has devoted effort and resources to persuading
Americans – especially younger Americans – to welcome and embrace ever
more social, cultural and racial “diversity.” / 19 This campaign has
been very successful. American politicians and educators, and
virtually the entire US mass media, promote “diversity,”
“multiculturalism” and “pluralism,” and portray those who do not
embrace these objectives as hateful and ignorant. At the same time,
influential Jewish-Zionist organizations such as the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) insist that the US must recognize and
defend Israel as a specifically Jewish ethnic-religious state. / 20
Pluralism and diversity, it seems, are only for non-Jews. What’s good
for Jews in their own homeland, Jewish-Zionist leaders seem to say, is
not pluralism and diversity, but tribalistic nationalism.
What Jews think is important because the Jewish community has the
power to achieve its goals. This was affirmed by Joe Biden in a
remarkable address in 2013, when he was Vice President, and before he
became President. The “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US
mass media and cultural life, he said, has been the single most
important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century,
and in driving major cultural- political changes. “I bet you 85
percent of those [social- political] changes, whether it’s in
Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the
industry. The influence is immense,” Biden said. “Jewish heritage has
shaped who we are – all of us, us, me – as much or more than any other
factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” he added. / 21
Biden is not alone in acknowledging this clout. “It makes no sense at
all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in
popular culture,” wrote Michael Medved, a well-known Jewish author and
film critic in 1996. / 22 Joel Stein, a columnist for the Los Angeles
Times, wrote in 2008: “As a proud Jew, I want America to know about
our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood … I don’t care if
Americans think we’re running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street
or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.” / 23
Even though Jews have more influence and power in US political and
cultural life than any other ethnic or religious group, Jewish groups
are uncomfortable when non-Jews point this out. In fact, said ADL
director Foxman, one sure sign that someone is an anti-Semite is if he
agrees with the statement that “Jews have too much power in our
country today.” / 24 For Foxman, apparently, there can never be “too
much” Jewish influence and power.
Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann
suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is
the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority
with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate
power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
Source Notes
1. “Abraham H. Foxman. Never Again?: The Threat of the New
Anti-Semitism. (HarperCollins, 2003), p. 4.
2. Abraham H. Foxman. Never Again? (2003), pp. 42, 43.
3. “Wiesel Calls for ‘Manifesto’ on Anti-Semitism.” The Jewish
Federations of North America. April 30, 2004.
4. “A Call to Conscience: Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Opens ADL
Conference on Global Anti-Semitism.” Anti-Defamation League. October
31, 2002
5. Charles Krauthammer, “How to fight academic bigotry,” The
Washington Post, Jan. 9, 2014. (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-how-to-fight-academic-bigotry/2014/01/09/64f482ee-795e-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html
)
6. Th. Herzl, Der Judenstaat. (
https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Judenstaat )
7. Kevin MacDonald, Separation and Its Discontents (Praeger,1998), pp.
45, 48. Ref. cited: R. Kornberg, Theodore Herzl (1993), p. 183.
8. Memo of Nov. 22, 1899. R. Patai, ed., The Complete Diaries of
Theodor Herzl (New York: 1960), Vol. 3, p. 888.
9. Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (1949), p. 90. Quoted in: Albert S. Lindemann, The Jew Accused (Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 277.
10. Fritz Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair (Univ. of California
Press [softcover ed.], 1974), p. 64. Source cited: Letter of Sept. 16,
1875, from Mayer Carl Rothschild to Gerson von Bleichröder, in the S. Bleichröder Archive, New York.
11. Benjamin Ivry, “Kissinger at 98 : ‘If it were not for the accident
of my birth, I would be antisemitic’,” Forward, May 27, 2021
(
https://forward.com/culture/470300/kissinger-at-98-if-it-were-not-for-the-accident-of-my-birth-i-would-be/
)
12. Uriel Heilman, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). “In Rare Jewish
Appearance, George Soros Says Jews and Israel Cause Anti-Semitism.”
Nov. 10, 2003
(
https://www.jta.org/2003/11/10/archive/in-rare-jewish-appearance-george-soros-says-jews-and-israel-cause-anti-semitism
)
13. U. Heilman, JTA. “In Rare Jewish Appearance, George Soros Says
Jews and Israel Cause Anti-Semitism.” Nov. 10, 2003.
14. Abraham H. Foxman. Never Again? (2003), pp. 18, 4.
15. Louis D. Brandeis, “The Jewish Problem and How to Solve It.”
Speech of April 25, 1915.
(
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/sources_document11.html ;
https://louisville.edu/law/library/special-collections/the-louis-d.-brandeis-collection/the-jewish-problem-how-to-solve-it-by-louis-d.-brandeis
)
16. “Dr. Wise Urges Jews to Declare Selves as Such,” New York Herald
Tribune, June 13, 1938, p. 12.
17. Israel even claims to speak and act on behalf of Jews who lived
and died before the state was established. “Holocaust Victims Given
Posthumous Citizenship by Israel,” The Associated Press, Los Angeles
Times, May 9, 1985.
(
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-09-mn-6754-story.html
;
https://www.jta.org/1985/03/14/archive/holocaust-victims-to-receive-posthumous-israel-citizenship
)
18. Foxman letter of Nov. 11, 2005. Published in The Jerusalem Post,
Nov. 18, 2005.
19. ADL On the Frontline (New York), Summer 1997, p. 8. This issue of
the ADL bulletin also happily noted that President Clinton, in his
Feb. 1997 “State of the Union” address, had given an unexpected boost
to what it called the “ADL tag line.” In that address, Clinton said:
“My fellow Americans, we must never, ever believe that our diversity
is a weakness. It is our greatest strength.”
20. Note the address by US ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro, Sept. 6,
2011. See also: M. Weber, “Behind the Campaign For War Against Iran.”
April 2013.
(
https://ihr.org/other/behindwarcampaign )
21. Jennifer Epstein, “Biden: ‘Jewish heritage is American heritage’,” Politico, May 21, 2013.
(
https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/05/biden-jewish-heritage-is-american-heritage-164525
); Daniel Halper, “Biden Talks of ‘Outsized Influence’ of Jews: ‘The
Influence Is Immense’,” The Weekly Standard, May 22, 2013.
22. M. Medved, “Is Hollywood Too Jewish?,” Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4
(1996), p. 37.
23. J. Stein, “How Jewish Is Hollywood?,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19,
2008.
(
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-19-oe-stein19-story.html
)
24. Abraham H. Foxman. Never Again? (2003), p. 14.
— December 2013. Revised January 2014, and July 2021.
About the Author
Mark Weber is a historian, author and current affairs analyst. He
studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the
University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University
(M.A., 1977).
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