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Anti-Semitism Worldwide: It’s Getting Worse
The cancer of anti-Semitism hasn’t been cured; it’s only gone into remission. These days it’s making a notable re-entry worldwide. By looking at France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, we can get a pretty good idea of the reasons for the increase; we can also take a look at the problem in the United States. And we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that there’s going to be a quick or easy cure.
There are 500,000 Jews living in France:
In 2012 an Islamic fundamentalist in Toulouse shot dead three children and a teacher at a Jewish school. In January 2015, four people were killed at a Jewish supermarket by an associate of the two brothers who had killed staff at Charlie Hebdo. Most recently a 85 year-old Jewish woman [Holocaust survivor] was stabbed to death and set on fire. Reports of anti-Semitic violence in France rose by 26 percent last year, which has led record numbers of Jews to immigrate to Israel.
Of particular note, a 65-year old Orthodox Jewish woman was thrown to her death out of her apartment window in April 2017; it was ruled only last month that the motive was anti-Semitic.
The leadership in France is reluctantly acknowledging that they have a Muslim anti-Semitic problem. More than that, both the Left and Right political party members are resorting to anti-Semitic slurs. It’s unclear precisely what steps to take to deal with this increasingly abhorrent occurrence:
The failure of addressing anti-Semitism in France is political, whether lack of political courage or of extreme political correctness. If leaders in Paris are unable to address the deep-rooted anti-Semitic beliefs in France, then acts like murder of this Holocaust survivor are bound to repeat.
Germany has an even worse situation:
The police registered 1,453 anti-Semitic incidents in Germany last year, more than in five of the previous seven years, and organizations including the American Jewish Congress say fewer than a third of such incidents get reported.
No matter who the primary perpetrators are, Levi Salomon, head of the Jewish Forum for Democracy against Anti-Semitism states that most violent incidents are caused by Muslims. He also points out that he doesn’t want to stigmatize a community, but to say the problem doesn’t lie with migrants makes the situation worse.
In addition:
Others paint a more nuanced picture, saying prejudice and stereotypes harbored by recent migrants from largely Muslim countries have added to an existing undercurrent of anti-Semitism among some Germans and older migrant communities from Eastern Europe, resulting in an increasingly threatening environment.
Some people in Germany have tried to rely on the education system to change students’ perceptions. Unfortunately, many of the Muslim students have been conditioned to anti-Semitism in their countries of origin, and are educated otherwise with difficulty, due to their ignorance of the language of their new country, and attitudes remain unchanged.
Finally, in Great Britain, an extensive study of 5,466 “observations” on anti-Semitism determined that although 30% of British society holds one anti-Semitic attitude, that doesn’t mean that 30% of the population is anti-Semitic. In fact, those same people agreed with one or more positive statements about Jews:
With this in mind, it is worth stressing a fact that runs the risk of being understated in a problem-centred report: levels of antisemitism in Great Britain are among the lowest in the world. British Jews constitute a religious and ethnic group that is seen overwhelmingly positively by an absolute majority of the British population: about 70% of the population of Great Britain have a favourable opinion of Jews and do not entertain any antisemitic ideas or views at all.
For those wondering about how the results from Muslims were evaluated, keep in mind that levels of anti-Semitism in Great Britain are the lowest in the world:
The prevalence of negativity towards Jews and Israel is, on average, twice as high among Muslims than the general population.
Regarding the US, I am somewhat reluctant to quote two recent studies; it’s unclear whether either or both of these organizations provide objective analyses, since both tend to be politically oriented. Here’s one organization from January 2018:
An internet survey conducted by the World Zionist Organization (WZO) on anti-Semitism in the US shows that 70% of respondents experienced an anti-Semitic incident over the past year.
WZO Vice Chairman Yaakov Hagoel said the recent upswing in anti-Semitism in the US is a result of US President Donald Trump’s support of Israel, and not from the people’s hate of the Jews around him. According to him, Trump’s policies are an important factor in the rise in anti-Semitism not just in the US but around the world.
Based on the comment about Trump, I think it would be reasonable to question the credibility of this organization’s comments.
The L.A. Times reported these study results:
Harassment, threats and vandalism cases targeting Jews in the United States surged to near-record levels in 2017, jumping 57% over the previous year, according to a new report by a prominent civil rights organization.
The Anti-Defamation League counted 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents — the second-highest number since the group began tracking them nearly four decades ago.
The figure represents the largest annual jump the organization has ever recorded. Physical attacks, which accounted for less than 1% of the incidents, was the only category that fell.
The overall count, based on data from law enforcement, victims and local Jewish organizations, includes an increase in bomb threats against Jewish centers, vandalism at synagogues and Jewish cemeteries and threats at schools.
The Anti-Defamation League has also been under severe criticism regarding its objectivity for documenting anti-Semitism. It’s therefore difficult to know how accurate the data are.
This raises a number of serious concerns regarding the increases in anti-Semitic acts, how they are being addressed, and the degree to which we should be concerned:
- As shown in France, there seems to be a reluctance to identify actions as anti-Semitic. Those countries that are trying to bring in migrants are hesitant to criticize Muslim populations. This ambivalence could be costly.
- A lack of political will or a commitment to political correctness may cause leaders to be indecisive, possibly putting their populations at great risk.
- In Germany, efforts to change minds about anti-Semitism after World War II seem to have had limited success; trying to influence young people today through the education system doesn’t seem to be working.
- Blaming unpopular politicians, such as Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Angela Merkel in Germany, or Donald Trump in the US for a rise in anti-Semitism only distorts the true issues.
- Efforts to inflate the anti-Semitism numbers might be occurring due to a desire to engender support for the Jewish populations that are victimized.
- Even stopping Muslim immigration may not help; too many potentially anti-Semitic Muslims are now residents all over the world.
If actions are not taken in the near future, the impact to Jews worldwide could ultimately be disastrous.
What do you think?
Published in Culture
Anyone who has been around a university campus knows it has been a problem since long before anybody ever heard of Donald Trump.
I think that is the place that has most bewildered me–the college campus, @thereticulator. The campus seemed to be the place for the exploration of ideas; now the left has taken it over and professors have no qualms about attacking the “Zionists.” It makes me heartsick.
My main friend for 20 years was a Jewish Aristotelian philosophy professor at UT. I’d not stand idly by if antisemitism got out of control here.
Islam is inherently political. Now throw in this stuff. It is so freaking obvious that we have to slow, way, way down on the muslims from countries with crappy cultures.
In one way or another academia makes the problem worse.
I heard Zuhdi Jasser on Dennis Prager last week. I’m not sure his pitch on how to fix or resolve all of this is very logical or cogent, but I’m not the final word.
The West needs good citizens not bad citizens.
I’m sick of this crap.
I know a lot of people on Rico feel that way, @randywebster, but your saying it “aloud” is very comforting to me and I think a lot of Jews would feel the same. Thanks.
Thanks, @rufusrjones. I like Zuhdi Jasser a lot, but what disturbs me most is that he has difficulty getting support from others who are supposed to be moderate Muslims. The argument that speaking out just doesn’t hold water for me: when was the last time any of us heard about a Muslim speaking out against radical Islam, specifically? Of course, they’ll speak out against generic terrorism–not good enough, in my book.
For too many on the Left, the fact that many Muslims are anti-West trumps any problems with Islam. Muslims can persecute Christians, Jews and others throughout the world and yet they are viewed as victims. These people seem to be immune to facts; I’ve tussled with them on other websites and decided it was a waste of time.
One wonders if a cultural anthropologist or sociologist has ever dug into this. What good are those guys if they don’t do that?
This stuff will keep going the wrong way. Why wouldn’t it?
Gosh, @richardeaston, I always forget this part–Muslims hating the west. Now that’s getting a bang for your buck for the Left, isn’t it? Hate the west, hate the Jews, hate the conservatives, hate capitalism . . . it’s sad, but I think you made a wise decision to not discuss these topics with them. Reason simply doesn’t work.
Actually, Rufus, I didn’t finish my own idea: when was the last time you heard about a Muslim speaking out about radical Islam and getting killed for it. Me neither. What do you hope the anthropologists will examine?
Too many RINOs and Democrats or whatever act like there’s just some anecdotes that don’t add up to obvious evidence. I guess I’m just taking a stab at fixing the problem.
What’s very sad is that many of our leftist Jewish friends refuse to see this. I gave a talk at a large retirement home on GPS in 2010. The committee that invited me had a dinner before the talk. One of the people said that he had no problem with the Ground Zero mosque. I kept my mouth shut since I didn’t want to get into a brawl, but I wondered how he couldn’t see that the mosque fit in with Islamic triumphalism.
That’s maddening. It’s one thing when Jews aren’t at all observant, but when they take on the religion of the Left, it is truly upsetting for me. I wonder to what degree they might be doing it so that they can “feel included.” There are those who say it is self-hatred, or wanting to support the underdog. Either is unprincipled and sad.
I had a moderate Muslim boss a million years ago and he was a very confident guy but he made it clear he was afraid of the kooks or whatever in his own religion. He was an East Indian guy raised in Kenya, and educated in London. I had no idea at the time of how salient that would be.
I’m reading a book about Odessa, a city founded 2 years after Washington DC. When it was getting up and running, Odessa, a Black Sea port, had kind of a frontier atmosphere. Anti-semitism was an old story in Russia, of course, but here, while the new city needed the Jews’ economic and financial abilities, their innovative intelligence, their cultural and intellectual talent, they had it good.
For a while. It seemed “city air makes free”. Indeed the history of the establishment of many European cities is similar.
But, well, by the early 20th century when the city was established it was, “they’re in control of everything,” and in the twentieth century Odessa was the scene of some of the most devastating pogroms and mass murders of Jews.
i had an awful thought, for the very first time. Our country is relatively young. Jews have been safe here, have prospered unmolested, have made the contributions I mentioned above. They’ve had it good.
But what if even our country is destined to repeat, just on a longer historical arc, the terrible trajectory of cities like Odessa? It just takes more time because it’s on a national rather than urban scale?
Im reading this book because we will be going to Ukraine next month. We have always traveled a lot. And we love it, but….the more we visit the Old World, the more insistent the terrible history of persecution of the Jews becomes. It now looms larger than any other aspect of history. And I don’t think this is an illusion. I think our earlier relative obliviousness to it was an illusion. It is there, it was always there.
I cry thinking of the burden you bear.
Muslim immigration is a scourge, for this and many other reasons. But Christianity had a 630 year head start. The Lord preserve His people.
It’s interesting how many Islamic converts engage in terrorism. That rarely occurs in other religions. That would raise a red flag if people were not so intent on ignoring the obvious.
I don’t think that’s true. We’ve had it good because the Jews were here.
In the US, there have been two main streams of antisemitism: the old ethnic stuff brought from Europe, and the old money version. The latter tended to predominate in the universities and professions, with absolute exclusion of Jews from some clubs (and club-like environments — my maternal grandfather was denied hospital privileges at an NYC hospital despite having a large practice and a very good reputation) and real estate developments, quotas on university admission and so on.
The thing is, most colleges and universities have always had affirmative action, driven by money and prestige (and the money prestige brings.)
Back in the day, that used to mean football scholarships and easy classes for athletes (luring alumni money) and the judicious recruitment of academic superstars whose unfortunate ethnic background could be ignored. But basically, most universities were solidly antisemitic, mostly with the old money/aristo/pseudoaristo style.
WWII was the watershed. The desire to distance oneself from the defeated National Socialist enemy, the fear of litigation, and the pull of gummint money (the GI Bill) changed that. For a while. Jews even got redefined as “white.”
Unfortunately, the Leninist and Stalinist propaganda theme that Communism wasn’t antisemitic was widely accepted. The USSR also got good PR from the Soviet Army’s liberation of numerous death camps… and managed to help write the UN’s definition of genocide so as to exempt itself. The Left managed (with some help from the man himself) to make McCarthyism both odious and synonymous with anticommunism.
By 1967 and the Six Day War (which pitted Russian client states against Israel and its US and NATO (mostly France) backers.) During that war, the Party line (promulgated through many, many channels) was that Israel was colonialist and ought to be abolished. The hard Left rooted for the Arabs in that war; many Jewish Leftists toed the party line.
That, coupled with the Left’s long march through the institutions and the introduction of race based admissions quotas explicit and implicit, and the rise of XXX Studies departments spelled the end of the brief hiatus in antisemitism at the universities. Now gummint money (student loans and other Federal funding) goes to de facto quotas and their wrangling. XXX Studies would mostly not exist otherwise.
In some ways American Jewry is harvesting the fruit of some very bad decisions. One of them was for Jewish scholars and propagandists influenced by the Enlightenment to demonize the enemy they or their ancestors knew personally (Christianity) and minimize the enemy they or their ancestors did not know personally (Islam.) They, and anti-Christian non-Jewish thinkers, promoted the largely mythical “Golden Age of Islam” which widely corrupts thinking to this day.
Naturally, I hope you are wrong, @hypatia. But that history you refer to has repeated itself, over and over. That is why I get nervous. Fortunately, as far back as George Washington himself, we’ve had a history of accepting the Jews in America. But I don’t ever take that for granted. Thank you for your concerns.
Which was mostly ignored due to the insatiable need for workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; Southern whites were widely considered inferior for this purpose well into the 20th century* — which didn’t help them love immigrants.
The analysis in my previous comment ignores the justification coming from supersessionist theology and its popular versions. This provided part of rationale for the Klan and similar groups and is part of Islam’s antisemitism as well.
Yes–and may that never morph into, “The Jews have too much power”….
@ontheleftcoast, your background is always awesome! Could you define “supersessionist theology”? Also, this may be obvious, but are you concerned in the near term about anti-Semitism in the US?
I was thinking the same thing.
Obama got a pass for his association with Rev Wright. The recent revelation about his pictures with Farrakhan should have surprised no one. I don’t think Obama’s a secret Muslim. My guess is that he’s a far leftist atheist who feels an affinity to Islam. Essentially he’s an anti-Semite, as was illustrated by his treatment of Israel, who hid it well enough to have vast Jewish support in 2008 and 2012. I liked an episode of the Simpson’s where an Anti-Semitic person discovers that he’s Jewish. “I used to be an anti-Semite and now I’m just a self loathing Jew.”
Wikipedia:
Of course. And while I am law abiding, I deplore the “may issue” stance generally found outside of the proposed New California and the 10 round magazine capacity limit that is the law in the PRC(alifornia.)
I agree with your assessment of Obama completely. And love your Simpson add-on! It’s perfect. If we must try to find something to smile about!
Swell.
Why can’t we let in more Sikhs and Hindus?
Are you going to visit Odessa? Just curious, because one person who has visited Ukraine a few times (by bicycle) stayed clear of Odessa last time. I’d be interested in visiting to see some of the sights shown in the movies.
I hadn’t known much about the history of Jews in Odessa until I watched the Russian TV series, Once Upon a Time in Odessa, and then went to read more about the historical background. This TV series doesn’t have the greatest direction or acting, IMO, but it’s very watchable.
Good grief. I’m sorry I asked! I do believe most of the Christians I’ve talked with here on Ricochet believe that their religion was the “next step” after Judaism, rather than replacing it, since most of them also accept the Chumash. At least that’s my understanding. I’ve never even heard of supersessionism.
Al Sisi has done so, at risk of his life, which makes the lack of establishment Muslim advocacy voices calling out the cancer within all the more inexcusable.