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This article is concerned with Modern anti-Semitism, roughly covering the period from right after World War II to the present.

The Holocaust, its denial and revisionism

Main articles: Holocaust denial, Holocaust revisionism

Centuries of anti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust of the European Jewry during World War II. Holocaust revisionists often claim that "the Jews" or a "Zionist conspiracy" is responsible for the exaggeration or wholesale fabrication of the events of the "Final Solution". Critics of such revisionism point to an overwhelming amount of physical and historical evidence that supports the mainstream historical view of the Holocaust.

Anti-Semitism in modern-day nations

Anti-Semitism in the Eastern European countries is in decline recently. There are still strong anti-semitic views in parts of the population, however the public anti-semitism is less frequent. In Russia it has been dominated by racism against people with darker skin from Caucasus region. In Poland one of leading anti-semitic priests: Henryk Jankowski has been removed from his office. In Poland and Germany ultra-right political parties has grown stronger however anti-semitism in their language has been replaced by generic xenophobia.

While in a decline since the 1940s, there is still anti-Semitism in the United States of America as well, although acts of violence are rare. The 2001 survey by the Anti-Defamation League reported 1432 acts of anti-Semitism in the United States that year. The figure included 877 acts of harassment, including verbal intimidation, threats and physical assaults ([1]).

The new anti-Semitism (Overview)

In recent years some scholars of religion and many Jewish groups, have noted what they describe as the new anti-Semitism. In this view, core themes of the new anti-Semitism include:

Criticism of Zionism using terms that equate Jews with Nazis
Editorial cartoons which portray Israelis in the same way that Nazi cartoonists portrayed Jews
The censorship of works or participation by Jewish scholars from international conferences
Harsh and repeated criticism of the State of Israel that is not made towards other nations for similar actions (an accusation of a double standard)
Straw-man attacks, in which it is said that Jews claim that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. This claim is then used to criticise Jewish groups as unreasonable. However, no Jewish groups hold such a position.

The term "the new anti-Semitism" was coined to characterize a new wave of virulently anti-Semitic attacks which began in Europe in 2002. The attacks included verbal attacks against Israelis and Jews, challenging of Israel's right to exist and series of violent attacks (beating Rabbis, burning synagogues and vandalizing cemeteries) against Jews and supporters of Israel. Those attacks were explained on the ground of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many of them were commited by Muslim extremists and Islamists in Europe. The wave of new anti-Semitism also included anti-Semitic cartoons demonizing the Jews or Israel, and allegations on Israeli atrocities which later turned out to be false. The most notable case of false allegation was the Jenin massacre allegation which claimed that Israel massacred 500-3000 innocent Palestinians in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield. Two weeks after the press was promoting the Jenin massacre allegation, international reporters uncovered that no massacre took place in Jenin. Fatah lowered its estimation for the death toll to 56 people, the majority of whom were combatants. The Jenin massacre story sparked waves of anti-Israeli protests and violent attacks against Jews in Europe, and therefore were regarded by many Jews as the first major blood libel of the New Antisemitism.

Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism

Anti-Zionism is a term that has been used to describe several very different political and religious points of view (both historically and in current debates) all expressing some form of opposition to Zionism. A large variety of commentators - politicians, journalists, academics and others - believe that criticisms of Israel and Zionism are often disproportionate in degree and unique in kind, and attribute this to anti-Semitism. In turn, critics of this view believe that associating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is intended to stifle debate, deflect attention from valid criticisms, and taint anyone opposed to Israeli actions and policies. They point out that, during debate over the establishment of the State of Israel, most notably, many Hassidic Jews considered this manifestation of Zionism heretical. Today, worldwide there are a small number of anti-Zionist Jewish groups in existence, the members of which consider Israel an illegitimate state. This subject is discussed in the main article on Anti-Zionism.

Manifestions of the new anti-Semitism

Forms of discrimination

In his article Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness, Irwin Cotler, the new Minister of Justice for Canada, writes:

In a word, classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, or denial of, the right of Jews to live as equal members of a free society; the new anti-Semitism—incompletely, or incorrectly, [referred to] as "anti-Zionism"... —involves the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations. What is intrinsic to each form of anti-Semitism—and common to both—is discrimination. All that has happened is that it has moved from discrimination against Jews as individuals—a classical anti-Semitism for which there are indices of measurement (e.g., discrimination against Jews in education, housing, or employment)—to discrimination against Jews as people—a new anti-Semitism—for which one has yet to develop indices of measurement.

File:FrenchCemetery103004-01.jpg

Neo-Nazi defacement of a Jewish cemetery in France

Cotler noted six categories and thirteen indices of modern anti-Semitism:

Genocidal anti-Semitism
- the public call for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people
Political anti-Semitism
- the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the Jewish people's right to self-determination
- discrimination against the Jews as a people
- the "demonizing" of Israel
Theological anti-Semitism
- the convergence of state-sanctioned Islamic anti-Semitism, which characterizes Jews, Judaism, let alone Israel, as the perfidious enemy of Islam
- cultural anti-Semitism
- European "hierarchical" anti-Semitism
Denying Israel equality before the law
- the singling out of Israel for differential, if not discriminatory, treatment amongst the family of nations
- the disenfranchisement of Israel in the international arena
Economic anti-Semitism
- the extra-territorial application by Arab countries of an international restrictive covenant against corporations conditioning their trade with Arab countries on their agreement not to do business with Israel (secondary boycott)
- not doing business with another corporation which may be doing business with Israel (tertiary boycott)
- conditioning the trade with such corporations on neither hiring nor promoting Jews within the corporation
State-sanctioned anti-Semitism
- the state-sanctioned "culture of hate"

The European Union

Groups monitoring hatespeech and violence in the European Union have noted an upswing in attacks on Jewish people and Jewish institutions in many European countries, especially in France. Jews have been attacked, stabbed, beaten and threatened in large numbers; synagogues have been vandalized, desecrated and burned. Jewish cemetaries have been vandalized.

A number of political and social leaders in the European Union have become concerned with this phenomeon. As such, a report on this phenomenon was written at the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. This report was written on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC.) The February 2003 version of this report is available online.

According to a study by Pew Research Center, in some European countries there has been a recent decrease in some forms of anti-Semitism.

France

The Interior Minister of France has announced that the number of anti-Semitic attacks in France in 2004 is more than double that of the same period in 2003. (Reuters)

Canada

The United Nations

Many Jewish groups have been disappointed with the role of the United Nations in regards to the treatment of Jews; many Jewish groups and writers have stated that the actions of the United Nations have often implicitly condoned, or encouraged, anti-Semitism. (more to come.)

In a recent development, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated on June 21, 2004, that "It is hard to believe that 60 years after the tragedy of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is once again rearing its head. But it is clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of these phenomena in new forms and manifestations. This time the world must not, cannot, be silent." Anan then asked U.N. member states to adopt a resolution to fight anti-Semitism, and stated that the UN's Commission on Human Rights must study and expose anti-Semitism in the same way that it fights bias against Muslims. Anan stated "Are not Jews entitled to the same degree of concern and protection?"

[2], [3]

Anne Bayefsky, a preeminent Canadian Human Rights activist, has addressed the UN specifically on this matter on June 21, 2004.

"At the U.N., the language of human rights is hijacked not only to discriminate but to demonize the Jewish target. More than one quarter of the resolutions condemning a state's human rights violations adopted by the commission over 40 years have been directed at Israel. But there has never been a single resolution about the decades-long repression of the civil and political rights of 1.3 billion people in China, or the million female migrant workers in Saudi Arabia kept as virtual slaves, or the virulent racism which has brought 600,000 people to the brink of starvation in Zimbabwe. Every year, U.N. bodies are required to produce at least 25 reports on alleged human rights violations by Israel, but not one on an Iranian criminal justice system which mandates punishments like crucifixion, stoning and cross-amputation of right hand and left foot. This is not legitimate critique of states with equal or worse human rights records. It is demonization of the Jewish state..." [4]

Months later, Bayefsky followed with a damning critique of the UN's subsequent analysis on modern antisemitism:

"...according to the U.N. experts' draft report, discrimination against individual Jews is bad, while "anti-Zionism"--the denial to the Jewish people of an equal right to self-determination--is not. Since it is the perception of unconditional Jewish support for Israel that leads people to attack a Jewish cemetery, and anti-Semitism was absent from the Muslim world prior to the Arab-Israeli conflict (the mufti of Jerusalem and his friend Hitler notwithstanding), the way to defeat anti-Semitism is for Jews to cut loose defense of the state of Israel. And by the way, anti-Semitism will diminish if only we stop emphasizing the unique horror of the Holocaust." [5]

According to Lawrench H. Summers, the current president of Harvard University, "The United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Racism -- while failing to mention human rights abuses in China, Rwanda, or anyplace in the Arab world -- spoke of Israel’s policies prior to recent struggles under the Barak government as constituting ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The NGO declaration at the same conference was even more virulent." [6]

Straw-man anti-Semitism

One common form of anti-Semitism is the statement that Jews claim that all criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism. This claim is then used to criticise Jewish groups as unreasonable.

However, no Jewish groups officially hold such a position. This position has never been held, in any form, by any of the modern Jewish denominations. In fact, on numerous occasions many Jewish groups have publicly criticised the policies of different Israeli governments. Further, these Jewish groups are aware of many criticism by non-Jewish groups, and have not considered the majority of these criticisms as anti-Semitic. Public statements by leaders of many Jewish groups explicitly state that disagreement with a policy or government of the State of Israel is not, of itself anti-Semitic. One popular understanding of this issue can be found in a statement by the Anti-Defamation League:

"Criticism of particular Israeli actions or policies in and of itself does not constitute anti-Semitism. Certainly the sovereign State of Israel can be legitimately criticized just like any other country in the world. However, it is undeniable that there are those whose criticism of Israel or of "Zionism" is used to mask anti-Semitism." (Anti-Defamation League website.)

In his speech given at Berkeley University on April 29, 2004, Law Professor at Harvard University Law School Alan Dershowitz said, in particular: "Show me a single instance where a major Jewish leader or Israeli leader has ever said that criticizing a particular policy of Israeli government is anti-Semitic. That's just something made up by Israel's enemies."

(see also anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism)

Views and position on the New Antisemitsm

Positions of Jewish groups on the new anti-Semitism

Tikkun magazine, an American Jewish magazine which is written from the perspective of the political left, ran a series of article on the resurgence of anti-Semitism across the world.

The New Anti-Semitism, by Miriam Greenspan. Tikkun Magazine

The Anti-Defamation League stated that: "The events of September 11, the American campaign against terrorism and the Palestinian intifada against Israel have created a dangerous atmosphere in the Middle East and Europe, one that 'gives anti-Semitism and hate and incitement a strength and power of seduction that it has never before had in history.'"

Views of Natan Sharansky

Israeli political leader Natan Sharansky has suggested that anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-Zionism can be distinguished from legitimate criticism of Israel if it fails the "3D" test, as follows:

The first D is the test of demonization. Whether it came in the theological form of a collective accusation of deicide or in the literary depiction of Shakespeare's Shylock, Jews were demonized for centuries as the embodiment of evil. Therefore, today we must be wary of whether the Jewish state is being demonized by having its actions blown out of all sensible proportion. For example, the comparisons of Israelis to Nazis and of the Palestinian refugee camps to Auschwitz -- comparisons heard practically every day within the "enlightened" quarters of Europe -- can only be considered anti-Semitic. Those who draw such analogies either do not know anything about Nazi Germany or, more plausibly, are deliberately trying to paint modern-day Israel as the embodiment of evil.

The second D is the test of double standards. For thousands of years a clear sign of anti-Semitism was treating Jews differently than other peoples, from the discriminatory laws many nations enacted against them to the tendency to judge their behavior by a different yardstick. Similarly, today we must ask whether criticism of Israel is being applied selectively. In other words, do similar policies by other governments engender the same criticism, or is there a double standard at work? It is anti-Semitism, for instance, when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while tried and true abusers like China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria are ignored. Likewise, it is anti-Semitism when Israel's Magen David Adom, alone among the world's ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross.

The third D is the test of deligitimation. In the past, anti-Semites tried to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish religion, the Jewish people, or both. Today, they are trying to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state, presenting it, among other things, as the last vestige of colonialism. While criticism of an Israeli policy may not be anti-Semitic, the denial of Israel's right to exist is always anti-Semitic. If other peoples have a right to live securely in their homelands, then the Jewish people have a right to live securely in their homeland.

Views of the Catholic Church

The International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee of the Catholic Church has recently spoken on this subject as well, stating that it embraces "the total rejection of anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism as a more recent manifestation of anti-Semitism. " [7]

Fighting modern anti-Semitism

On December 30, 2004, the US Department of State published its annual Report on Global Anti-Semitism (in accordance with Section 4 of PL 108-332). The report's summary says: "The increasing frequency and severity of anti-Semitic incidents since the start of the 21st century, particularly in Europe, has compelled the international community to focus on anti-Semitism with renewed vigor." The "four main sources" of the phenomenon were identified:

Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice that has pervaded Europe and some countries in other parts of the world for centuries. This includes ultra-nationalists and others who assert that the Jewish community controls governments, the media, international business, and the financial world.
Strong anti-Israel sentiment that crosses the line between objective criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism.
Anti-Jewish sentiment expressed by some in Europe's growing Muslim population, based on longstanding antipathy toward both Israel and Jews, as well as Muslim opposition to developments in Israel and the occupied territories, and more recently in Iraq.
Criticism of both the United States and globalization that spills over to Israel, and to Jews in general who are identified with both."

The report contains major incidents, trends and actions taken around the world in the period between July 1, 2003 and December 15, 2004.

Books on the anti-Semitism

A number of book-length treatments about this subject have been published, including The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It, Phyllis Chesler (Jossey-Bass, 2003); The Return of Anti-Semitism by Gabriel Schoenfeld, Encounter Books, 2003; and Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism by Abraham Foxman, HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.

References

The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust As Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Michael Berenbaum. Little Brown & Co, 1993
The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945 Lucy S. Davidowicz. Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub, 1991
Antisemitism in America, Leonard Dinnerstein, Oxford Univ. Press, 1995
Phyllis Chessler The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It, Jossey-Bass, 2003
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Norman G. Finkelstein. Verso Books, 2001
Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism by Abraham Foxman, HarperSanFrancisco, 2003
Antisemitism in the New Testament, Lillian C. Freudmann, University Press of America, 1994
The Destruction of the European Jews Raul Hilberg. Holmes & Meier, 1985. 3 volumes
A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st Century Britain, Ed. Paul Iganski and Barry Kosmin. Profile Books, 2003
Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory Deborah Lipstadt, 1994, Penguin
Gabriel Schoenfeld The Return of Anti-Semitism, Encounter Books, 2003
Why the Jews? The Reasons for Antisemitism Revised Edition.Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, Simon & Schuster, 2003
Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred, Robert S. Wistrich. Pantheon Books, 1992.

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