[WikiEN-l] WHO IS ANTI-SEMITIC?

Thu Oct 2 18:45:29 UTC 2003

I read with interest RK's long quote from the Encyclopedia Judaica, from 
which most parts have been snipped below.  There appears to be a common 
tendency in many Jewish circles to muddle the concepts anti-semitic (or 
anti-Jewish) with anti-Israel (or anti-Zionist).  In non-Jewish circles 
the tendency is to consider these as two separate issues.  There is an 
interesting contrast between the first and third paragraph of what I 
have preserved.  In the first, "Older people tend to be more 
anti-Semitic;" in the third, "...younger people are more likely to be 
unfavorable to Israel."  Do others see a contradiction here?

The second quoted paragraph illustrates a transition in the article. 
 What does Andrew Young's dismissal have to do with the other clearly 
more extremist positions cited.  Young was dismissed because he took a 
position contrary to the stated views of his government; that does not 
justify extrapolating his act of meeting PLO officials into some form of 
anti-semitism.  It is great that American blacks and Jews should find 
common cause about problems in the United States, but how does one get 
from that to the security of Israel just because it is "significant to 
Jews".  It is irrelevant to the issue.  If it's relevant then so too is 
the security of Liberia where blacks went to escape oppression just as 
Jews went to Israel to escape oppression... but Liberia is right off the 
radar screen.
Ec

Robert wrote:

>WHO IS ANTI-SEMITIC?
>>From the Encyclopedia Judaica.
>. . .
>
>Older people tend to be more anti-Semitic than younger
>individuals. This might be explained by lower educational
>level, by the fact that anti-Semitism was more prevalent
>when the older people were themselves young, and by the
>possibility that the aging process might have led to
>greater feelings of insecurity and intolerance.
>
>. . .
>
>That confrontation has taken the form of disputes over
>political goals and the exercise of power. But also the
>dismissal in 1979 of Andrew Young as American ambassador to
>the United Nations for meeting with a PLO official, the
>abusiveness of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's
>remarks about Judaism as a "gutter religion" and his
>declared admiration for Hitler, the references to New York
>City as "Hymietown" by presidential candidate Jesse Jackson
>in 1984, the injection of Black-Jewish animosity into the
>1988 Democratic party primary in New York, have all
>inflamed passions on both sides. Blacks hold about 10% less
>favorable attitudes to Israel than do whites. Jews and
>blacks have strongly differed on questions of open
>enrollment in New York City colleges and, above all, on the
>issues of quotas for employment. Yet, the old black-Jewish
>liberal coalition, with its mutual support for electoral
>office and for policies favoring integrated schools, civil
>rights, and vitality of urban areas on the one hand, and
>issues significant to Jews, especially the security of
>Israel on the other, has not broken down.
>
>. . .
>
>Two other major problems remain. Black anti-Semitism,
>stemming from religious teachings and economic stereotypes,
>exacerbated by the politics of confrontation and, to a
>lesser degree, a rise in adherence to Islam, is a troubling
>issue. The issue of Israel, support for its policies, aid
>for its security, and Jewish relations with the state has
>not yet led to an increase in anti-Semitism. But about a
>quarter of non-Jews are highly unfavorable to Israel, and
>young people are more likely to be so than are older
>people.
>