This impressive book, offering essays by 19 authors on the topic of the recent upsurge in virulent anti-Jewish hostility, is daunting, not by sheer size, which is considerable, but by the very fact of its existence, the very fact of what must be its focus the worldwide rise of a pernicious, persistent anti-Semitism. The topic of course must be explored, and is explored with painstaking scholarship, intensive scrutiny of the subject itself, commitment, eloquence, and passion.
The book is the outgrowth of a four-day conference involving 45 scholars from 10 countries at Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) in April 2014. The 19 authors represented in the book live in, and/or are affiliated with, colleges and universities in Austria, England, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, and the United States. It is important, and impressive, that the contributors to the book are international, because anti-Semitism is a burgeoning international problem.
The book is organized into four parts, (I) Defining and Assessing Antisemitism, (II) Intellectual and Ideological Contexts, (III) Holocaust Denial, Evasion, Minimization, and (IV) Regional Manifestations.
The second chapter, “The Ideology of the New Antisemitism,” by Kenneth Marcus, is useful in identifying some key psychoanalytic issues. He sets the stage by underscoring that antisemitism is an ideology, quoting Sartre, who described antisemitism as a “conception of the world” (p. 21), giving us a broad, inclusive perspective to consider. He identifies the irrationality of otherwise educated, knowledgeable people who accept an ideology that includes the infamous blood libel, that Jews murder Christian babies to use their blood in making Passover matzoh. He
continues by citing Holocaust-denial statements that Jews invented stories about a Holocaust that never happened, and by citing the belief that the antisemitic forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” is true. He anchors his discourse in an acknowledgment of Freudian thought, that “the ideology of hatred is a symptom of repressed desire” (p. 25).
Marcus discusses trauma as underlying antisemitic ideology, citing projection and displacement as essential to further understanding how people deal with the conflicts generated by repressed desire, in an attempt to rid themselves of forbidden desires. He delineates various ways in which Jews are blamed for everything, quoting a 19th century CE (Common Era) tract that traces everything evil to Jews, and contemporary Islamic thought that attributes every “catastrophe” to Jews (p. 37).
Indeed, any and every chapter in this book could stand as an exemplar of in depth understanding of a pernicious ideological trend, one that is millennia-old, and startlingly consistently new, the need for a scapegoat that represents what Shakespeare (1936) phrased so movingly in Hamlet's famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” the “heartache and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to” (p. 752). The answer to the dilemma that humankind eternally experiences, that existence often is painful and desperate, is to blame someone who seems to be eternally “Other.” Jews occupy an unusual place in world culture, in that they are the descendants of an ancient tribal group, who lost their homeland and were dispersed in an ever-expanding Diaspora, yet maintained their identity and traditions and self-awareness. Where are the Hittites, Edomites, Moabites, Babylonians, Assyrians? Gone. But this tiny fragment, currently one quarter of one percent of the world's population, is known everywhere, and has become a magnet for blame, so that others can relieve themselves of guilt, and self-blame.
A sampling of concepts developed in various forms throughout the book may well illustrate the theme of the function anti-Semitism has had, and continues to have, worldwide.
In Chapter Three, “A Framework for Assessing Antisemitism: Three Case Studies (Dieudonné, Erdogan, Hamas),” Günther Jikeli offers a framework of understanding the threat of antisemitic attitudes emerging from such different sources: a French comedian, the President of
Turkey, and an identified terrorist organization, and the specificity of the underlying attitudes. All three see Jews as dangerous and demonizing; they dehumanize Jews to preserve self-esteem. Each presents a different threat.
Dieudonné M'bala M'bala disguises a genocidal message with humor, mobilizing group antisemitic identity through enjoyment and laughter (p. 58).
Erdogan seems to differentiate between Israel and Jews, comparing Israel with Hitler, yet claiming Jews in Turkey will be safe, and not persecuted, while insinuating that Turkish Jews must disavow Israel. Jikeli points out that Erdogan is not genocidal, but is a proponent of conspiracy theories that cast Jews in a negative light, and his Islamization of Turkey policy will create further hardship for Turkish Jews.
Hamas, of course, is overtly anti-Semitic and genocidal. Jikeli identifies the possibility that if Hamas terrorism expands beyond the Middle East, and becomes active in other countries, for instance, the United States, or in Europe, the possibility of genocidal action against Jews may increase (p. 68).
The range of ideas represented in this book addresses myriad aspects of antiSemitism in creative, important ways. Ideally, I would summarize every chapter. Perhaps just identifying main ideas will suffice. The chapter titles themselves are attention-grabbing.
“Literary Theory and the Delegitimization of Israel” by Jean Axalrad Cahan, identifies antisemitism in the literary tradition of identifying “nations and nationalism” in the modern era, that traditions are “invented,” and that the actual existence of a coherent group called the Jewish people is questionable, which is used only so that Jews can justify the establishment of the state of Israel. He points out that Edward Said, who is known as the founder of “post-colonial studies,” uses this theory to discredit Jewish attachment to the land of Israel.
“Denial, Evasion, and Antihistorical Antisemitism: The Continuing Assault on Memory,” by David Patterson, begins with a deeply resonant, provocative sentence: “Both Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi—two survivors from very different backgrounds—have described the Holocaust as a
war against memory” (p. 326). He points out that “The Holocaust denier does not hate the Jews because they allegedly lie about the Holocaust; rather, he lies about the Holocaust because he hates the Jews” (p. 327). His chapter focuses on Holocaust denial, and the ethical obligation of the historian to maintain a commitment “to the dead, to the living, and to the unborn” (p. 344).
Further chapters address contemporary situations. The last section of the book is called “Regional Manifestations.” Here is a regrettably truncated sampling: “The EU's Responses to Contemporary Antisemitism: A Shell Game?” by Amy Elman, pointedly addresses the European Union Monitoring Centre's deft omission of a meaningful “working definition of anti-Semitism.” She concludes, “(A)ntisemitism is a swiftly moving object on the European agenda. It is addressed and rarely grasped, concealed by the bluster of seemingly sensitive but nonetheless contradictory discourse”(p. 422).
“Anti-Israeli Boycotts: European and International Human Rights Laws Perspectives,” by Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias, offers a hopeful conclusion: “A time may have arrived when those harmed by the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement should claim their rights using the instruments of international laws” (p. 450).
In a world where anti-Semitism, and anti-Semitic violence, is rising, this book is of major importance. We need to do what the book title indicates, we need to dedicate ourselves to “Deciphering the New Antisemitism,” in order to curtail, and defeat, this regrettable evil.