What constitutes today's antisemitism?
Since Oct. 7th a volcano of historic antisemitism, unprecedented since 1939, has erupted, and its lava has reached the shores of every Jewish community in the world. We see and hear the evidence of this antisemitism every day, and in growing numbers. Over eighty percent of all media coverage of Israel's self-defensive war against the Hamas emphasizes Israeli guilt, and Hamas innocence. Daily physical assaults on Jews and Jewish property are occurring worldwide.
For a long period before Trumps cease fire (we will see how long it lasts) an increasing tide of social, cultural and sports groups were/are calling for boycotting and isolating the state of Israel, without similarly demanding a parallel series of concessions from the Hamas. And Western world powers ran to unconditionally recognize a 'Palestinian Arab state' without making any effective demands on the Hamas and Palestinian Arabs.
The picture is becoming very clear and blatant. Simply, in very classical, historical antisemitic fashion, on the world stage, the Jews are now instinctively presumed to be the guilty party, the major source of the worlds current's turmoil, while all of Israel's opponents are instinctively presumed to be innocent victims. In classic, historical antisemitic fashion, Israel is now being held, without qualms and reservations, to be 'the oppressor', and Israel's opponents are thus obviously the 'victims'.
Understanding the nature of historical antisemitism from a Jewish religious-nationalistic perspective
The eternal, historical history of antisemitism
Throughout the last 2,500 years antisemitism has been an integral, permanent factor in determining the Jewish people's historical, religious, socio-cultural experience. Antisemitism and the Jewish people's existential existence have historically existed together, like Siamese twins, permanently attached to each other.
The average reader of the above lines, I am sure, thinks I am horribly exaggerating and blowing up the factor of antisemitism far out of proportion for 'political gain'. Well, these readers are very wrong.
They simply have not studied, and not learned, the history of the Jewish people over the last 2500 years, spanning all five continents of our globe. Go into Google and enter 'Wikipedia-timeline of antisemitism'. You will be very shocked by the century-by-century account of ongoing persecution. You can ask Chat-GPT the same question and receive a similar, more readable but less detailed list.
Both lists just skim the surface of the Jewish historical experience of over five continents. We receive the dubious prize of being the most persecuted people over five continents for over 2500 years. According to my rough estimation, over this time period, close to ten million Jews have been murdered due to antisemitism.
There is an exception: for fifty, post World War Two years, the 'bear' of antisemitism 'hibernated' in the cave of post Holocaust guilt, but over the last ten years the 'bear' has again begun to prowl and growl.
If you asked me, even twenty years ago, if antisemitism was going to again raise its ugly head in America and liberal, Western Europe, I would have eagerly said No!
My generation in America grew up in this period when the 'bear of antisemitism' was hibernating. I was a 'Baby Boomer', born in 1947, and my childhood and early adulthood (secular-Jewish) in the last half of the twentieth century was a time of relative peace and security (despite the Cold War-which never became a 'battle field war'). Liberal-social democracies stabilized and ruled Western Europe. There was a consensus that liberalism, democracy, and a 'socialized' capitalism were the inevitable wave of the future.
And antisemitism was a 'curse of the past', and had no place', in this new, liberal democratic world. Anyway, Hitler had given antisemitism a 'a very bad name', and six million Jewish deaths still made people incredibly horrified and guilty. For the first fifty years of my life I was convinced that a hateful, dangerous antisemitism had been buried in the 'dustbin' of history.
What has then happened to cause antisemitism to arise again, and to once more seriously threaten the well-being of the Jewish people worldwide, and the state of Israel in particular?
There are two reasons.
One, simply, we should not be surprised. As noted above, suffering antisemitism has been the rule of Jewish history, and the exception is antisemitism's 'hibernation' during the last half of the twentieth century.
However, in the twentieth first century the historical train of antisemitism is 'back on the tracks' and the wolves are howling in the night as the train continues its historical, ongoing journey.
Second, the social and economic security of the last half of the twentieth century is falling apart in front of our face. Post modern, twenty first century Western society is entering a period of social chaos. There is a polarization of the political body, and autocracy, extremism and accompanying violence are on the rise. Basic social institutions of family, gender, community and religion are disintegrating, or in a state of uncertain fluidity. And most important, people are feeling increasing lonely and alienated.
And it is a 2500-year-old fact , that when societies begin to unravel, their Jewish minority is the first, most 'popular', most obvious object to blame. Judaism is the historically eternal, ready and available, scapegoat. Four of the more obvious examples of this eternal phenomenon of unraveling societies and the rise of antisemitism are 1) the Roman Empire in first century CE caught up in endless rivalries on the throne of the empire, 2) the Black Plague in the Middle Ages when one third of Europe's populations died (giving birth to the blood libel), 3) the unstable Weimar Republic and rise of Hitlerian antisemitism, and 4) Stalin's 'doctors plot' in 1953 and threat to exterminate the Jewish intellectual class. Throughout history, social instability and 'antisemitism on steroids', go hand in hand. As we are currently experiencing.
But if we look at the wider historic drama, we want to ask the more basic, eternal question: What is it about the historical, Jewish "Being" (our existential state) that brings about an almost never-ending rage of antisemitism?'
The answer is not that non- Jews instinctively (in their DNA) hate/dislike Jews, but that when Jews exist as a separate, distinct social entity they inevitably make the host society 'feel uncomfortable'.
(Historical background note: In eighty percent of historical cases Jews were socially 'set aside/isolated' because of the restrictions imposed by the host society. In societies that were more open to Jewish participation, Jews tended to remain 'distinct' because of a strong desire to preserve and live by their unique social-religious culture)
What were the special characteristics of the distinct Jewish social entity that madethe host society feel uncomfortable?
One, our Religion made the host country feel uncomfortable:
For almost 2000 years, up until the late 19th century, organized-state religion was a very major factor in determining the social-cultural environment of the Jew's host country, both in Europe and the Mid East. And to put it bluntly, Judaism in both continents was theologically the adversarial/'enemy' religionof the host counties established religion.
Christianity (both Catholicism and many forms of Protestantism) hated Judaism because we rejected Jesus, and Islam hated Judaism because we rejected Mohhamed. Judaism was in both cases the 'parent religion', and particularly Christianity hated us throughout history with an unbridled 'oedipal anger'. More specifically Christianity hated Judaism because of our two 'cardinal sins', we both 'killed Jesus', and rejected him as the messiah.
For two thousand years, the Christian Church was the major force promoting antisemitism in the world. Their established policy was to keep Jews 'holed up' in a despicable social positions (for example, confining us to unpopular professions, such as money lending) so that their adherents, and the world, would constantly know, 'this is what happens to the people who rejected Jesus as the Messiah'.
In the Muslim world we were always 'second class 'citizens (along with other religious minorities)' other than in periods where Islamic fundamentalists imposed upon us forced conversion or expulsion.
After four generations of living in a truly liberal religious America, and now in a post-modern culture where organized religion is not very highly regarded, I know it is easy for American Jews to think this historical account is very exaggerated, but unfortunately it is not.
For two thousand years, our Jewish religion has made all host countries feel very uncomfortable.
Two, the social cultural traits of Jewish society made the host country feel uncomfortable
(Note; the below is an objective description Jewish social culture, and not aimed at arguing the superiority of this social culture)
Jewish society made the host country feel 'uncomfortable' because Jewish society was more cohesive (despite persecution), and possessed a much higher level of 'social coping resources than the surrounding non-Jewish communities.
First, Jewish religious law prepared, prescribed and programmed' the Jewish community to live as a distinct, 'autonomous' community given, for example, the laws of kashrut, Shabbat, the forbidding of intermarriage. Religious law thus provided the community with a proud, positive, rich heritage of social cultural distinctiveness, which in turned instilled social self-confidence and pride.
Second, and more specifically, compared to the non-Jewish communities, Jews possessed a much higher level of 'social coping resources' such as literacy, public health and hygiene, stable marriages, social support from extended, multi-generational families, community self-groups, and trusted religious and civil leadership.
Jewish communities also suffered from crime, prostitution, divorce, marital violence, and internal corruption, but the level of these social ailments was significantly lower than that of the surrounding communities, because the level of Jewish social coping resources was higher. This argument is supported 'by the aphorism, "More than the Jews kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat 'kept/preserved' the Jews."
The most enduring historical proof for the 'superior' social coping resources of autonomous, persecuted Jewish communities is the simple fact of Jewish survival and continuity over 2000 years, despite relentless persecution, and being dispersed to four corners of the globe.
I do not argue that surrounding societies were 'envious' of Jewish society, but just that the difference in the nature of Jewish and non-Jewish communal life 'made the host country feel uncomfortable'.
Three, throughout all of history, the elite ruling classes used the Jews to be financial and administrative 'go betweens' between and the rulers and the local, lower class masses, usually in jobs that were guaranteed to arose the hatred of the lower class.
Rulers of every society recognized the unique 'social coping resources' of the Jewish community (particularly the high rate of literacy, knowledge of foreign languages, and the communal bonding and responsibility of Jews in in geographically dispersed countries, especially in financial matters). The rulers thus used the Jews to administer their native population, particularly in money lending, tax collection, supervision and management of peasant agriculture, and international relations. In brief they let the Jews do 'their dirty work' with regard to native populations, and Jews, in turn, inherited the hatred of these native populations.
Historical examples of using the Jewish middleman range from the Roman empire, Christian kings in the Middle Ages, Muslim and Christian rulers in Spain in the 13th to 15th centuries, the ' economic development' of Poland and Russia in the 16th century, Russian landowners in the 18th and 19th century, and the Bolshevik-Communist party in the 20th century.
This arrangement always ended badly. The rulers, after using the Jews to establish a more modern economy and do their dirty work, expelled the Jews, and the native populations frequently 'rose up' and killed the Jews.
In summary, the over two thousand years of Jews holding a distinct, autonomous, 'unusual' place in in the host countries civil society insured that we would end up being hated.
Conclusion: What awaits us in the immediate future?
One, the future is bleak. The diminishing of antisemitism in the post-World War II era is unfortunately over. It was an historical exception/aberration. Antisemitism is here to stay (as it has been the historical norm two thousand years), and will only grow and get worse.
Liberal hopes that a significantly lowering of the flames of war in Gaza, and 'better-more acceptable' Israeli behavior on the international stage will significantly diminish the flames of antisemitism is a delusion, because it unfortunately contradicts the norms of history explained above.
Two, more specifically post-modern society is in a state of 'social confusion and chaos' which is rapidly breeding Right and Left populistic movements (Christian nationalism on the right, and woke-progressivism on the Left) and throughout history populistic movement have 'gotten a lot of milage' from emphasizing antisemitic messages.
Three, similar to the dynamics of the historical hatred aroused by the 'distinct, autonomous' entity in a host society describe above, the Jewish state of Israel is beginning to get on the 'international world's nerves'. The 'abnormality' of a Jewish state 'stuck in the middle of an Islamic/Musim Middle East is beginning to make the international community 'feel uncomfortable'. Yes, in 1948 a Jewish state was a nice-justified idea, but now its causing more international strife than it is worth. The international community is beginning to ask, 'Who needs constant war in the Middle East?'.
Four-we will survive, because that is G-d's will, and we have a two thousand year 'report card' that proves that we can succeed. Our struggle will strengthen us and develop our social resources. We will survive, but the 'going will be more difficult' because 'eternal' antisemitism will persistently surround us. This is G-d's plan, and we will definitely succeed in coping with G-d's historical testing and challenging. He believes in us, and we believe in Him.