There are many international symbols of understanding scattered across Europe that are not first-tier targets of jihadist extremists. The police are guarding the Anne Frank House because it is, in fact, associated with Jews, and Jews are under sustained attack in Europe. Things have gone terribly wrong for the Jews of Europe lately, but comparing to , the year Hitler came to power, is irresponsible. As serious as matters have become for European Jews today, conditions are different from 80 years ago, in at least two profound ways.
The first is that Israel exists, and has as its reason for being the ingathering of dispersed Jews. A tragedy of Zionism, the political movement to create a state for the Jews in their ancestral homeland, is that it succeeded too late. If Israel had come into being in , rather than in , an untold but presumably very large number of European Jews who were denied refuge by the civilized nations, including the United States, would have been saved from slaughter.
Anyone who damages a Jewish gravestone is disgracing our culture. Anyone who attacks a synagogue is attacking the foundations of our free society. He argues that the French idea itself depends on the crushing of anti-Semitism. It is a founding principle. But if , Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure. Valls is deliberate and—unusual for a French politician of the left—blunt in identifying the main culprits in the proliferation of anti-Jewish violence and harassment: Islamist ideologues whose anti-Semitic and anti-Western calumnies have penetrated the banlieues.
But this is not what we are talking about in France. This is radical criticism of the very existence of Israel, which is anti-Semitic. There is an incontestable link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Behind anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Frequently, Valls said, anti-Zionists let the mask slip. Valls and Merkel think more clearly about the implications of Jewish persecution than many others in Europe. So too does David Cameron, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. According to the Community Security Trust, saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United Kingdom, which is home to , Jews, since the organization began its monitoring efforts, in it recorded 1, anti-Semitic incidents.
This is more than double the number of incidents in , and exceeds the previous record, from , of incidents. In a recent survey conducted on behalf of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, a quarter of British Jews said they had considered leaving the country; more than half of those surveyed said they fear that Jews have no future in Great Britain.
I asked him whether there existed in his mind a bright line that separates anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. We have to be very clear about the fact that there is a dangerous line that people keep crossing over. The people who are trying to make the line fuzzy are the delegitimizers.
The fight against anti-Semitism led by Merkel, Valls, and Cameron appears to be heartfelt. The question is, will it work?
The governments of Europe are having a terrible time in their struggle against the manifestations of radical Islamist ideology. And the general publics of these countries do not seem nearly as engaged in the issue as their leaders. The Berlin rally last fall against anti-Semitism that featured Angela Merkel drew a paltry 5, people, most of whom were Jews. It is not But could it be ? French troops in combat gear patrolled the street.
But another man, who asked to be called Marcel, responded that it would be cowardly to flee for Israel at the first appearance of Molotov cocktails. Marcel laughed. I would count on the National Front before I count on the Socialists. It is disquieting, but no longer unusual, to hear Jews of North African descent express affinity for the National Front.
Le Pen, who inherited the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie, has worked diligently to bring her party closer to the French mainstream: no more thugs in leather jackets; no more public expressions of longing for Vichy; certainly no more Holocaust obsessiveness.
Marine Le Pen is positioning herself as something of a philo-Semite. She is not under the illusion that she will sway large numbers of Jews to her side; in any case, the Jewish vote in France is minuscule. But people who follow her rise say she understands that one pathway to mainstream acceptance runs through the Jews: if she could neutralize the perception that the National Front is a fascist party by winning some measure of Jewish acceptance, she could help smooth her way to the presidency.
I told her I was shocked to find Jews in the banlieues who would look to the National Front for political salvation. She professed not to be shocked at all. And by a form of submission to the politically correct.
And while they were doing this, while they were fighting against an enemy that no longer existed, an anti-Semitism was gaining force in France stemming notably from the development of fundamentalist Islamist thought. The meaning of the proliferation of the veil in France is not to be placed on the same plane as the wearing of the kippah. We know very well that the proliferation of the wearing of the veil—and in certain neighborhoods, the burka—is a political act.
Her message is clear, though for obvious reasons it has been skeptically received: her father may have been an enemy of the Jewish community, but she is a friend. Naval Observatory.
Biden was characteristically prolix. He talked about the Shoah, and about the many contributions Jews have made to American life, and he mentioned, as he invariably does in such settings, his first encounter with a legendary Israeli prime minister. We Jews have a secret weapon. The vice president, it seemed to me, was trafficking in antiquated notions about Jewish anxiety. Several years in Israel, and some sober thinking about the American Jewish condition, cured me of that particular belief.
A large majority of American Jews feels affection for Israel, and is concerned for its safety, and understands the role it plays as a home of last resort for endangered brethren around the world. But very few American Jews, in my experience, believe they will ever need to make use of the Israeli lifeboat. The American Jewish community faces enormous challenges, but these mainly have to do with assimilation, and with maintaining cultural identity and religious commitment.
To be sure, anti-Semitism exists in the United States—and in my experience, some European Jewish leaders are quite ready to furnish examples to anyone suggesting that European Jews might be better off in America. According to the latest FBI statistics, from , Jews are by far the most-frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes in America. But this is still anti-Semitism on the margins. A recent Pew poll found that Jews are also the most warmly regarded religious group in America.
For millennia, Jews have been asking this question: Where, exactly, is it safe? Maimonides, the 12th-century philosopher, wrestled with this question continually, asking himself whether it was better for Jews to live in the lands of Esau—Christendom—or in the lands of Ishmael. Israel has the largest Jewish population, slightly more than 6 million. The U. Europe, including Russia, has a Jewish population of roughly 1.
There are about 1 million Jews scattered across the rest of the world, including significant communities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, and Canada. It is not uncommon to hear European Jews argue today that their departure from the Continent would grant Hitler a posthumous victory.
The desire of so many Jews in Europe to remain in Europe, and remain European, is admirable. At that point, he was still in the army, and that was where he discovered his oratory talents.
Before long, the army had him give training courses, intended to warn soldiers of the communist danger and to stir up feelings of nationalism. It was the start of his political career. Against the backdrop of revolution and violence, Hitler's antisemitism was becoming increasingly radical.
It is noteworthy that he said he did not support uncontrolled 'emotional' pogroms outbursts of anti-Jewish violence. As early as August , Hitler compared the Jews to germs. He stated that diseases cannot be controlled unless you destroy their causes. The influence of the Jews would never disappear without removing its cause, the Jew, from our midst, he said.
These radical ideas paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews in the s. Hitler blamed the Jews for everything that was wrong with the world. Germany was weak and in decline due to the 'Jewish influence'. According to Hitler, the Jews were after world dominance. And they would not hesitate to use all possible means, including capitalism. In this way, Hitler took advantage of the existing prejudice that linked the Jews to monetary power and financial gain. Hitler was not bothered by the apparent contradictions in his thinking.
He held that communism was a Jewish conspiracy, too, as the larger part of the communist leaders were Jewish. Nevertheless, only a small proportion of the Jews were communists. This idea of 'Jewish communism' was to have awful repercussions in the war with the Soviet Union that started in The population and prisoners-of-war were treated brutally by the Germans. Hitler viewed the world as an arena for the permanent struggle between peoples.
He divided the world population into high and low races. The Roman poet and satirist Juvenal , c. These few examples may point towards the existence of antisemitism in antiquity. Juvenal was every bit as rude about Greeks and other foreigners in Rome as he was about Jews.
And yet what part of the dregs comes from Greece? It is in the theology of early Christians that we find the clearest foundations of antisemitism. In his most celebrated work, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Justin strove to answer Trypho when he pointed to the contradictory position of Christians who claimed to accept Jewish scripture but refused to follow Torah the Jewish law. Justin responded that the demands of Jewish law were meant only for Jews as a punishment from God.
It was with his fellow Christians. At a time when the distinction between Judaism and Christianity was still blurred and rival sects competed for adherents, he was striving to prevent gentile converts to Christianity from observing the Torah, lest they go over wholly to Judaism. It was an ugly charge, soon levelled again in the works of other Church Fathers, such as Tertullian c. The objective of using such invective was to settle internal debates within Christian congregations.
The allegations did not reflect the actual behaviour or beliefs of Jews. When Tertullian attempted to refute the dualist teachings of the Christian heretic Marcion c. He achieved this by presenting the Jews as especially wicked and especially deserving of righteous anger; it was thus, Tertullian argued, that Jewish behaviours and Jewish sins explained the contrast between the Old and the New Testament.
To demonstrate this peculiar malevolence, Tertullian portrayed Jews as denying the prophets, rejecting Jesus, persecuting Christians and as rebels against God. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, anti-Semitism has also flared up. During months of the so-called Yellow Vest protests in France, a handful of demonstrators in the crowd resurrected the stereotype of Jews controlling the levers of power. The problem is not always so overt, however. In the U. But his defense has rung hollow to some.
The experience of Jewish people in Europe varies widely, but the stories are sometimes grim. But one morning Sjoberg arrived at the center to find photos of Hitler pasted outside.
These became a regular feature every January on Holocaust Memorial Day, along with swastikas painted on the walls. Then the messages turned personal. After a stream of threats, Sjoberg finally shut the Jewish center in , and last year she moved home, fearing an attack. Her new address and phone number are now kept secret. Many Jews in Europe say it is not the major incidents but the minor ones that prove how widespread this problem is.
They describe anti-Semitism as having seeped into quotidian life, in some ways complicating the effort to tackle the problem. She mentioned it to her father much later, as an afterthought. The more insidious effect is not at all visible: the choice by many Jews to remain discreet about their religious background. Many also forgo affixing the traditional miniature prayer scrolls, called mezuzahs, to their doorposts, as many American Jews do, choosing instead to hang them inside.
Kesselman says Jews have steadily adapted to low-level hostility. Europe has begun to take action at an official level. Von Schnurbein, the European Commission coordinator, believes anti-Semitism has always signaled bigger violence ahead in Europe, as an early indicator of spiraling tensions. But increasingly communities are attempting themselves to heal the rift created by anti-Semitism, through outreach and education.
Just one example is in Malmo, home to about 1, Jews, as well as about 45, Muslims. The two launched Amanah, an organization to fight both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the city. The partnership of the two men — an odd couple from opposite sides of the Middle East conflict — has served as a powerful message in itself.
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