Anti-Semitism

This a series of posts explores anti-Semitism, its origins, the motivations behind it, its various manifestations, its consequences, and its possible future. The series also proposes a method for determining when an act or statement is anti-Semitic and concludes with some suggestions for remedying the consequences of anti-Semitism. A series of discussion questions is also included.

Review of the previous post.

The previous post, post number 28 of 33, was the fifth of ten posts discussing a process for determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic and focused specifically on determining if the object of the act or statement was or is Jewish, since by definition, anti-Semitism is hatred of Jews.

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 29 of 33, is the sixth of ten posts discussing a process for determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic.

 Determining Anti-Semitism

Based on these indicia, it can be determined that the person is “Jewish” (i.e., has sufficient indicia of Jewishness that he or she could be considered as being a Jew), then that person is a Jew and the above criteria apply.

As mentioned above, the criterion, identity as perceived by others seems to extremely important. Even if the object of the act or accusation is not actually Jewish, if the actor acts because he perceives the object as being Jewish, the act would seem to qualify as being anti-Semitic because it was intended that way. Thus, the above criteria should be applied in accordance with the way the object’s beliefs or actions appear to others, specifically, the actor. That is, for example, if an actor perceives that a person (the object of the act or accusation) believes in the Jewish God, or thinks he sees objects that he believes to be Jewish sacred objects in the actor’s home, or the actor believes the object’s actions indicate that the object observes Jewish Shabbat, etc, then the actions of the actor could qualify as being anti-Semitic if they meet the above-outlined tests in a manner which would qualify as being anti-Semitic as above discussed.

All of the above tests are tests that are applied to an act or a statement to assist in the determination of whether or not the act or statement is anti-Semitic. However, as mentioned above, the act is anti-Semitic if it is motivated by Jew hatred. Thus, an act is anti-Semitic if it has both action and motivation. This is exactly like determining if an act is criminal, it requires both the act and the mens rea (mental motivation). The praxeological aspects of the above tests are intended to help spot the motivational aspects of the actor or speaker. It is this second element (mental aspects, or mens rea) which is exceedingly difficult to determine and can turn an innocent act or statement into an act or statement that is anti-Semitic or vice versa make an otherwise anti-Semitic sounding statement or act into an innocent statement or act. Thus, one must also consider the context of the act or statement in addition to applying the above-outlined tests.

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 30 of 33, is the seventh of ten posts discussing a process for  determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic and is the first of two posts using examples to illustrate the process, and is the first of three posts applying this process to an actual situation.