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 24 of 33,is the first of ten posts discussing a process for determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic..

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 25 of 33, is the second of ten posts discussing a process for determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic.

 Determining Anti-Semitism

 Introduction

Further to the foregoing discussion, the process for determining anti-Semitism includes the following steps.

For any particular act or statement, one should review the attitude, ideology and/or practices associated with the act or statement for any of the following indica.

• Are any of these elements directed at Jews as Jews, individually or collectively?
• Are any of the attitudes, ideologies or practices based upon and sustained by a repetitive and potentially self-fulfilling latent structure of hostile erroneous beliefs and assumptions that flow from the application of double-standards toward Jews as a collective, manifested culturally in myth, ideology, folklore, and imagery, and urging various forms of restriction, exclusion, and suppression?

Anti-Semitism often manifests in criticism or demonization of the State of Israel. The anti-Israel statements or acts can arise from different motivations, including: a conscious hatred of Jews in which the criticism of Israel is a pretext for expressing the anti-Semitic feelings of the actor or speaker; an unconscious animus toward Jews^[1]; the act or statement arises from a climate of hostile opinion to Jews (such as might be found in a social group); or one that foreseeably causes harm to Jews based on a trait that is central to Jewish identity. Thus, the process should be applied to acts and/or statements concerning the state of Israel. In this situation, the process is extended to include the following considerations which were suggested by the drafters of the International Working Definition of Anti-Semitism. These additional inquiry steps include the following.

• Are the statements, acts or allegations mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions?
• Do the acts, statements or allegations accuse Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews?
• Do the acts, statements or allegations deny the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g., gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)?
• Do the acts, statements or allegations accuse the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust?
• Do the acts, statements or allegations accuse Jewish citizens of being more loyal to or biased toward Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own nations? This test can also be applied to ferret out statements that imply that Jews are more biased toward Israel and its interests than other citizens who have roots in other countries are to those countries (e.g., does the statement or act at issue imply that an American Jew has more bias toward Israel vis á vis America than an Irish-American has toward Ireland vis á vis America?)
• Are the acts, statements or accusations motivated by an attitude, ideology or practice that is hostile to Jews either individually or collectively?
• Are the acts, statements or accusations based upon and sustained by a repetitive and potentially self-fulfilling latent structure of hostile erroneous beliefs and assumptions that flow from the application of double-standards toward Jews as a collective, manifested culturally in myth, ideology, folklore, and imagery, and urging various forms of restriction, exclusion, and suppression?

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 26 of 33, is the third of ten posts discussing a process for determining if an act or statement is anti-Semitic.

[1] See, Florette Cohen, Lee Jussim, Gautam Bhasin, and Elizabeth Salib, “The Modern Anti-Semitism and Opposition to Israel,” Conflict & Communication Online 10:1 (2011) http://www.cco.regener-online.de/2011_1/pdf/cohen.pdf: Florette Cohen, Lee Jussim, Kent D. Harber, and Gautam Ghasin, “Modern Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Attitudes, “ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97 (2009): 290-306.Which reported a Rutgers University study confirming that hostility to Israel often reflects unconscious anti-Semitism.