by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
If powerful institutions and elites promote hatred over a very long period, that hatred comes to permeate the culture.
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| On the Jews and Their Lies by Martin Luther, 1543, via Wikipedia |
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,075, January 28, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The
anti-Semitism that is so integral to European culture developed in a
dominating hostile Christian environment over more than a millennium.
This provided much of the cultural infrastructure of the Holocaust,
which was executed by Germans with the help of many allies. During the
Enlightenment and thereafter, many leading European thinkers expressed
hatred towards Jews. In recent decades, the hatred towards Jews found in
European societies mutated partly into anti-Israelism, which targets
the Jewish state.
Saying that anti-Semitism is integral to European
culture does not make one popular in Europe. This does not change even
if one clarifies that this is not the same as saying that most Europeans
are anti-Semites.
Yet the claim is not difficult to prove. European
culture developed in a dominating, hostile Christian environment over
more than a millennium. Major incitement against Jews initially stemmed
from the Catholic Church. Later, several Protestant churches, including
Lutherans, promoted Jew-hatred.
If powerful institutions and elites promote hatred
over a very long period, that hatred comes to permeate the culture. In
the 1960s, Christian historian and clergyman James Parkes analyzed the
conflict between Christians and Jews during the first eight centuries of
the Christian era. Concerning that period he concluded, “There was far
more reason for the Jew to hate the Christian than for the Christian to
hate the Jew – and this on the evidence of Christian sources alone.”
Parkes held that the Christian theological concept
of the first three centuries created the foundations for the hatred of
Jews, on which an “awful superstructure” was built. The first stones for
this were laid at “the very moment the Church had the power to do so,
in the legislation of Constantine and his successors.” Parkes attributed
full responsibility for modern anti-Semitism to those who prepared the
soil and made the lies credible.
During the Enlightenment and thereafter, many
leading European thinkers expressed hatred towards Jews. Voltaire,
several German philosophers, early French socialists, Karl Marx, and
many others took part in what can only be described as an anti-Semitic
hate fest.
The Holocaust was executed by German Nazis with
the help of many allies. It was facilitated by the mainly Christian
infrastructure of anti-Semitic feeling in Europe, which had accumulated
over centuries.
After WWII, many thought the Holocaust had taught
Europeans a hard lesson. Anti-Semitism seemed to fade, especially after
several highly acclaimed movie and television productions – including
NBC’s 1973 series Holocaust and Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Schindler’s List – reached huge audiences. Another example was Claude Lanzmann’s powerful 1985 documentary, Shoah.
Yet classic anti-Semitism targeting Jews continues
to exist. Polls by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) exposed that the
evil myth that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus is alive and
well in Europe. It was found that 46% of Poles, 38% of Hungarians, 21%
of Danes and Spaniards, and 19% of Norwegians and Belgians believe this.
So do 18% of Austrians and British, 16% of the Dutch, 15% of Italians,
and 14% of Germans.
Once a belief is so deeply ingrained in a culture,
it takes a very long time to flush it out. Rather than disappear, it
will change its shape.
Classic anti-Semitism targeted Jews initially as a
religion and later in national/ethnic terms, as a people. In recent
decades, however, political correctness has made it impossible for
“respectable Europeans” to self-define as anti-Semites.
So the hatred mutated. A third major generation of
anti-Semitism has developed: anti-Israelism, which targets the Jewish
state. The inroads this has made in Europe were proven by a 2011 study
conducted by the German University of Bielefeld. From this study it
emerged that at least 150 million adult EU citizens agreed with the
statement that Israel is conducting “a war of extermination against the
Palestinians.”
Were this in fact the case, hardly any
Palestinians would still be alive. To the contrary, the number of
Palestinians has increased over the past decades. The persistent myth of
Jews being responsible for the killing of Jesus has partially mutated
into a new myth: that Israel is committing an act of genocide against
the Palestinians.
In another new mutation of anti-Semitism, European
Jews are now accused of being responsible for Israel’s actions. A
December 2018 study by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed that
this idea ranks among the most frequent expressions of anti-Semitism in
many European countries. Another aspect of anti-Semitism in Europe is
the return of the word “Jew” – without an adjective – as a curse. It is
also often used as an invective by non-Jews against other non-Jews.
There are also examples of real and fictitious
Jewish characters who have become negative symbols in European
subcultures. The name Rothschild has become a symbol with which to
denounce destructive capitalism. Shakespeare’s mean-spirited Shylock
from the Merchant of Venice is still used to symbolize Jewish greed.
The way that ingrained anti-Semitism manifests
itself varies not only from subculture to subculture but also from
country to country. In January 2014, a mass rally in Paris took place.
This “Day of Anger” was not related to any specific Jewish topic, and
part of the protest was against French president François Hollande’s
economic plans. However, various groups of participants started to shout
anti-Semitic slogans. These included, “Jews, France doesn’t belong to
you” and [the Holocaust denier] “Faurisson is right,” as well as “the
Holocaust was a hoax.”
The same has happened recently in the “Yellow
Vest” demonstrations. These are ostensibly a protest against French
president Emmanuel Macron’s raising of fuel prices – again, a topic that
has nothing to do with Jews. Yet during some of the demonstrations,
there have been signs describing Macron as a “whore of the Jews” and as
their “puppet.”
The late leading academic historian of anti-Semitism, Robert Wistrich, said,
Anti-Semitism in Great Britain has been around for
almost a thousand years of recorded history. Medieval England already
led in anti-Semitism. In the Middle Ages, England pioneered the blood
libel. The Norwich case in 1144 marked the first time Jews were accused
of using the blood of Christian children for the Passover unleavened
bread (matza).
In the twelfth century, medieval Britain was a
persecutory Catholic society, particularly when it came to Jews. In this
environment, the English Church was a leader in instituting cruel
legislation and discriminatory conduct toward Jews, unparalleled in the
rest of Europe.
Wistrich devoted an entire chapter to the ways
British anti-Semitism has developed over the centuries into contemporary
anti-Semitism in his book, A Lethal Obsession.
State anti-Semitism against Jews has become
marginal in the EU. If one applies the definition of the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), however, both the EU and many of
its member countries commit anti-Semitic acts. One of the most frequent
acts of state anti-Semitism is voting for anti-Israel resolutions at the
UN, which is a hotbed of anti-Israel discrimination. No similar
resolutions are passed at that body in anywhere near such large numbers
against other countries.
Despite all this, hardly any non-Jewish
personalities point out that anti-Semitism is part of European culture.
One of the very few such voices is the head of the Anglican Church,
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. He has said that anti-Semitism is
entrenched in British culture.
In 2017 at Yad Vashem, Welby observed: “Within
European culture, the root of all racism, I think, is found in
anti-Semitism. It goes back more than 1,000 years in Europe. Within our
Christian tradition, there has been century upon century of these
terrible, terrible hatreds in which one people … [are] hated more
specifically, more violently, more determinedly, more systematically
than any other people.” One can only conclude that he is right.
This is an edited version of an article that was published in Algemeiner on January 16, 2019.
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/anti-semitism-is-deeply-woven-into-the-european-fabric/
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