The more antisemitic you are, the more you are sure the Jews are lording their superiority over you, the more you hate them, and the more antisemitic you become.
Wonderful essay Pat and thank you for supporting Jews and Israel throughout the years. Just want to add to Jews being easy prey. Diaspora Jews for the most part do not fight back physically. Start up with a Brother and chances are you are gonna get your ass kicked. Start up with a Jew and (again I am talking for the most part) chances are he/she will walk away. At worst, you may get sued. Look at the Pro Hamas demonstrators and look at the violence that happens so often. Its not for self defence, they purposely initiate it. And what is our response? We hope the cops will do their jobs and come to our rescue. The opposite is true ... because the Pals are violent, the cops actually placate them and tell us to move. The cops arent stupid, they dont want to get hurt. The pals are violent cuz aint nobody gonna do anything about it. And the easiest Jews to attack are the Hasidim cuz they are the least violent of all.
Yep, when it comes to the easiest to hate category, we get 1st prize easily.
There are so many thoughtful explanations like this one for anti-semitism, but it is not a rational hatred. Unfortunately, t’s part of the world’s DNA. Am Yisrael Chai must be our anthem.
Even after reading all that, I still don’t get it. Why the Jews? Maybe because they Israel is in the media every day, Israel = Jews. Jews 🟰 genocide, apartheid, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and it never stops. I’m a Christian, my faith teaches me that the God I worship loves and protects the Jewish people, has brought them back to the land He gave to them to be a light in the darkness, and Israel is surrounded by the darkness of Islam and for this reason she is both hated and loved.
The darkness does not understand the light but it shines in dark places and reveals the shadows of evil
I always appreciate reading the viewpoint of Jews and sympathetic non-Jews about why Jew hatred exists, but the reasons and various rationales miss the point. They fail to recognize the nature of evil in the world and our flailing human attempts to make sense of it all. East European Jews were poor, not allowed to own land, and could never be mistaken for being rich or powerful. Most were uneducated, except for some in Torah and Talmud. Many illiterate. Yet they suffered the worst during the WWII genocide. The Story of Job in the bible is the Story of the Jew in this world. The lesson we learn from the Story of Job is our feeble human attempts to rationalize or find reason for the unfairness, Jew hatred, and inconsistency in the world fails because we don't understand the true nature and source of evil. What we learn from Job is despite the devil spawned animous towards Jews and our futile human attempts to find reason and cause, Hashem will not allow the Jewish people to be destroyed.
Amen. It is because we carry The Law. Whether secular or piss poor, Jews everywhere in every epoch all have one common denominator: The Law. We carry Sabbath wherever we go. Kahane was right about rising up: “every Jew a .22” I keep quoting…
Great article. You're right -- it's hard to follow. But I think perhaps behind all of it is a deep-seated jealousy - why. I'm not sure.
One small thing: "Antisemitism on the Left is overwhelmingly more subtle. It is unconscious attitudes or stereotypes, preconceived notions that lead to confirmation bias." Not so true these days with the campus woke crowd. They're fairly aggressive.
Read it. Wow. It's cult-like these young people. And on another topic, I always thought of Judaism as a founding concept of Western civilization, along with Greek philosophy (of course the cultures of the time borrowed from each other, back and forth). The Jewish part is the idea of one god as the creator of everyone. Seems to me that's the beginning of something. Well anyway, enjoy your writing.
Thanks Robin. I guess there are multiple theories but also contending positions among those theories. Judaism could be both a founding culture and a rejected component, I suppose, as both a positive influence and a source of opposition. I’ll be considering and writing about this more. Thank you for your words.
Antisemitism on the left is however becoming much more overt and taking on the same characteristics as antisemitism on the far right such as conspiracy theories and overt hatred. They don't even pretend to mask it in terms of criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism anymore, but openly express hatred of Jews.
"Antisemitism on the Right tends to be tiki-torch-carrying kooks, overt hatred, and conspiracy theories. Antisemitism on the Left is overwhelmingly more subtle. It is unconscious attitudes or stereotypes, preconceived notions that lead to confirmation bias".
Todays new communists are the Bernie Sanders types, although Soros professes that he is against communism ,his new world order funding anarchist organizations like move on org & BLM etc achieves the same result a totalitarian world where free speech is suppressed and the state is G-d.
Unfortunately most American Jews in their misguided concept of “wokeness” misinterpreting that to be “ repairing the world” living in a pampered left wing fantasyland, vote against their own safety and survival when they vote for the leftists in the Dem party. The % of right wing anti semites is much smaller, facilitated by the more despicable elements of our tribe who attack every shred of decency this country has given us. The names are too numerous to count in politics, Hollywood, the media, academia, even business.
Keep one thing in mind the greatest backers of the state of Israel are ironically NOT American Jews but evangelical Christians. The reverend Hagee, with millions of followers, the LDS church etc.
Bottom line is it's spiritual,starting in the Torah's account of the fall, "...i (Hashem) will put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring...." It's been downhill ever since.
Wonderful essay Pat and thank you for supporting Jews and Israel throughout the years. Just want to add to Jews being easy prey. Diaspora Jews for the most part do not fight back physically. Start up with a Brother and chances are you are gonna get your ass kicked. Start up with a Jew and (again I am talking for the most part) chances are he/she will walk away. At worst, you may get sued. Look at the Pro Hamas demonstrators and look at the violence that happens so often. Its not for self defence, they purposely initiate it. And what is our response? We hope the cops will do their jobs and come to our rescue. The opposite is true ... because the Pals are violent, the cops actually placate them and tell us to move. The cops arent stupid, they dont want to get hurt. The pals are violent cuz aint nobody gonna do anything about it. And the easiest Jews to attack are the Hasidim cuz they are the least violent of all.
Yep, when it comes to the easiest to hate category, we get 1st prize easily.
papa j
There are so many thoughtful explanations like this one for anti-semitism, but it is not a rational hatred. Unfortunately, t’s part of the world’s DNA. Am Yisrael Chai must be our anthem.
Thank you for this article and for your work.
Ditto
Even after reading all that, I still don’t get it. Why the Jews? Maybe because they Israel is in the media every day, Israel = Jews. Jews 🟰 genocide, apartheid, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and it never stops. I’m a Christian, my faith teaches me that the God I worship loves and protects the Jewish people, has brought them back to the land He gave to them to be a light in the darkness, and Israel is surrounded by the darkness of Islam and for this reason she is both hated and loved.
The darkness does not understand the light but it shines in dark places and reveals the shadows of evil
You missed the point.
Jew hate started by Mohammed and is written in Koran .
As per Koran any non Muslim is a kufar to be killed or converted.
That is why Islam is incompatible with any other beliefs.
I know what the Quran teaches. But I still think Islam is the darkness that surrounds Israel.
Beautifully, well written and thoughtful essay, Pat! Enjoyed reading
Excellent. So, so true.
I always appreciate reading the viewpoint of Jews and sympathetic non-Jews about why Jew hatred exists, but the reasons and various rationales miss the point. They fail to recognize the nature of evil in the world and our flailing human attempts to make sense of it all. East European Jews were poor, not allowed to own land, and could never be mistaken for being rich or powerful. Most were uneducated, except for some in Torah and Talmud. Many illiterate. Yet they suffered the worst during the WWII genocide. The Story of Job in the bible is the Story of the Jew in this world. The lesson we learn from the Story of Job is our feeble human attempts to rationalize or find reason for the unfairness, Jew hatred, and inconsistency in the world fails because we don't understand the true nature and source of evil. What we learn from Job is despite the devil spawned animous towards Jews and our futile human attempts to find reason and cause, Hashem will not allow the Jewish people to be destroyed.
Amen. It is because we carry The Law. Whether secular or piss poor, Jews everywhere in every epoch all have one common denominator: The Law. We carry Sabbath wherever we go. Kahane was right about rising up: “every Jew a .22” I keep quoting…
Great article. You're right -- it's hard to follow. But I think perhaps behind all of it is a deep-seated jealousy - why. I'm not sure.
One small thing: "Antisemitism on the Left is overwhelmingly more subtle. It is unconscious attitudes or stereotypes, preconceived notions that lead to confirmation bias." Not so true these days with the campus woke crowd. They're fairly aggressive.
They are aggressive -- but they * pretend * to be anti-Zionist, not antisemitic. I deal with this in my post today ... https://pat604johnson.substack.com/p/anti-zionism-is-immoral
Read it. Wow. It's cult-like these young people. And on another topic, I always thought of Judaism as a founding concept of Western civilization, along with Greek philosophy (of course the cultures of the time borrowed from each other, back and forth). The Jewish part is the idea of one god as the creator of everyone. Seems to me that's the beginning of something. Well anyway, enjoy your writing.
Thanks Robin. I guess there are multiple theories but also contending positions among those theories. Judaism could be both a founding culture and a rejected component, I suppose, as both a positive influence and a source of opposition. I’ll be considering and writing about this more. Thank you for your words.
Antisemitism on the left is however becoming much more overt and taking on the same characteristics as antisemitism on the far right such as conspiracy theories and overt hatred. They don't even pretend to mask it in terms of criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism anymore, but openly express hatred of Jews.
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"Antisemitism on the Right tends to be tiki-torch-carrying kooks, overt hatred, and conspiracy theories. Antisemitism on the Left is overwhelmingly more subtle. It is unconscious attitudes or stereotypes, preconceived notions that lead to confirmation bias".
Anti-semitism is for the most part emblematic of the left, most of the old communists were self hating athiestic Jews
Todays new communists are the Bernie Sanders types, although Soros professes that he is against communism ,his new world order funding anarchist organizations like move on org & BLM etc achieves the same result a totalitarian world where free speech is suppressed and the state is G-d.
Unfortunately most American Jews in their misguided concept of “wokeness” misinterpreting that to be “ repairing the world” living in a pampered left wing fantasyland, vote against their own safety and survival when they vote for the leftists in the Dem party. The % of right wing anti semites is much smaller, facilitated by the more despicable elements of our tribe who attack every shred of decency this country has given us. The names are too numerous to count in politics, Hollywood, the media, academia, even business.
Keep one thing in mind the greatest backers of the state of Israel are ironically NOT American Jews but evangelical Christians. The reverend Hagee, with millions of followers, the LDS church etc.
Bottom line is it's spiritual,starting in the Torah's account of the fall, "...i (Hashem) will put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring...." It's been downhill ever since.