That is a Racist Slur

Front Page Mag ^ | 5.12.03 | Jonathan Freedland

[MEG33]

My family discussed the anti Jew bias yesterday.We were born in the wrong part of the country or something as we don't understand anti semitism.I was not taught to suspect Jews and it continues to baffle me.I know it exists,of course.

[onyx]

"Blame the Jews" is so often trotted out that you'd think it would be worn-out and thread-bare by now. But NOOOOOOO, hatred only grows. Pathetic. Disgusting.

[MEG33]

I just don't get it.

[American in Israel]

You must be a Christian.

[MEG33]

Yes.

[Sonny M]

I'm from NYC, up until fairley recently, anti-semetism wasn't really something people talked about openly. Generally, it was just your kooks and neo-nazi's who had that attitude. Then, more and more, it started coming to the surface. In college, you would have alot of kids, mostly the ones who were either african american or hispanic, making, in class, anti-semetic references. Now, its very much out in the open, though people use the word neo-conservative instead of say "the jews". I got into an arguement the other night, with a left wing loon who was arguing that the "neos" are in control of this country, she didn't try to hide the fact that she meant jew. I asked her to name, just one jewish member in the Cabinet, just one. She said there aren't any, they are all behind the scenes controlling everything. Even worse, a couple of my friends who I had assumed would know better didn't even blink an eye, saying that, they keep hearing that on the news, so maybe it could be true.

[MEG33]

This cabal thing is out of control!..Mark Steyn had me hurting ,I laughed so hard at a recent column.

[frodolives]

I'm surprized that some say Judaism as a "race". Is Islam a "race"? Catholisism? Since when can you convert your race?

[randog]

We were born in the wrong part of the country or something as we don't understand anti semitism.I was not taught to suspect Jews and it continues to baffle me.I know it exists,of course.

Same with me. I was born, raised and live in a medium-sized western city and just don't get the whole anti-jewish thing. I know several people that are jewish and I just can't see how they're an object to be despise. If they hadn't revealed their jewish-ness to me I never would have known.

[Salman]

I'm surprized that some say Judaism as a "race". Is Islam a "race"? Catholisism? Since when can you convert your race?

This is at the core of anti-semitism. In the nineteeth century in Germany and France it became intellectually disrespectable to be a religious bigot. Or indeed religious at all.

Thus the notion that Jews are enemies as members of the semitic "race" as a way of hanging on to their bigotry.

The word "race" once meant nationality or lineage, as in "the Irish race", the "French race", even the "Jewish race". "Race" came to have the connotation of a biological subspecies. Hence racist anthropological theories, etc.

[Tarsk]

"I'm surprized that some say Judaism as a "race". Is Islam a "race"? Catholisism? Since when can you convert your race?"

Of course, Jews are a people, with everything that suggests: a common heritage; a common history; a common language; a common religion. There is also recent very strong evidence to suggest that most Jews (except recent converts) are very closely linked genetically, but really that is not the point as genes don't make a people but culture most definitely does.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'm surprized that some say Judaism as a "race".

What confuses me is a thing like..."Jewish Rye Bread"

How do you determine that a loaf of rye bread is Jewish? Is it a male loaf of rye bread? And if so, how or where do you circumcise it? And why is there no "Catholic Rye Bread"? If there is "Jewish Rye Bread" I would expect at the very least to see "Catholic White Bread".

And what about the Buddhists and the Muslims? Why aren't they screaming for equality in the bread arena?

[Tarsk]

"I'm from NYC, up until fairley recently, anti-semetism wasn't really something people talked about openly. Generally, it was just your kooks and neo-nazi's who had that attitude. Then, more and more, it started coming to the surface"

A very important point you make. We Jews are often accused of being over-sensitive to anti-Semitism. We're not, we just realise that the virus of anti-Semitism never really disappears but periodically just goes into stasis for a while, only to reappear in a slightly different and often more virulent guise.

[dighton]

Classic ad bump.

[Sonny M]

I don't think that Jews are overly sensitive to anti-semetism, but they problem that many of them encounter, is that they do not go aggressivley enough after the serious bigotry, and some of these groups go after, to put it best "small potato's". A teacher trying to teach a course on Nazi culture (and not in a sympathetic way) gets the hard treatment, while the NY Times commits libel and gets away with it.

[Tarsk]

"In college, you would have alot of kids, mostly the ones who were either african american or hispanic, making, in class, anti-semetic references"

What makes me puke is that it was Jews that were in the forefront of the fight to give equality to African- Americans. It's just like South Africa where the Jews fought against apartheid when no other white people wanted to know. Mandela qualifed as a lawyer because a Jew hired him; no other white would touch him. When he was on Robben Island it was Helen Sussman, the leading Jewish Member of Parliament who first spoke out against his imprisonment and led the campaign to have him released. And what do we get for our pains? A viciously anti-Semitic UN conference on race at Durban, and a government and a Mandela who are staunch supporters of Arafat and his terrorist gangs and active haters of Israel.

[Tarsk]

"I don't think that Jews are overly sensitive to anti-semetism, but they problem that many of them encounter, is that they do not go aggressivley enough after the serious bigotry, and some of these groups go after, to put it best "small potato's"."

Wouldn't you imagine after all this time that Jews wouldn't have to fight alone? That says a lot about the world and how it really hasn't changed one bit in the sixty years since the Holocaust.

[Sonny M]

I wish alot more groups would start condemning PETA, they have been on a wicked anti-semetic streak as of late, by comparing the holocaust to sitting down to dinner, yet being very quick to say, they have no opinion on the Israeli and Palestin conflict, but decrying the death of animals that may be harmed (but if you listen carefully, they subtley blame Israel for the whole thing).

[johnb838]

I was raised the same way. I was also raised to support Israel's right to exist. My belief that they are the Chosen People and the only ones with a right to that land only grows stronger the longer I'm a practicing Christian.

My only fear is that if the same statement was made in the House of Representatives, that it wouldn't cost anybody their job here either. They are not exactly a preferred minority.