Wave of anti-Semitism clouds holiday season

MIRAH LANGER

This hatred manifested in brutal killings such as that which took place at a rabbi’s Chanukah celebration in Monsey, New York, as well as a shooting, earlier that same month, at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City that killed four. It has also been made visible in an unrelenting number of incidents involving slurs, threats, assaults, and vandalism against Jewish people, organisations, and property across various parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

In the first ten days of 2020, 14 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to the American-based Anti-Defamation League from across the country. These incidents ranged from swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans being scrawled in a school, on a Staten Island Ferry, and on parked cars, to a women’s sheitel being ripped off her head, and a knife attack by a man who screamed to his Jewish victim, “Hitler did not kill enough of you in the gas chambers.”

For both Mary Kluk, the president of the SA Board of Jewish Deputies (SAJBD), and Milton Shain, emeritus professor of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), though these attacks are part of a historical pattern of scapegoating, they also have new and disturbing manifestations.

“Anti-Semitism has been able to mutate through the centuries [taking the form of] a classic “other” in the ancient world; religious deviants in the medieval Christian and Muslim worlds; racial outsiders in the modern era; and a plague in Nazi Germany. Only the rhetoric seems to change through the ages,” said Shain.

Kluk said that in terms of the most recent attacks, the levels of brutality were shocking. “What does appear to be relatively new is the growing prevalence of violent attacks against Jews or Jewish property. Most anti-Semites are content to simply say bad things about Jews, but some – and the numbers are growing – have been sufficiently motivated to take action. Among other things, this creates the danger of inspiring copycat attacks.”

Furthermore, she said, “It’s obviously worrying that while most anti-Semitic attacks are carried out anonymously and in secret, several have been sufficiently emboldened or radicalised to carry them out openly – the live streaming of the attack on the synagogue in Halle [in Germany] on Yom Kippur being one such example.”

In addition, said Kluk, there has been “a disturbing upsurge in ‘lone-wolf’ physical attacks on Jews, particularly in parts of the US.”

She said that these attacks were especially dangerous because they were hard to predict, as often these individuals were socially isolated, and used social media and the internet to plot and proclaim their hatred.

Shain, too, noted that the long tendrils of anti-Semitism were able to spread across the world through the use of digital networks.

“The Jew as the incarnation of evil was originally a European Christian myth exported to the Muslim world. It has now been re-exported to the West, driven by a resurgent Islamicisation, aided and abetted by the internet and social media.”

Kluk noted that the recent tension between the US and Iran had also resulted in old tropes about Jews being resurrected:

“As per the typically paranoid and conspiratorial modes of thinking, Jews [primarily identified nowadays as ‘Zionists’] are seen as the power behind the throne pushing the US towards war.”

Shain also noted how issues around Israel had become intertangled into the mix, “While it would be problematic to axiomatically equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, it seems that today anti-Zionism is a hygienic form of Jew-hatred.”

Ultimately, both Shain and Kluk suggest that as society continues to remain deeply stratified and unequal, Jews will be likely targets.

“Current trends show that societies are becoming increasing polarised, whether along racial, ideological (left-right), social-economic, or religious-anti-religious lines,” said Kluk.

“It’s creating an ‘us’ and ‘them’ culture, where it is becoming ever harder to get people to even agree to disagree, let alone have respectful, honest conversations about what the issues are.

In such “declining levels of civility and tolerance” it is expected that “finger-pointing and scapegoating become accepted as normal behaviour. Traditionally Jews have always been most on the receiving end in such situations.”

When it comes to economic and class issues for example, “standard tropes portraying Jews as exploitative capitalists responsible for the plight of the oppressed underclasses continue to fester”, she noted.

Shain cautioned that South Africa wasn’t necessarily immune to the trend of targeting Jews in the face of ongoing divisions in society:

“In a world of growing disparities, the Jew is vulnerable. This also applies to South Africa where a series of surveys since the late 1970s has demonstrated the penetration and survival of ugly anti-Jewish stereotypes. Hitherto, these have not translated in programmatic anti-Semitism – perhaps the result of South Africa’s long struggle against racism and prejudice. But one should not be overconfident,” he mused.

However, Kluk made a distinction between the past context and contemporary climate of anti-Semitism.

“There is a crucial difference between the position Jews find themselves in today and the way things were even half a century ago,” she said.

“Previously, most Jews lived in countries that were not democracies and where anti-Jewish behaviour was not merely tolerated, but often orchestrated from the top down. It was state-sponsored, in other words,” Kluk said.

“Today, the situation has been turned entirely on its head. Nearly all Jews live in democratic countries which outlaw all forms of discrimination and prejudice. They can thus rely on their respective governments to protect them and uphold their rights, although they need to do whatever they can to ensure that this happens. Concerning though the prevalence of ‘bottom up’ anti-Jewish activity is, those responsible can be held accountable. It makes a huge difference.”

For Shain, the fight against anti-Semitism necessitated collaboration and a firm sense of purpose:

“Jewish leaders have to build alliances across the political spectrum to combat all hatred, including anti-Semitism. Liberal values have to be strengthened and hatred challenged by all available means.”

Kluk shared his sentiments, suggesting that, “where possible and when appropriate” the campaign for Jewish rights and against anti-Semitism should form “part of the broader fight against inequality and prejudice. Global Jewry need to be at the coalface of the fight against any form of prejudice and hatred.”