By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — Negative campaigning isn’t new in the world. Just look at what the Republican presidential candidates are currently saying about each other in the United States But you can’t diminish an American by accusing him/her of being Jewish. On the contrary. It’s different in, say,Poland where being called a Jew is often a sure way of losing support in an election.
The Libyans seem to have adapted the method. The rebels found a way of defaming the slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi by saying that his mother was Jewish.
Bernard Lewis, the famous scholar of Islam, has written that Muslims have learnt from Christians how to use anti-Semitic images. A study just published byIsrael’s Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs cites the Libyan anecdote as an illustration of the growth of anti-Semitism after the Arab Spring. It also says this:
“Charges of an international Jewish conspiracy have been a central motif in the anti-Semitic propaganda that has accompanied the Arab Spring uprisings. This motif has been emphasized in each of the countries especially by way of pointing a blaming finger towardsIsrael, Zionism and Jews conspiring against Arabs and Muslims.”
Though this may account for much of the increase in anti-Jewish activities around the world last year, it’s by no means the only cause. The report points out that anti-Semitism is doing indecently well in most countries on all continents.
The report will be followed in April by statistical data, but Yuli Edestein, the minister responsible, wanted to brief the Israeli cabinet now on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, which this year has been linked to the 70th anniversary of the infamous Wannsee Conference that charted the “Final Solution.” The report seems to tell us to start to worry now; the evidence will follow later.
It’s a kind of message that goes down well in Israel where many people think of the Diaspora as a dangerous hotbed of anti-Semitism. The fact that, like elsewhere in the world, the countries of the Arab Spring have virtually no Jews, in no way diminishes Jew-hatred, especially when it’s fused with hatred ofIsrael.
Even though some new immigrants – at present especially Jews from Ethiopia – have a different story to tell, the Israeli public is repeatedly bidden to reflect on the implications of the news about international anti-Semitism to remember that Israel is the only country in the world where Jews will always be welcome as free and equal citizens.
Though most people will concur, few Jews in North America, and even not many inEurope, are prepared to act on it. Trying to persuade Israelis that they’ve a good life in the Diaspora, Jews living abroad are likely to view the incidents that the report lists as trivial exceptions that in no way reflect the real situation.
Of course, each side interprets the facts according to its preconceived notions of authentic Jewish existence. Objective truth, if it’s ever possible, remains elusive. It seems that both sides are right and both are also wrong. Israelis are right to remind us that anti-Semitism as the disease of the Gentiles seems to be incurable, even if alarming symptoms are often latent. They’re also right in recognizing that the Arab Spring has exacerbated Jew-hatred in the region.
But they’re probably wrong if they conclude that in other parts of the world Jewish life is precarious. That’s not how those who live there experience it.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his time between Canada and Israel, and may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com