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Содержание Antisemitism: propositions on building the concept

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APPENDIX

ANTISEMITISM:

PROPOSITIONS ON BUILDING THE CONCEPT

Viktor Dashevsky, Semen Charny

(Moscow)


Foreword

The definitions of antisemitism and its principal forms given below are the result of a strenuous work conducted by the Expert Group (EG) on antisemitism issues within the Commission of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on the former USSR. The group was set up in the autumn of 2006 on the initiative of M.A. Chlenov, co-chairman of the Commission of WJC, General Secretary of EAJC, to monitor and analyze the manifestations of antisemitism in the post-Soviet space, and as well to advise state authorities and Jewish organizations on the subject. The activities by EG have derived support from the majority of the main Jewish organizations in Russia with their representatives being among the members of the Group.

The definitions of antisemitism have been being developed for over a hundred years. The contemporary encyclopedic editions (in particular Russian, British and American) define antisemitism generally as hostility against Jews – one of the forms of xenophobia connected with religious and ethnic prejudice toward Jewish people or Jewish religious communities. Yet even a superficial analysis of the encyclopedic definitions results in complications when trying to provide an exact and “non-temporal” wording for the concept. Not without reason does “Encyclopedia Americana” say that “the contemporary term “antisemitism” for want of something better (underlined by us – auth.) implies hostility toward Jews by non-Jews”. There is further explicated that “antisemitism as a mass movement means hatred of the Jews rather as a race than a religious community”⁶³. No doubt, this definition reflects a historical reality of the period between the second half of the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century when there had emerged a description (presently declared as fallacious) of Jews as a separate race and formed antisemitism as a political movement. The term “antisemitism” emerged in Germany: “The German agitator and antisemite Wilhelm Marr used it to label the anti-Jewish campaigns that had place that time in the Central Europe”⁶⁴. The matter concerns the seventies of the 19^th century.

The history of the 20^th century has proven that antisemitism “is not a mere hatred of the Jews”⁶⁵. Antisemitism had played a truly ominous historical part having become “the catalyst of first the Nazi movement followed by the world war and eventually the institution of the “death mills”⁶⁶. Hannah Arendt illustrated in her world-renowned book that antisemitism along with racism and imperialism had become the prerequisites for the totalitarian regime formation. Even in the present 21^st century antisemitism still remains an integral part of the ideology and policy for those movements that dispute democracy as a political system and threaten the very basis of the modern civilization. Hence one can realistically say that modern antisemitism bears threat not only (and under certain conditions – not so much) to Jews.

However, the situation wasn’t the same all the time. Antisemitism arose in the antiquity epoch as a xenophobic reaction of Hellenistic world to Judaic monotheism and Jewish Diaspora’s way of living based on it⁶⁷. As is well known, the two world religions – Christianity and Islam – “derived to a certain degree from Judaism to confront it”⁶⁸. According to M. Chlenov, this fact underlies the role of antisemitism as “a specific cultural code inherent to Islamic and Christian civilizations”⁶⁹. For the hundreds years antisemitism had existed exactly in the religious context with the Jews adhering to Judaism as an object of persecution. The religious prejudices had become stronger since approximately the beginning of the 12^th century in connection with the crusades and emerging economic competition between Jewish and non-Jewish urban population in Europe. These had greatly affected the mass psychology. Judeophobia sprang up as common dislike for the Jews without ideological motivation, while the idea of them as the evil bearers started its growth. While the early modern Europe was undergoing the processes of secularization, the Christian Judeophobia started incorporating the racial and nationalistic teachings rapidly. Owing to the efforts by H.S. Chamberlain and like “theorists” of the 19^th and the 20^th centuries, the racial antisemitism had predominated over the religious one, having become the precursor of the Nazi ideology which resulted in Holocaust.

Thus, antisemitism doesn’t persist unchanged, its forms and features vary considerably in different periods of history and, that is of most importance, its political role undergoes changes. Having absorbed the widespread prejudices and turned into an ideology and a political movement, antisemitism has stopped its being as just one of numerous manifestations of xenophobia in the present world. There have emerged the new types and forms of antisemitism of which one couldn’t even think in the mid-20^th century: Holocaust denial, neo-antisemitism in the mask of “anti-Zionism”, proclaiming one’s political rivals as the Jews for the purpose of defamation. Apparently the words “antisemitism” and “Judeophobia” are used presently as the synonyms. Yet we are positive that there are grounds to discriminate between them.

Judeophobia is rather psychological phenomenon. When saying the notion we imply the feeling of dislike for the Jews without ideological motivation, common intolerance to them, so to speak – “the everyday antisemitism”⁷⁰.

Modern antisemitism represents a wider idea including Jedeophobia as its irrational psychological basis. Since the second half of the 19^th century in Europe (and presently in Islamic world) antisemitism is the embodiment of an ideological doctrine and subsequent political practice. Due to its historical grounds, antisemitism as an ideological doctrine is part and parcel of the mythology of the “world backstage” and “world plot” while Jews stand for evil bearers. Antisemitism has proven its option to serve as a political instrument at the disposal of various socio-political movements and sometimes even the means of their at least temporary and tactical closing in. As a rule, these movements uphold the principles of totalitarian power, corporative society, and dictatorship of the “chosen” upon the others. Not by accident the antisemitic ideology and practice being a customary instrument of Right radicals (as far as neo-Nazis) have been added to the arsenal of the parties and groups advancing the communist and Left radical slogans. In Russia, this is most obvious in the ideology and political tactics of CPRF (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) headed by G. Zyuganov and the activities by minor “left” groups (like V. Anpilov’s “Trudovaya Rossiya”). As for the Russian “Right radicals” (from the deputies of the State Duma A. Savelyev and N. Kuryanovich to undisguised Nazis like A. Aratov and A. Ivanov-Sukharevsky) they share antisemitism as “common denominator”, the point of contact and similarity which is practically more important than any program and tactical differences.

While Judeophobia doesn’t prevail presently among the forms of xenophobia available in the post-Soviet space, antisemitism plays the paramount part in an ideology of many opposition parties and groups in the region. That’s why we have to speak about social and political antisemitism which came to take the place of state antisemitism that had been utilized in the USSR since the period of Stalin’s dictatorship till the end of the eighties of the 20^th century (the time when the USSR was on the verge of collapse).

At the beginning of the 21^st century, antisemitism has become an integral part of the ideology and practice of radical Islamists operating in Muslim countries and Muslim communities in the countries of the West and the post-Soviet space. These groups openly propagate annihilation of Israel, practice violence and terror against the Jewish State and Jewish communities. Antisemitism by radical Islamists has much in common with the so called “new antisemitism” by the Left radicals in Europe and the USA positioning themselves not as antisemites but as “the fighters against the world Zionism”.

The fact of existence of several (out-of-date) definitions of antisemitism allows its present-day adherents to evade responsibility. The vital need for a new definition has arisen to reflect all those changes which have occurred in the world for the last decades. This need has become a subject of active debates in the organizations struggling against antisemitism (and not only in the post-Soviet space).

These debates have brought a point at issue: must there be discriminated religious, conspirological and other forms of antisemitism as the separate ideological directions? The answer is simple: time has changed. At present, “pure” antisemitism is hardly to encounter. The minds of modern antisemites are usually full of common, religious, conspirological and other forms of antisemitism. That’s why the experts believe it would be more correct to classify antisemitism according to its carriers: a state, the representatives of “antisemitic communities” and the ordinary “everyday antisemites”.

There was also being disputed an expediency of introducing a special case of defamation against Judaism. The subject seems rather pressing against the background of the demands to outlaw Jewish religious organizations on the grounds of a few quotations from the code of Jewish religious right or the myth of “blood accusation”. Anyhow one should remember that all the monotheistic (Abrahamic) religions state their creed is solely right while the beliefs and the rites of the “rivals” is heresy, barbarism, etc. In such a way, a few world religions would be claimed antisemitic a priory, which is an utter fallacy.

The final problem concerns the definition of state antisemitism which is usually taken as a synonym to the presence of state officials with antisemitic predisposition. By no means willing to be reputed as the supporters of the legend on “a good king and the bad boyars”, yet we suppose it’s quite easy in the present context of modern informational accessibility to grasp an idea of some state’s policy and to find out whether some official operates at his own risk or in the context of the national policy.