WILLIAM ECHIKSON - What’s behind Europe’s surge in anti-Semitism?
Anti-Semitism is back
in Europe. Cries
of “dirty Jew” during Yellow Jackets protests in France, anti-Semitic
posters condemning Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros in
Hungary, a
row
over anti-Semitic remarks that threatens to tear the Labour Party
apart in the U.K. - these are all part of the same worrying trend. This particularly
European pathology never truly went away, of course, but it had been confined,
after the Holocaust, to the far-right fringes of society. Now the numbers of
high-profile incidents and violent attacks are
multiplying.
Not only is this disease back; it is being weaponized by
nationalist governments and parties on both sides of the political spectrum. So what explains this
alarming resurgence? The collapse of
Europe’s center-right, center-left political consensus plays an important role.
As the center has dissolved, the fringes have expanded. The rise of extremist
parties has acted like a green light for the Continent’s anti-Semitism, much
like U.S. President Donald Trump has empowered racists and white supremacists
to speak up on the other side of the Atlantic.
At a basic level,
today’s European anti-Semitic threat is physical. France this month reported a 74 percent increase in violent attacks
against Jews, and German police announced a 60 percent rise. In a survey addressing more than 16,000 Jewish people
in 12 European countries, the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency at the end of last
year found that 90 percent of respondents felt anti-Semitism is growing in
their country, and 30 percent said they have been harassed. Over a third
avoided going to Jewish events or sites out of fear for their safety.
The United States,
too, is standing on the wrong side of this ideological battleground.
The danger goes beyond
the physical. Issues that, on the face, have nothing to do with Jews — the
migration crisis or a protest movement sparked by fuel prices — suddenly became
all about them. Centuries-old stereotypes have reappeared: the conniving Jewish
financier, the all-powerful Jewish conspirator accused of buying political
influence or acting as a “globalist,” pulling the levers of power in pursuit of
enrichment. The common theme: Jew are “others” who do not belong in European
society. The source of this
resurgence differs in Western and Eastern Europe... read more:
see also
The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals: Written by Benedetto Croce (1925)
Moishe Postone: Anti-semitism and National Socialism
Source for German
archival materials: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/about.cfm
National
Citizenship Law & Law
for the Protection of German blood and German Honour (1935)
The Romanies:
Anti-gypsyism to the Holocaust and after
The Aporias of Marxism / Archaism and Modernity. By Enzo Traverso 