As those who know me will readily confirm, I tend to be quite outspoken on political subjects; what's more, I hope most of them would concede (although I may be wrong here) that I am generally accepting of dissenting views, no matter how passionately I may disagree with them. Yet, for reasons both personal and ideological, I have never had the stomach for the various forms of hatred, especially when they masquerade as legitimate ideas.
One particular form of hatred that I find myself encountering with disturbing frequency is that of anti-Semitism. But before I further elaborate upon this problem, there is one tactic often used by those who wish to discredit allegations of anti-Semitism that I feel needs to be preemptively rebutted:
I am not stating, either overtly or implicitly, that one cannot criticize Jewish institutions (viz. the State of Israel, AIPAC, etc.) or individuals (Paul Wolfowitz, Joseph Lieberman) without being anti-Semitic. Jewish people are just as capable of wrongdoing as anybody else, be it as individuals or in groups. There is a variant of these prejudices that IS anti-Semitic, however, which I will discuss in a moment.
Having hopefully addressed those who would embrace the vogue of anti-political correctness as a means of cursorily disposing of this article, I shall now list what I perceive to be the primary manifestations of anti-Semitism in American political life:
1. I have often heard the transgressions of individual Jews or Jewish institutions implicitly or explicitly attributed to all members of that group (e.g., the frequent occasions when I have heard "the Jews" blamed for Israel's transgressions, or "the Jews" accused of being oppressive landlords in impoverished urban communities, etc.). The underlying assumption here is the Jewish community as a whole possesses the power to reprimand individual members, and that belief is anti-Semitic.
2. I have often heard claims that Jews have a disproportionately high amount of power (through allegations of political manipulation, economic control, ownership of the media, etc.). Frequently the presence of large numbers of Jews in the fields in question is cited as evidence of that disproportionate power. For this to be verified, however, evidence of preferential treatment or clannishness would need to be presented, which has never been done. My personal theory is that, education being the primary key to social mobility in contemporary America, those cultures which place an emphasis on learning and general academic success (such as Jewish culture) are more easily capable of rising to positions of political, financial and cultural power, regardless of their racial or religious background.
3. Another sign of anti-Semitism that I frequently encounter is when the wrongs of Jewish individuals or institutions are met with a negative passion that far exceeds the actual scale and scope of the original offense. One prominent (though not sole) example of this is the way that many groups focus on human rights violations committed by Israel (which are real), while ignoring similar or greater offenses committed by other nations throughout the world (as for another preemptive rebuttal, this argument is being used not to discredit criticism of Israel, but merely to point out the inconsistency of those who vehemently condemn Israeli actions while often displaying either cursory concern or outright indifference to the comparable wrongs of other nations.)
Anti-Semitism is hardly new in the American political experience. Indeed, any student of American history can find numerous instances of anti-Semitism, be they in the expulsions of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the lynching of Leo Frank or the isolationist rants of Charles Lindbergh. Yet what makes the manifestations of anti-Semitism mentioned here noteworthy is that I have found it difficult to condemn them as such, either because their nature was unknown to their practitioners or because they are entirely new in the history of anti-Semitism.
Matt Rozsa is a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences. He writes a column of historical vignettes for The Eagle.
