[WikiEN-l] WHO IS ANTI-SEMITIC?

[Robert]

I can't discuss this on Wikipedia. I didn't want Martin and
Angela to keep harassing me...and they refused to stop
doing so. Yet when I did to them what they did to me, I was
banned, and they were allowed to do whatever they wanted.

That' fair...if you are mentally unbalanced.  Or if you
just hate Jews.

WHO IS ANTI-SEMITIC?
>From the Encyclopedia Judaica.

Few in post-war America have ventured anti-Semitic remarks
in public. Generalizations, however, can be made on the
basis of certain factors: educational level, income, age,
race, religion, place of birth, and geographical location.
Those holding anti-Semitic beliefs tend to hold other
prejudiced, intolerant, or undemocratic views in general.
They are most widespread among the uneducated and poorer
members of American society.

Education is a key variable. The least educated score
highest in anti-Semitic attitudes, except for blacks.
Decline in negative images of Jews, as well as in general
intolerance, can be correlated in the last two decades with
the higher level of education of the community. More
knowledge of minorities, possession of cognitive skills to
think rationally, and understanding of the virtues of
tolerance and civil rights have meant less negative images
of Jews. Anti-Semitism is highest in the working class and
lowest among professionals and the middle class.

Anti-Semitism is higher among Protestants than among
Catholics. About 80% of Southern Baptists and 70% of
Missouri Synod Lutherans agree that Jews remain unforgiven
for the death of Christ. Religion has been a powerful
reinforcement of anti-Semitic views; 45% of all American
anti-Semites get their anti-Semitic ideas from religious
indoctrination or from some religious influence. The number
of prejudiced among fundamentalists is some 7% greater than
among non-fundamentalists.

Older people tend to be more anti-Semitic than younger
individuals. This might be explained by lower educational
level, by the fact that anti-Semitism was more prevalent
when the older people were themselves young, and by the
possibility that the aging process might have led to
greater feelings of insecurity and intolerance.

Foreign-born Americans in general, partly because they tend
to be older and less well educated than the average, hold
stronger anti-Semitic views than the native born. Rural
residents, especially in the South and Midwest, tend to be
more anti-Semitic than urban residents. There appears to be
little difference in beliefs between the sexes.

The greater degree of anti-Semitism among blacks than among
the white population is disenchanting for those with
memories of Jewish sympathy for the plight of blacks, and
of actions, even at cost of life, to remedy that plight.
Jews have always been more concerned about the state of
blacks than have members of other religions, and given
disproportionate support and financial aid to civil rights
organizations.

Black prejudice, often inherited from the Christian
fundamentalism imbibed in youth, essentially stemmed from
disparaging economic stereotypes of Jews as money-grubbers,
callous storekeepers and landlords, uncaring employers of
black domestics, and as individuals who would use their
economic power to degrade blacks.

Moderate black leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.,
praised "the contribution that Jewish people have made
toward the Negro's struggle for freedom." They acknowledged
the Jewish help and alliance in black organizations and in
the campaigns in the South with their freedom riders and
voter registration teams.
However, from the 1960s on, the alliance had become
strained. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), formed in 1960 with Jewish help, within a decade,
under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael, began attacking
"the Rothschilds" as well as "Zionist Jewish terrorists."

Malcolm X denounced Jews as part of the white exploitative
majority and wrote, "I don't care what a Jew is
professionally, doctor, merchant, housewife, student or
whatever—first, he or she thinks Jew," and talked of "Jews
who sapped the very lifeblood of blacks."

The extremist Black Panthers, the Black Muslims, believing
in a Jewish conspiracy to control the world, and some black
intellectuals were vocal in anti-Jewish sentiment.
All recent polls and surveys, as well as other empirical
evidence, show that black anti-Semitism is considerably
higher than that of whites at every educational level.
Two-fifths of blacks, compared with one out of five whites,
can be characterized as having high or moderate
anti-Semitic beliefs.

Looking at the surveys of black anti-Semitism, five
features seem significant. The first is that it has
increased relative to that of whites. Secondly, black
anti-Semitism is higher in the urban North than in the more
rural South. Thirdly, it is manifested more on economic
than on other issues. Those blacks who had economic
dealings with or who perceived economic mistreatment by
Jews record a higher level of anti-Semitism than those who
do not. Blacks remain more opposed than do whites to
political anti-Semitism and to social discrimination, but
negative beliefs on some noneconomic matters, especially on
Israel, have also increased. Fourthly, blacks who have
personal contact with Jews, mostly in a subordinate role,
are likely to be more anti-Semitic than those who do not,
the reverse of the relationship between adult whites and
Jews.

Most significant, it is younger blacks and the better
educated who exhibit the strongest negative attitudes. This
may be the consequence of the competition with or envy of
Jews by aspiring black professionals. The anti-Semitic
level of elite black leaders is about double that of blacks
as a whole. Assertions of black consciousness and power
from the 1960s, greater racial pride and solidarity, meant
rejection of white, primarily Jewish, control of black
organizations. For many black leaders, the politics of
integration changed to the politics of confrontation.

That confrontation has taken the form of disputes over
political goals and the exercise of power. But also the
dismissal in 1979 of Andrew Young as American ambassador to
the United Nations for meeting with a PLO official, the
abusiveness of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's
remarks about Judaism as a "gutter religion" and his
declared admiration for Hitler, the references to New York
City as "Hymietown" by presidential candidate Jesse Jackson
in 1984, the injection of Black-Jewish animosity into the
1988 Democratic party primary in New York, have all
inflamed passions on both sides. Blacks hold about 10% less
favorable attitudes to Israel than do whites. Jews and
blacks have strongly differed on questions of open
enrollment in New York City colleges and, above all, on the
issues of quotas for employment. Yet, the old black-Jewish
liberal coalition, with its mutual support for electoral
office and for policies favoring integrated schools, civil
rights, and vitality of urban areas on the one hand, and
issues significant to Jews, especially the security of
Israel on the other, has not broken down.

Besides a few radical left groups, most contemporary
vitriolic anti-Semitism stems from a wide diversity of
extremist right-wing hate groups, small in size,
essentially anti-democratic and estranged from political
and social reality, Identity Church groups and neo-Nazi
organizations, living with the memories of Adolf Hitler,
and limited to between 400 and 450 members, and the
various, small Ku Klux Klan bodies. Some of these groups
have engaged not only in hate rhetoric against minorities
and racist ideology, but also in crimes, from synagogue
bombings to armed robbery and murder, and fanciful
conspiracies to overthrow the U.S. government.

These groups, whose members are often disaffected and
frustrated, share overlapping beliefs: hostility to
government which is seen as illegitimate; enmity toward
Jews and non-whites; attacks on Jewish interests supposedly
controlling government, finance, and the media; and
purported Christian concepts by which white Protestants are
seen as the "chosen people."
The better known of the hate groups are the Aryan Nations,
the Christian Defense League, the Posse Commitatus, the
Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, and the
Christian-Patriots Defense League.

Probably the most aggressive of the non-religious hate
groups are the "skinheads," gangs of shaven-headed youths
who glorify violence, and have been responsible for an
increasing number of assaults as well as anti-Semitic
bigotry.

The Liberty Lobby, the most active and the best financed
anti-Semitic organization in the country, describes itself
as "a pressure group for patriotism," and maintains close
connections with a number of members of Congress. Its
weekly newspaper, The Spotlight, started in 1975 and now,
with a circulation of about a quarter of a million, is the
most widely read right-wing extremist paper in the country.
Among its favorite targets are Zionism, and people defined
euphemistically as "dual loyalists" or "international
bankers."

The Institute for Historical Review was created in 1979.
Its chief concern has been to deny or minimize the reality
of the Holocaust and explore Jewish "atrocity propaganda"
through a number of books and materials with anti-Semitic
themes and by annual conventions.

Extreme groups in the U.S. have remained small and outside
the political mainstream. In recent years their membership
appears to have declined even further. American politics
embodies and public opinion coheres around a consensus of
political moderation in which anti-Semitic beliefs are not
respectable.

The country, with certain qualifications, exhibits a lower
level of overt prejudice and bigotry than ever before in
racial and religious matters. Jews as a group are no longer
blamed, except by a zany fringe element, for the nation's
problems or condemned for not being truly American. Indeed,
in the working of the American political system today, Jews
both as political activists and participants, and as
elected and appointed officials have played a prominent
role.

Yet, the portrait of anti-Semitism is a composite of
conflicting traits. If most churches no longer insist on
Jewish responsibility for the Crucifixion, those of an
orthodox or particularist persuasion are inclined to do so.
An appreciable minority, between one-fifth and one-quarter,
still believe Jews have too much power. Some remain
obsessed by Jewish domination of the media and banking.

Two other major problems remain. Black anti-Semitism,
stemming from religious teachings and economic stereotypes,
exacerbated by the politics of confrontation and, to a
lesser degree, a rise in adherence to Islam, is a troubling
issue. The issue of Israel, support for its policies, aid
for its security, and Jewish relations with the state has
not yet led to an increase in anti-Semitism. But about a
quarter of non-Jews are highly unfavorable to Israel, and
young people are more likely to be so than are older
people.

Appropriate anxiety should be shown for the rhetoric and
the potential for violence of those extreme groups which
have anti-Semitism high on their agenda, though their
membership is small and declining. But that anxiety should
not be excessive. Even admitting a significant minority of
the population can be regarded as having anti-Semitic
attitudes, Jews have not been made scapegoats for economic
or social problems. What is finally important is that the
existing anti-Semitic beliefs have not led to an organized
movement with any serious support for violence against
Jews. [M.Curt.]


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