http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061103335.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Why the Jews?
By Michael Gerson
Friday, June 12, 2009
It so happened that this week, on the day I wrote about Holocaust
denial in the Middle East, a homegrown denier took a rifle into the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum -- an institution where I sit on the
governing board. The museum counts about 1.7 million visitors each
year who learn about the history of murderous racism -- and now one
who decided to add to that history.
That day, out of curiosity, I did something I rarely do. I read the
comments on my column on a number of Web sites that publish it. In
addition to the normal political vituperation, the level of
anti-Jewish feeling was appalling. The European genocide, some
contended, was exaggerated by Jews for political purposes. Jews were
behind the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise of Hitler and the outbreak
of World War II. They control the newspapers, radio, television and
book publishing. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is right to expose the Holocaust
myth, they wrote, and Israel is perpetrating the real holocaust
against the Palestinians.
Of course, these are the views of a small, self-selected group of the
unbalanced -- hundreds out of millions. But the Internet allows these
obsessions to gather in fetid pools, as James W. von Brunn (a prolific
Web author) knew and exploited. The Internet has helped to create
communities of malice.
The anti-Semitic community is varied in background and ideology. It
includes both Internet Nazis and campus leftists carrying signs that
read, "Jews = Nazis." The Rev. Jeremiah Wright recently blamed "them
Jews" for blocking his access to President Obama. A conservative Web
site recently included a forum on Holocaust denial (before it was
exposed and removed). One posting read: "The same blinded people that
believe that the Germans intentionally killed Jews -- also believe the
myth of the Anne Frank Diary."
Marginalized Western anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers have gained
influence in unexpected places. In 2002, Libya's dictator Moammar
Gaddafi awarded his (less than coveted) Gaddafi International Human
Rights prize to Roger Garaudy, a French Holocaust skeptic.
Ahmadinejad's 2006 conference of deniers featured David Duke as a
keynote speaker.
For some Americans, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are akin to a
shameful hobby -- like collecting old racist knickknacks or Nazi
memorabilia. But these ideas are not harmless, because they can
inspire an angry, obsessed bigot who sets out on a June morning to
kill Jews -- and murders an African American man who had a wife and
young son.
The durability of anti-Semitism is a horrifying marvel of history.
Sara Bloomfield, the director of the Holocaust Museum, observes:
"Anti-Semitism has existed with and without Christianity. With and
without the right wing. With and without the left wing. With and
without democracy. With and without economic problems. With and
without globalization. With and without a Jewish homeland."
Why the Jews? It is a question that must often have been asked during
pogroms and in ghettos and in prison camps. There are many answers,
none of them adequate. Anti-Semitism in the West has undeniable
theological roots -- the distortion of a faith, founded by a Jewish
teacher, to justify the persecution of Jews. Anti-Semitism has been
fed by government incitement and by blood libels that never seem to
die. It found resonance in various forms of nationalism and nativism,
in the bent science of eugenics, and eventually in totalitarian
ideology.
David Berger, the editor of "History and Hate," writes, "We shall
never fully understand anti-Semitism. Deep-rooted, complex, endlessly
persistent, constantly changing yet remaining the same, it is a
phenomenon that stands at the intersection of history, sociology,
economics, political science, religion and psychology."
But we do know that anti-Semitism has always been a kind of test -- a
reliable measure of a nation's moral and social health. When the
rights of Jews are violated, all human rights are insecure. When Jews
and Jewish institutions are targeted, all minorities have reason for
fear. And by this standard, America has cause for introspection.
The museum that von Brunn assaulted is the best answer to his hatred
-- the aging survivors who still volunteer, photographs revealing the
vanished lives of the dead, the happy pictures drawn by murdered
children. Not far from where von Brunn entered the museum, there is a
black wall inscribed with a quotation: "All men are created equal . .
. they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights .
. . among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
This is what anti-Semitism ultimately must deny, and this is the
reason anti-Semitism must always and everywhere be confronted.
michaelgerson@cfr.org
Why the Jews?
By Michael Gerson
Friday, June 12, 2009
It so happened that this week, on the day I wrote about Holocaust
denial in the Middle East, a homegrown denier took a rifle into the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum -- an institution where I sit on the
governing board. The museum counts about 1.7 million visitors each
year who learn about the history of murderous racism -- and now one
who decided to add to that history.
That day, out of curiosity, I did something I rarely do. I read the
comments on my column on a number of Web sites that publish it. In
addition to the normal political vituperation, the level of
anti-Jewish feeling was appalling. The European genocide, some
contended, was exaggerated by Jews for political purposes. Jews were
behind the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise of Hitler and the outbreak
of World War II. They control the newspapers, radio, television and
book publishing. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is right to expose the Holocaust
myth, they wrote, and Israel is perpetrating the real holocaust
against the Palestinians.
Of course, these are the views of a small, self-selected group of the
unbalanced -- hundreds out of millions. But the Internet allows these
obsessions to gather in fetid pools, as James W. von Brunn (a prolific
Web author) knew and exploited. The Internet has helped to create
communities of malice.
The anti-Semitic community is varied in background and ideology. It
includes both Internet Nazis and campus leftists carrying signs that
read, "Jews = Nazis." The Rev. Jeremiah Wright recently blamed "them
Jews" for blocking his access to President Obama. A conservative Web
site recently included a forum on Holocaust denial (before it was
exposed and removed). One posting read: "The same blinded people that
believe that the Germans intentionally killed Jews -- also believe the
myth of the Anne Frank Diary."
Marginalized Western anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers have gained
influence in unexpected places. In 2002, Libya's dictator Moammar
Gaddafi awarded his (less than coveted) Gaddafi International Human
Rights prize to Roger Garaudy, a French Holocaust skeptic.
Ahmadinejad's 2006 conference of deniers featured David Duke as a
keynote speaker.
For some Americans, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are akin to a
shameful hobby -- like collecting old racist knickknacks or Nazi
memorabilia. But these ideas are not harmless, because they can
inspire an angry, obsessed bigot who sets out on a June morning to
kill Jews -- and murders an African American man who had a wife and
young son.
The durability of anti-Semitism is a horrifying marvel of history.
Sara Bloomfield, the director of the Holocaust Museum, observes:
"Anti-Semitism has existed with and without Christianity. With and
without the right wing. With and without the left wing. With and
without democracy. With and without economic problems. With and
without globalization. With and without a Jewish homeland."
Why the Jews? It is a question that must often have been asked during
pogroms and in ghettos and in prison camps. There are many answers,
none of them adequate. Anti-Semitism in the West has undeniable
theological roots -- the distortion of a faith, founded by a Jewish
teacher, to justify the persecution of Jews. Anti-Semitism has been
fed by government incitement and by blood libels that never seem to
die. It found resonance in various forms of nationalism and nativism,
in the bent science of eugenics, and eventually in totalitarian
ideology.
David Berger, the editor of "History and Hate," writes, "We shall
never fully understand anti-Semitism. Deep-rooted, complex, endlessly
persistent, constantly changing yet remaining the same, it is a
phenomenon that stands at the intersection of history, sociology,
economics, political science, religion and psychology."
But we do know that anti-Semitism has always been a kind of test -- a
reliable measure of a nation's moral and social health. When the
rights of Jews are violated, all human rights are insecure. When Jews
and Jewish institutions are targeted, all minorities have reason for
fear. And by this standard, America has cause for introspection.
The museum that von Brunn assaulted is the best answer to his hatred
-- the aging survivors who still volunteer, photographs revealing the
vanished lives of the dead, the happy pictures drawn by murdered
children. Not far from where von Brunn entered the museum, there is a
black wall inscribed with a quotation: "All men are created equal . .
. they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights .
. . among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
This is what anti-Semitism ultimately must deny, and this is the
reason anti-Semitism must always and everywhere be confronted.
michaelgerson@cfr.org
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