Weltschmerz à Gogo on Nostr: Shane Burley's latest: Modern “anti-antisemitism” approaches emerge from a ...
Shane Burley's latest:
Modern “anti-antisemitism” approaches emerge from a centrist tradition spearheaded unsurprisingly, by the ADL. Founded in 1913, the ADL was one of several institutions created by more affluent American Jews, largely of German descent, who wanted an advocacy model separate from the radical leftism of their rowdy, Eastern European counterparts. Antisemitism was a clear and present threat, but the ADL, which placed its hope in America’s liberal democracy, also saw political tumult itself as unsafe for Jews.
So instead of the Left, they would work with law enforcement, collaborate with governments, and approach antisemitism as a product of radicalism itself. From its perch in the center, the ADL saw the Left and Right as more or less equal offenders. But antisemitism plays a considerably different role in these competing worldviews which is a primary reason for the disparities in frequency and tendency toward violence we see today.
The history of antisemitism isn’t just a story of anti-Jewish ideas, but a history of reactionary political thought itself. As Christianity became hegemonic in Europe, antisemitism emerged to help create a supremacist, separatist consensus that treated Jews as a particular type of other. This is a foundational part of what renowned political scientist Benedict Anderson called “imagined communities,” in which a nation’s dominant population defines themselves by who they are not. In Europe the Jews were the obvious Other.
This dynamic, which forms the second pillar of the far-right worldview—identifying a safety valve for class anger and social dislocation—was an easy call. Because Jews were, for a variety of reasons, sometimes forced into economic middle-men roles, the notion that this Jewish Other was responsible for the modern world became a way to rechannel the legitimate anger of the masses.
https://religiondispatches.org/the-adl-is-correct-that-antisemitism-is-rising-but-the-main-and-most-dangerous-source-isnt-the-left-its-always-been-the-right/
#antisemitism #ADL
Modern “anti-antisemitism” approaches emerge from a centrist tradition spearheaded unsurprisingly, by the ADL. Founded in 1913, the ADL was one of several institutions created by more affluent American Jews, largely of German descent, who wanted an advocacy model separate from the radical leftism of their rowdy, Eastern European counterparts. Antisemitism was a clear and present threat, but the ADL, which placed its hope in America’s liberal democracy, also saw political tumult itself as unsafe for Jews.
So instead of the Left, they would work with law enforcement, collaborate with governments, and approach antisemitism as a product of radicalism itself. From its perch in the center, the ADL saw the Left and Right as more or less equal offenders. But antisemitism plays a considerably different role in these competing worldviews which is a primary reason for the disparities in frequency and tendency toward violence we see today.
The history of antisemitism isn’t just a story of anti-Jewish ideas, but a history of reactionary political thought itself. As Christianity became hegemonic in Europe, antisemitism emerged to help create a supremacist, separatist consensus that treated Jews as a particular type of other. This is a foundational part of what renowned political scientist Benedict Anderson called “imagined communities,” in which a nation’s dominant population defines themselves by who they are not. In Europe the Jews were the obvious Other.
This dynamic, which forms the second pillar of the far-right worldview—identifying a safety valve for class anger and social dislocation—was an easy call. Because Jews were, for a variety of reasons, sometimes forced into economic middle-men roles, the notion that this Jewish Other was responsible for the modern world became a way to rechannel the legitimate anger of the masses.
https://religiondispatches.org/the-adl-is-correct-that-antisemitism-is-rising-but-the-main-and-most-dangerous-source-isnt-the-left-its-always-been-the-right/
#antisemitism #ADL