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European anti-Semitism

20 comments on European anti-Semitism

European anti-Semitism
: I read this lead in yesterday’s New York Times…

The boys hide their skullcaps under baseball caps. The girls tuck their Star of David necklaces under their sweaters. Their school in this middle-class suburb east of Paris has been scorched by fire and fear, and those are the off-campus rules.

…and I wondered…

If Europe, Old Europe, were truly concerned about its evil ghost of anti-Semitism rising again, I would do something.

If I heard that children are being told to hide their yarmulkes for fear of attacks, I’d go out and get myself a yarmulke and wear it proudly.

If I were Jacques Chirac, I’d go get a yarmulke and wear it. I’d urge all Frenchmen to wear a yarmulke.

But then, I’m not European.

: Here, at last, is the repressed report on anti-Semitism in Old Europe today. Note that it’s not just from Muslims:

In the extreme left-wing scene anti-Semitic remarks were to be found mainly in the context of pro-Palestinian and anti-globalisation rallies and in newspaper articles using anti-Semitic stereotypes in their criticism of Israel. Often this generated a combination of anti-Zionist and anti-American views that formed an important element in the emergence of an anti-Semitic mood in Europe. Israel, seen as a capitalistic, imperialistic power, the

20 responses to “European anti-Semitism”

  1. Oliver Avatar
    Oliver

    Pot. Kettle?

  2. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    Hey Jeff, regarding your wearing a kippah. That’s a wonderful idea. You could still do that, even here in America. At this time of year especially, it is very hard for young Jewish children to acknowledge and be proud of their Jewish heritage and to understand all of the Christmas symbology around them.
    Would you please consider wearing a kippah from now until 1 January? It may help others see a bit more diversity in their lives. It may help a jewish child, or even a hindu or muslim child get through this season. It may help you understand and see the anti-semitism, anti-hinduism, anti-muslim, anti-ethnic currents that occur in our society. Discussing why you are wearing a kippah with your son may prove very enlightening for your son.
    Please do consider this request.
    Thanks!

  3. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    When I wrote “understand all of the Christmas symbology….” what I mean was “understand why there is so much Christian/Christmas symbology and so little Jewish/Hannukah symbology.”
    I was in a Target with my kids three weeks ago, and they wanted to know why there were enormous pictures of Christmas Tree ornaments hanging from the ceiling, and nothing about Hannukah. (And these kids are in their late teens.) (Just kidding, they are 4 and 6)

  4. Tadeusz Avatar
    Tadeusz

    I’m pretty sure Target worships Mammon, and not Christ, or at least not Christ exclusively, so if there are more Christmas celebration items, it probably has more to do with 1)There being more Christian customers 2)There being more non-Christian customers who use Christmas as a Winter Solstice party 3)Am I wrong, or does Hannukah not have such a tradition of gift-giving as Christmas does? Which means less money from Hannukah for Target.
    You’re a minority, and while I, a majority member, welcome Jews (even as I hope to evangelize them), and think that it would be good for the US to have more Jewish people; to expect to have the same or even close to the same level of mindshare as the majority culture is unrealistic and unfair. And I have previously seen some Jewish symbology even if not a lot.
    Besides, a lot of Christians (and non-) complain about how commercialized Christmas is. So if you want Jewish symbology all over the place–1)make it more inclusive 2)Make it a good excuse to spend more money than you have 3) Move it away from Christmas because that’s already got that spot in the year (You can’t seriously do that, but maybe something like that.) 4)Wait at least a generation
    Tadeusz in Christmas jollity

  5. TC lynch Avatar
    TC lynch

    hey, jerry?
    bite me

  6. Shtetl G Avatar
    Shtetl G

    Just the other I was talking with my 92 year old grandmother (originally from Slovakia) and I mentioned the recent poll where 60 percent of Europeans think Israel is the single greatest threat to world peace in the world. She responded emphatically that Europeans are all anti-semetic. Always have been, always will be. Hard to disagree with her with stories like this a daily occurence(how can I disagree with my 92 year old grandmother anyway).
    I just thank G-d that I live in America and I own .357 magnum. I do not have hide that I am Jewish and if someone tries to torch my place because I’m Jewish they are in for a short rude awakening.

  7. Alex F Avatar
    Alex F

    Its time for America to open its doors to all the remaining Jews in Old Europe.

  8. Tigger Avatar
    Tigger

    How about swapping citizens?? We (The U.S.) will take all the remaining jews from old europe and let them relocate to places here in America.
    In return we would export all illegal aliens and muslims who want to turn our country into a theocracy to Europe.
    Europe is already on it’s way to having far too many muslims to deal with. I figure what we return would just be a drop in the bucket.
    This way, we get all the hardworking intelligent people who want freedom to live in peace. And Europe can just take one step closer to becoming total welfare states with people who are continuously fighting with each other over who has been victimized more.

  9. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    To Alex F
    That is an outstanding idea. The Euro-anti-Semites will scream bloody murder at Bush/the U.S.’s “slanderous” anti-Euro policy – but all we’ll have to do is point to the droves of Europe’s Jewish “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” to illustrate the lie.

  10. John Davies Avatar
    John Davies

    Did’t I read a story similar to this idea a year or so ago?
    As I remember it, there was some vandals that were targeting Jewish houses in a small American town. _All_ the townspeople put up menorahs in their windows.

  11. MadMan Avatar
    MadMan

    Hey Oliver-
    How scared are you when you walk down the street? Did ya get ganged up on in school? Oh wait, I get it you were “harassed” by the cops. What did they do? beat you? smack you around? or make you stand there while you have to answer their questions?
    Grow up ok? anyone who lives in a tough neighborhood has had to stand there while the cops ask a bunch of b.s. questions to try to trip you up, wanna know why? cause it works and they catch liars all the time.
    Everyone gets pissed about real brutality, but to compare the Cincinnati case where some high crazyman attacks the police and your “harassment” to the 400 attacks on Jews in France these past years is just you trying to regain your most favored victim status. Pathetic.

  12. ronnie Avatar
    ronnie

    Jerry,
    The best thing to tell your kids is that Chanukah is not some kind of Jewish Christmas and that it’s a relatively minor holiday in the Jewish calender and that we live in a mostly Christian society that reflects the Christian calender.
    Dress ’em up and have fun on Purim, let ’em stay up late on Shavuot eating cheesecake and learning Torah and have them help you build and decorate a sukkah and I don’t think that they’ll feel like they’re missing out on anything in December.
    Christian Americans have no idea what it feels like to feel like a foreigner in the country of your birth. I like baseball, hot dogs are great and my first car was a Chevy, but from mid November until January 1 I sometimes feel like an alien.
    And please, yes, I know that your cheerful “Happy Hannukah” is well intended, but frankly when my friends who aren’t Jewish remember to wish me a happy Passover or remember the Jewish high holidays, it means more to me because they have taken the time to find out something about me, rather than merely remembering to include me in one of their celebrations.

  13. Don E Avatar
    Don E

    TC lynch,
    If you’re looking to convert, there *are* easier methods of circumcision.

  14. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    Sheesh, you guys sure like to miss the point. The point being that Jeff says he would wear a kippah proudly for European jewish kids, and my suggesting there might be some good to come out of it if he were to wear one for himself, his son, and American jewish kids.
    I never said Target should do this or that.
    tc lynch, you’re kind of a scary idiot, and Jeff, tc is a demonstration of the good your wearing a kippah might do. It might help sensitize you and your son to tc lynch’s idiocy. It might help sensitize tc that not everyone is like him.
    Ronnie, thanks for your advice on being a parent. You’re missing the point. I do everything you suggest. You’re still missing the point. It’s natural for kids of 4 and 6 to want to know why much of the world they experience makes a big deal out of Christmas and being Christian.
    That said, I agree 100% with your paragraph three. Jeff! Read paragraph three and then proudly put that kippah on!
    But Ronnie, I think I know what you meant by paragraph four, but I don’t think you said what you intended.
    Don E! W00t! ROTFL!

  15. Mich Avatar
    Mich

    I thought I had seen all possible uses of the For The Children(TM) line of reasoning until I read comments 2 & 3 above.
    I’m having a hard time believing that the commenter was serious. Non-Jews should wear Jewish articles of clothing so that Jewish children will not get stressed out by department store decorations?
    If Jewish parents took responsibility for making their kids aware of the rich history and customs that are part of Chanukah (there are many, and gift-giving is not one of them), it would not be “hard for young Jewish children to acknowledge and be proud of their Jewish heritage“.

  16. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    No Mich, you’re misinterpreting my words.
    Jeff states that he would proudly wear a kippah to support the European Jewish Kids. I thank him for that statement, and suggest that he could also do some good for American Jewish children, for himself, and for his son, by wearing a kippah himself for the next month or so.
    Mich, I didn’t say you should. I didn’t say anyone else should. I suggested Jeff might wish to consider it. It might be a very illuminating experience for him. Read paragraph three of Ronnie’s statement about being 100% American and yet feeling like an alien this time of year.
    Say, did you guys ever read “Black Like Me”, or see “Gentleman’s Agreement”?

  17. Adrianne Truett Avatar
    Adrianne Truett

    Heh.
    At Harvard, late 2001, as part of a similar suggestion, I took to wearing scarves on my head. What it made me realize was not how many negative reactions there are to Muslims in Boston (I didn’t notice a single one), but rather how many people went bizarrely out of their way to try to make sure I felt overly comfortable and welcomed. Entertainingly, one of the NYC local stations did a similar thing (put a person in burka and had them walk around Ground Zero) to demonstrate how much anti-Muslim sentiment there was, and instead they ended up showing a lot of people going out of their way to make sure they knew there was *no* anti-Muslim sentiment, just anti-attacker sentiment. Quite fun, and quite against the “well, you don’t know what it’s like to be different” people’s intentions.
    But, as the stats (but not the newspaper reports) on religiously-motivated attacks show, Jews are much more commonly attacked in the US than Muslims are, so perhaps there would be something to it.

  18. Yehudit Avatar
    Yehudit

    “Dress ’em up and have fun on Purim, let ’em stay up late on Shavuot eating cheesecake and learning Torah and have them help you build and decorate a sukkah and I don’t think that they’ll feel like they’re missing out on anything in December.”
    I never felt left out on Xmas. I feel sorry for everyone who doesn’t get to have a seder on Pesach or dance with the Torah on Simchas Torah.

  19. Martin Adamson Avatar
    Martin Adamson

    Jeff’s idea about everyone wearing kippahs is spot on. There is a precedent for it. During the early stages of WWII when the Nazis tried to compel the wearing of yellow stars by Jews throughout Europe the King of Denmark (who stayed throughout the occupation) wore the yellow star to his meetings with the German general in charge of the occupation, and ordered the demobilised officer corps of the Danish Army to do the same. The story is told in Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, I think.
    If Chirac was serious about combatting anti-semitism in France he could easily make an equivalent gesture.

  20. Mich Avatar
    Mich

    No, there isn’t. “The King of Denmark Wore A Yellow Star” story is a myth.
    See this debunking at Snopes.
    And if Mr. Chirac was serious about combatting anti-semitism in France he would act rather than gesture.