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Anti-Semitism and Its Causes

In memory of Rabbi Aaron M. Wise z"l.
21.09.2014
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     Anti-semitism is a multi-faceted phenomenon, which lends itself to various analyses. I would like to demonstrate that the various dimensions of analysis do not contradict one another. In fact, their juxtaposition creates a complete picture. Here we will discuss the first level, the psychological dimension. To explain it, I will use a simple allegory. Psychologists often employ the Rorschach Test in their analysis of patients. The test uses a well-known technique known as the projective technique. The patient is asked to look at a series of pictures and explain what he sees. These pictures have no intrinsic meaning. In fact, they are simply ink blots on paper that created symmetrical designs when the paper was folded in two. As previously mentioned, the pictures do not represent anything, yet people look at them and explain them. The explanations do not exist in the pictures; they exist in the person's mind. This is an opening, through which the psychologists try to enter the inner world of the person, who "projects" what is inside himself onto the pictures.

 

     This mechanism, according to many psychologists, can shed light on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. The anti- Semite sees in the Jews negative qualities that threaten and endanger him. These characteristics don't exist in the "picture"; they only exist in the mind of the beholder. They are the projections of the anti-Semite, who uses the Jew as a blot of his own making, and upon which he projects the black sides of his inner world. This, in very general terms of course, refers to the psychological background of anti-Semitism. The fact that the Jew is a minority, a foreigner who is relatively easily identified, was a psychological cause that contributed to the choice of the Jew as the screen upon which the anti-Semites threw their fears and hatred. This is actually the explanation for a number of noticeable characteristics of anti-Semitism. We find many types and forms of attacks on Jews. In one place the Jew is described as having one trait, and in another place he is accused of the opposite characteristic. This is true regarding both his personal traits and his social and political traits. Thus, for example, the Jew is portrayed as the capitalist trying to take over the world, and on the other hand as the revolutionary, who is attempting to weaken the power of wealth and utterly abolish personal ownership. The fact that we are faced with a psychological phenomenon means that we must not search for logic here. All anti-Semites project their various and contradictory fears upon the Jew.

 

Anti-Semitism and Its Causes: The Social Basis

 

     Whoever thinks that this analysis has exhausted the topic of anti-Semitism is fooling himself. Anti-Semitism is a social, not an individual, phenomenon. In addition to its psychological aspects, we must study anti-Semitism from its social and general perspectives as well. A view of history and philosophy in recent generations will be of help in our attempt. Let us therefore move on to the second level of our analysis, the collective, political and social level. Until now we have examined a phenomenon that has already been expressed by the earliest thinkers of the last century. They viewed anti-Semitism as part of Xenophobia, and indeed, the phenomena we have expressed until now are merely details within a much larger context, that of the strains that exist between various groups, between the majority and the minority, and even between various races who live together within one society. From this perspective, there is no essential difference between the hatred of Jews and the hostility that exists towards other races, such as blacks. However, this is but one level of the explanation. Until now we have identified the roots of the problem, and its individual expressions.

 

     If anti-Semitism were only an individual psychological phenomenon, it would be similar to other forms of discrimination and hostility; however, in the modern world anti-Semitism takes on a different hue. Various groups have used it for political purposes. We can trace clear attempts to use psychological hostility – which, it seems, has deep religious roots – to forward political aims. Thus, modern anti-Semitism was born, and acquired a more and more tragic and satanic form. The widespread use of this technique began in Czarist Russia, in the struggle to smother those revolutionary attempts that finally toppled the Czarist rule. Through the Czarist secret police, the rulers attempted to identify revolutionary action with the activities of the Jews. The rulers of Czarist Russia fought against certain phenomena, and in this fight they created a kind of equation, which was supposed to prove their claims. The Czarist secret police created one of the documents that became an anti-Semitic classic, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This book reveals the so-called secret plan weaved by the leaders of the Jews, to take over the entire world. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" became a holy book among the anti-Semites.

 

     "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was simply a rewriting of a French book that attributed ambitions to take over the world to Napoleon. This booklet is called "a dialogue in hell between Machiavelli and Montasque," or "Politics of the Nineteenth Century." These accusations were not at all directed towards the Jews and Judaism. However, the dialogue was adopted and transformed into the protocols of an imaginary group whose members were the world leaders of Judaism, attempting to take over the politics of various European countries.

 

     Even the Czar himself, Nikolai the Second, although far from bearing the Jews any fond feelings, saw that the book was a fake and opposed its publication. Despite this, the first Russian edition appeared in 1905. A number of years later, other editions began to appear. Some of the editions were altered and corrected in order to make it possible to accuse the Jews of various catastrophes that took place between one edition and another. At various opportunities, it became the topic of public court cases, in which the book was proved to be a forgery. However, this of course did not check the book's growing popularity, particularly in the wake of the Nazi influence. The book influenced various writers, who were mistakenly taken in and convinced of its authenticity. Thus, for example, Henry Ford was inspired by "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to write "The International Jew," in which he continues these accusations. Various other books were written in its wake until recent years.

 

     This is an example of a lie and forgery that the power of truth could not effectually surmount. This abominable book became a justification of Nazism and the genocide that followed in its wake. This is an example of the phenomena that we must deal with. Forgeries spread throughout the world, and people are convinced.

 

[Translated by Gila Weinberg.]

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