Book Review
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Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present
Written by two historians, Marvin Perry (Baruch College, CUNY), and Frederick M. Schweitzer (Manhattan College), Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present, is a valuable contribution to the literature on anti-Semitism. Lucidly and skillfully, the authors navigate the history of Jew-hatred, focusing on the myths that have made anti-Semitism so poisonous and deadly: "the Jews as deicides; the Jews as ritual murderers; the Jews as agents of Satan and Jews as materialistic, conniving shylocks and unscrupulous financial manipulators." In addition to these classic myths, Perry and Schweitzer treat two recently manufactured canards: the Holocaust as a Jewish hoax, propagated by neo-Nazis, and the Jews as the dominant force in the slave trade, propagated by the Nation of Islam.
What is unique about this work is the authors' analysis and pinpointing of those myths that have made anti-Semitism so lethal a force in various periods from the Middle Ages through World War II to the present. Schweitzer and Perry's "remarkable achievement," notes Michael R. Marrus, Dean of the Graduate School, University of Toronto, "is to have isolated the most important [anti-Semitic myths], put them into historical context, and analyzed their pathology." Of particular value for understanding contemporary events in the Middle East are the numerous examples provided by the authors of Muslims adapting both discredited classic Christian and Nazi anti-Semitic myths in their denunciations of Israel and Jews.
Early on, the authors postulate that traditional Christian anti-Judaism is both a precursor to, and a key element of, modern anti-Semitism; but the writers also see a marked and significant difference:
"To be sure, there is a crucial difference between Christian anti-Judaism, whose epicenter is the myth of deicide, and modern anti-Semitism, which is powered by nationalist and racist myths that castigate Jews as an alien and dangerous race threatening the survival of the nation."
The authors cite a seminal essay on this topic by Gavin Ian Langmuir, "Anti-Judaism as the Necessary Preparation for Anti-Semitism," and go on to explain that "[t]hough the boundary dividing them (the two terms) is vague and fluctuating" the distinction is a prerequisite to a full philosophical grasp of the historical roots of anti-Semitism."
The myth of deicide, the authors rightly conclude, must be visited first, for "Ultimately, all anti-Semitic accusations and justifications for persecution and discrimination spring from that primal act of deicide." That said, the book then goes on to take apart the "case" against the Jews. Relying in good measure on recent New Testament scholarship, the authors explain that (such scholarship), "has gone far to emancipate itself from theological suppositions; in the process it has established that no such sequence of events regarding the trial and execution of Jesus as the Gospels recount could have occurred." (Italics added.)
In essence, the chapter dismantles the myth of deicide in an erudite, logical and compelling manner. This reviewer believes that any fair-minded person, Christian or otherwise, who reads this will come away convinced that it was the Romans who, for political reasons (perhaps fearing that a popular preacher might foment an uprising), nailed Jesus to the cross, not the Jews. On an encouraging note, the authors show that there is a growing Jewish-Christian dialogue and a concerted effort by many Christian churches to repudiate the deicide accusation and other denigrating depictions of Jews and Judaism propagated by churches for centuries.
One of the key signposts marking the path from the scriptural based anti-Judaism of the Middle Ages to the nationalist-racist based anti-Semitism of the 19th and 20th centuries is the myth of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery, probably penned in France by a Russian agent of the tsarist regime sometime during the 1890's. The Protocols convinced many Westerners, even members of the elite, that the miniscule worldwide Jewish population had hatched an international conspiracy. To achieve their plan for world domination the Jews undermine religion, hatch revolutions, ignite class warfare, and gain the commanding heights of the judiciary, parliament, the press and education, while at the same time promoting the abuse of alcohol, prostitution and pornography. All this stemmed from an alleged meeting of Jewish elders in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Prague. Yet, during the twenty-odd years between the two World Wars, the Protocols was, next to the Bible, the most widely circulated book in the world!
In our country, the Protocols found a unique champion, none other than that American icon, Henry Ford. Published in 1920, Ford's book: International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, sold more than 500,000 copies. And his newspaper, Dearborn Independent, in a series of articles looked with favor on the Protocols. Although Mr. Ford apologized to the American Jewish community, it was out of the side of his mouth. He went to his grave blaming Jewish bankers for starting World War II.
In its final two chapters - "Denying The Holocaust" and "Antisemitic Myths Blackwashed" - the book covers the two most recent developments in the on-going story of anti-Semitism. While Holocaust denial strains credulity to such a degree that some might argue it is a waste of time and energy to refute such manifest absurdity. Thankfully, the authors take no such view and proceed to drag the evil hate-mongers masquerading as scholars into the direct light of historically verifiable information, exposing them simply as neo-Nazis and vile Jew-haters. One of the authors, Frederick M. Schweitzer, was called to testify before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (Toronto, January 2002) in the trial of one Ernest Zundel, a notorious neo-Nazi and Holocaust deny-er. The Tribunal ordered Zundel to cease and desist communicating his hate-filled agenda forthwith. An account of the trial is given in that Appendix and is a must for the reader.
In recent years militant blacks have played the anti-Semitic card, often denouncing Jews before overly enthusiastic black audiences. And the Nation of Islam has published an anonymously written Jew-baiting work - The Secret Relationship Between Blacks And Jews -masquerading as scholarship. Utilizing the research of several scholars, Perry and Schweitzer rightfully dismiss as rubbish Secret Relationship's claim that Jews were a principal force in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Understandably, treading a politically correct balance beam the authors still manage to cite chapter and verse on the gaggle of African Americans polluting the media and the halls of academia with their vile anti-Semitic ranting. They are all there: Khalid Muhamed (deceased), Professors Tony Martin and Leonard Jeffries, Jr., Louis Farrakahn, and the early "hymie town" version of Reverend Jesse Jackson. (Amari Baraka, formerly known as Le Roi Jones, made his debut as Poet Laureate New Jersey of New Jersey and the Newark School Board too recently to have been included.)
The authors duly report that Farrakhan has since (somewhat) softened his tone and that Jackson has apologized. Moreover, the book rightly presents the reader with a roster of black luminaries who have stood up and criticized their brothers: Julian Bond, Coretta Scott King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornell West and Representative Charles B. Rangel (to name a few). This is all well and good, but Nation of Islam conventions still feature bookstalls where the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews are sold.
I look forward to the day when a black leader calls for a vigorous boycott of such book sales or, on an even better day, we link arms to lead a protest rally when Professor Tony Martin, who defends the use of The Secret Relationship in his classroom at Wellesley (and has addressed a conference of those who deny Holocaust), is invited to speak at a college only to vilify Jews and distort history.
There is no doubt that this book will serve as a benchmark for all future texts on anti-Semitism and deserves a place on your bookshelf until the day we reach that mountain top and such volumes are no longer needed.
