Racism and Anti-Semitism—Part 2
It is impossible to understand Anti-semitism without understanding what it is about the Jews that makes them the target of such irrational hatred and persecution. It is difficult, however, to characterize a people, without implying a kind of racism in the process and to avoid that, it must be made clear the facts about Jews, their history, and relationships to Western civilization are not a characterization of individual Jewish people, and not an evaluation of the Jews as a class.
Anti-semitism
Anti-semitism is not, as some suppose, a unique form of racism. Its manifestation has been unique in a number of ways, some particularly evil ways, but its nature is the same old irrationality that judges people based on some ethnic or group connection, real or imagined. There is another ethnic group that has suffered a similar kind of racial discrimination and persecution as the Jews, the Gypsies. The similarity in their experience is revealing.
Persecution of Roma
Roma persecution is recorded from as early as the fifteenth century, but the systematic persecution begins with the deportation orders issued by Bismarck in 1870.
According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research policy paper “The Roma/Gypsies of Europe: a persecuted people,“by Margaret Brearley, “From 1934 onwards some German Gypsies were forced into policed settlements. … Late in 1938 the first racial law against Roma and Sinti, ‘Fight against the Gypsy Menace’, was enacted ….
“In 1940, 3,000 German and Austrian Roma and Sinti were deported to Polish camps or ghettos; the remaining 27,000 continued to be forced into holding camps. Following the German occupation of Austria in 1938, Austrian Roma were sent to work camps, concentration camps (e.g. Ravensbruck, Mauthausen and Buchenwald) or to a special Roma camp in Lackenbach. Roma in territories annexed or conquered by Germany were subject to similar treatment. Some fascist governments allied to Germany (particularly Croatia, Slovakia and Romania) initiated persecution of Roma without apparent pressure from Germany.
“The decision to annihilate all Roma was probably taken in mid-1942, after the Wannsee conference. … by January 1942 several thousand Roma had been gassed in closed vans at Chelmno. Because records are incomplete and the statistics disputed, estimates of the total number of Sinti, Roma and part-Sinti murdered in the Holocaust vary from 200,000-500,000. Auschwitz-Birkenau contained a special Roma camp, where families were kept together, probably in order to forestall revolt. At least 19,000 were murdered or died there. Many Roma not allocated to the special camp also died in Auschwitz. Thousands of Romanies were killed in Belscn and Buchenwald and in extermination camps, including Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek and Treblinka. Many were subjected to inhumane experimentation at Dachau (salt injections), Natzweiler (typhus injections), Sachsenhausen (mustard gas) and elsewhere. In Auschwitz Dr Mengele selected many Romanies, including children, for experimentation. Many Roma men, women and teenagers underwent forced sterilization.
“While over half of all German, Czech, Austrian, Latvian and Polish Roma died, some communities suffered even heavier losses. Virtually all Roma in Belgium, Holland, Estonia and Lithuania were annihilated, as were those in Croatia, where the Catholic-supported fascist Ustasa perpetrated mass atrocities against the Roma. Roma communities in the USSR, Romania, Serbia and Hungary each lost thousands, massacred by the Nazis.”
Jewish/Roma Similarities
One important similarity between Jews and Gypsies is their autoracism. Both Jews and Gypsies, wherever they find themselves, continue to identify themselves by their own culture, which in the case of Jews, includes their religion. There are variations between various groups in different places and over time, but the essential characteristics Jews and Gypsies share that make them the unique target of exoracism are:
They both maintain their own cultural and social identity, which to varying degrees includes, language, dress, food, literature, music, and beliefs, which are different from the culture of the surrounding society.
They do not adopt, or only partially adopt the culture of the society in which they live, and therefore, however long they have been in a society, even if several generations, they often “seem” to be foreign and a bit strange.
Those aspects of exoracism experienced by both Jews and Gypsies are based primarily on ignorance of the nature and culture of those that are hated and an irrational fear of the unknown, but is made possible by the autoracism of the Jews and Gypsies themselves— it is their self-identification as Jews or Gypsies at which the exoracism of those who hate and fear them is directed. That exoracism is itself symptomatic of the autoracism of the haters, who regard individuals in the hated groups as inferior—because we are the superior, “German,” “French,” “British,” Italian, “Russian,” etc., and they are not us.
Jewish/Roma Differences
In addition to the obvious differences between the Roma and the Jews, their origin, their specific cultural differences, e.g. language, religion, diet, and customs, and the fact that there are so many more Jews than Gypsies (one reason the Jewish holocaust was so much greater in terms of numbers if not horror), there are other much more important differences. These do not alter the similarities in the racist hatred directed at them or the nature of the persecution, however.
Roma are a nomadic people. It is one of the things that makes them a source of irrational fear and a source of so many false stories about them. But it also contributes to something else which is seldom true of the Jews. From the same “The Roma/Gypsies of Europe” article, “They are virtually always on the bottom rung of society: the severity of their health, educational and housing problems approximates that in the developing world and is more acute than in any other sector of the population. In some Central and East European countries most Roma are destitute.”
Gypsies are also much less visible than Jews. While the Nazi persecution of the Jews is well know, that against Roma is almost unknown, and since the Second World War, while persecution of the Jews has greatly decreased, it continues against the Gypsies. Again, from the same article, “Persecution of Roma today takes many forms. Grassroots prejudice, deriving from centuries of official outlawry, runs deep and often results in public hostility and discrimination, lynchings, house-burnings and murder. Roma are a prime target for skinhead and ultra-nationalist violence, and are sometimes victims of police brutality.”
A Most Important Difference
The most important difference between the Jews and Roma is that Jews are almost never, “on the bottom rung of society,“are generally well-educated, often financially successful, and this in spite of the history of their systematic persecution and marginalization.
The fact is important to understanding the nature of anti-Semitism, which is a variety of exoracism unique to Jews and one other unidentified class of human beings.
“Why Are Jews Hated?”
In his article, “Why the world hates the Jews,” Michael Medved names what he considers the three reasons for anti-Semitism:
“1. The emphasis on the ‘Chosen People’ concept in the Bible.
“2. The prominence and prosperity of Jews in most nations in which they’ve established significant communities.
“3. The startling successes of the State of Israel in the mere 60 years of its existence.”
Medved argues that the first is a misunderstanding about what being, “the chosen people,” means. According to Medved, it does not mean the Jews are chosen for special power, privilege, or blessing, but rather, a special responsibility. That is no doubt true, but even if it were otherwise, it would only be a kind of hubris and there are certainly many other nationalities that have an unrealistic pride in themselves. It is unlikely that any people are hated for that alone, and I’ll explain what I think it really is.
But, first, there is something else Medved says which is very significant.
Jewish Autoracism
I have already emphasized autoracism, “all by itself, is never a threat or danger to others.” Nevertheless, it is a kind of autoracism Medved describes.
“How … can we understand the imperishable belief that Jews function as an arrogant, imperious, overbearing people? In a few words, that resentment stems in truth from the age-old Jewish refusal to abandon our separate identity, our irreducible distinctiveness through the millennia….
“… If a small group among your neighbors refuses invitations to worship in your churches and mosques, to eat the food you prepare in your homes, to marry your daughters, to embrace your nationalisms, or to share your enthusiasm for the ultimate, universally applicable perfection of your Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Catholic, Islamic, Nazi or Communist worldview, then it’s all but certain you will resent the members of that stubborn group – and assume that they exclude themselves from elements of your society due to an innate, obnoxious sense of superiority.”
I do not entirely agree with Medved here, but there are two very significant things he alludes to. The first he refers to as a kind of stubbornness, but I think it is something else, and is mistaken for hubris—it is really a kind of independence. It is not so much an “obnoxious sense of superiority” that people sense in this, although it is undoubtedly frequently described that way; it is in fact an expression of something which is always despised by a certain aspect of all societies, the idea of self-sufficiency, that kind of independence which says to rest of society, “we don’t need you, and can, if we must, get along perfectly well without you.” It is a strange kind of independence, however, because it is a collective independence. It is in fact one of the things that is resented about the Roma as well. No one says more loudly or clearly to all the rest of society by their behavior, “we don’t need you,“than the Roma. The significance of this independence will be more clearly seen when we look at who it is that hates the Jews, and why.
The other thing Medved alludes to is the Jews autoracism; their very existence is the result of the perpetuation of their identification as “a people.” While their culture and religion cannot be separated from that identification, it is neither of these by themselves that is autoracism. It is the personal identification by individual Jews as members, collectively, of a “race,” which membership is seen as a value in itself. (Race is really incorrect, because “Jews”include almost all races.) This in no way questions either their right or their wisdom in doing this, it is simply a statement of a fact, not a judgement.
It is, however, that autoracism that makes it possible to identify certain characteristics which are factually true about those who identify themselves as Jews. Facts about the “prominence and prosperity of Jews,” that Medved attempts to counter by minimizing. That, I think, is a mistake, and it is the most important part of the explanation for the worst forms of anti-Semitism, though not in the way Medved thinks.
The following are all facts published about Jews by Jews. Some of this information is devilishly hard to come by, and in fact ought to be. It is only in the context of discovering what is perceived to be that “Jewish” identity toward which the vicious racism of anti-Semitism is directed that it is useful; and here it is useful, because it will also demonstrate the irrationality of that which is hated about the Jews.
Better Educated
While I do not agree that academic education or college degrees are necessarily an indication of one’s “education,” the figures are nevertheless significant.
“More than half of all Jewish adults (55%) have received a college degree, and a quarter (25%) have earned a graduate degree. The comparable figures for the total U.S. population are 29% and 6%.”
Better Jobs
“More than 60% of all employed Jews are in one of the three highest status job categories: professional/technical (41%), management and executive (13%), and business and finance (7%). In contrast, 46% of all Americans work in these three high status areas, including 29% in professional/technical jobs, 12% in management and executive positions, and 5% in business and finance.”
More Jews Self-employed
Roughly 15% of men are self-employed while nearly 34% of Jewish men and women are self-employed. [Stats are for UK, but similar to US.]
Highest Incomes
“More than one-third of Jewish households (34%) report income over $75,000, compared to 17% of all U.S. households. Proportionally fewer Jewish households (22%) than total U.S. households (28%) report household income under $25,000. The current median income of Jewish households is $54,000, 29% higher than the median U.S. household income of $42,000.”
The relationship of these facts to anti-Semitism is frequently attributed to envy. No doubt some of the hatred of Jews is just that, a kind of resentment of their success and prosperity, especially by those who mistakenly attribute it their being Jews, and not to their creativity and industriousness as individuals. But there is a more sinister reason the success of Jews is the cause of hatred.
The World’s Business Men
On the Jewish web page, Famous Jews Interactive, users have listed a number of “Jewish Business and Banking Professionals,” they admire. (There are many more not listed, unfortunately.) Unlike Medved, these Jews understand their success in business is something to be proud of.
A number of Jewish writers, including Medved, attempt to minimize the fact that Hollywood and the film industry are disproportionately Jewish. Ben Stein, however, makes the important point in the subtitle to his article, “Do Jews Run Hollywood?,” by answering his own question, “You bet they do–and what of it?”
“Hollywood was not really “run” by anyone,” Ben writes, “(it’s far too chaotic for that), if Jews were about 2.5 percent of the population and were about 60 percent of Hollywood, they might well be said to be extremely predominant in that sector.”
“… it is extremely clear to anyone in Hollywood that Jews are, so to speak, “in charge” … in a way that is not duplicated in any other large business, except maybe garments or scrap metal or folding boxes.”
Ben goes on to name some of the prominent Jews “in charge” in Hollywood today, then writes, “This has always been true in Hollywood. The ex-furriers who created Hollywood were Eastern European Jewish immigrants, and all of the great edifice of fantasy-making in Hollywood is their handiwork. Names like Zukor and Lasky and Goldwyn and Cohn are the foundation of mass culture in America and the world.”
I do not agree with Ben that, “it took all these Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jews to create the lasting, worldwide image of America and what America is–the mass culture mirror that America likes to hold up to its face,” because others could have done it, it just so happens it was Jews who did. While I do not agree that, “the Hollywood product shows it has been a wholesome influence on American life,” because it is has been a profoundly unwholesome one, especially since the sixties, but that has nothing to do with who was or is in charge—it would have been the same if it were the Japanese in charge. What is important is the obvious fact, Hollywood, and the film industry in general, in terms of business has been hugely successful, which means it is predominantly Jews who contributed to that success.
Many Jews are obviously very successful businessmen, and in terms of their numbers, disproportionately so. This has been so throughout their history, and is the root of a great misunderstanding, which will be addressed in the next article in this series.
—(01/22/06)