admin asked Staff ago Dear Daat Emet members,
First I want to compliment you on the wonderful site, the interesting articles, and the quality writing. I really enjoy each visit to the site.
I have a question which has bothered me for some time, about anti-Semitism.
First, I should note that I do not justify any racism of any sort. To the point, I want to know what, in your opinion, is the cause of anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews? The explanation religious people give, that hatred by gentiles is an unchangeable fact which has no connection to the behavior of the Jewish people, gets me angry.
Do you agree with me that the Jewish people, or more correctly the Jewish theory of “the chosen people” is the cause of the hatred. The gentile understands the Jews’ snobbery, and who could love a people who do not love him?
In addition, there is Jewish isolation, the laws of kashrut which are actually social laws meant to torpedo any social contact with gentiles. This isolation has caused the Jews to huddle within themselves and help each other, and it has led to great hatred. The motif of hatred of the other is quite strong in Judaism.
In addition, I have noticed that throughout history the Jewish nation has belittled laws, treating them as suggestions only. Proof of this is the State of Israel.
The Jewish state, sixty years after its founding, is corrupted and a total mess. I emphasize: I don’t justify murder, pogroms, or any other show of anti-Semitism in history. It’s just that I really want to understand (if possible) the causes of the hatred.
Should we look in the mirror and change certain things to try to decrease this phenomenon?
And with your permission, another question:
In light of the assimilation of Diaspora Jews, what do you think is the fate of the Jewish people? Is it possible that the nation will become extinct? What is the point of keeping Jewish nonsense which contributes nothing to the enlightened person interested in merging with the universal culture? Wouldn’t it be better to throw Judaism into the historical trash bin, to assimilate into the Western world, to suffer alienation in the first generation but to ensure that the next generation finds its place in the enlightened modern society? We would also eliminate a source of so much hatred and problems.
I would be happy to hear your opinion, and perhaps get links to essays which address this topic.
Sincerely,
Gila
jsadmin Staff answered 21 years ago
Dear Gila,
The issue of hatred towards Jews is ancient. We will cite the Greek historian and Jewish philosopher Diodorus (a Greek historian from the first century BCE): “Many of his friends advised [Antiochus VII, known as Sidetes (138-129 BCE)] to conquer the city [of Jerusalem] by force of arms and to utterly destroy the Jewish nation, for only they of all nations refrain from contact with other nations and consider all others enemies…Hatred for people they pass from generation to generation. Therefore they have created severe laws which completely separate them [from other nations] such as not sharing a table with members of other nations and not favoring them at all.” (Open University, “From Exile to Independence,” Diodorus, Historical Library, book 34, chapter 1, translated by A. Rappaport. Unit 8, pg. 58)
Benedict Spinoza, a Jewish philosopher and one of the central personalities in the history of European thought (1632-1677): “As to their continuance so long after dispersion and the loss of empire, there is nothing marvelous in it, for they so separated themselves from every other nation as to draw down upon themselves universal hate, not only by their outward rites, rites conflicting with those of other nations, but also by the sign of circumcision which they most scrupulously observe” (Theologico-Political Treatise, 3:99).
As to the future of the Jewish nation, we will quote the words of Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz OBM: “Starting in the beginning of the 19th century, and in any case for more than a hundred years, the Jewish nation has been in a process of collapse and disintegration. This process is not stopping, it is continuing, and could lead to the destruction of the Jewish nation. [This means that the Jewish nation] has found a way to live in the modern world, like those circles from which the Jewish ministers of Mitterand and Margaret Thatcher sprung, along with the Jewish senators and governors in the United States…There is a very good chance of the existence of Charedi Jewish cults, whom it is doubtful can be seen as the continuation of the great history of the Jewish people…I reject them, not only from the point of view of Judaism, but also from the human point of view. The whole world of Chassidic chatzeriyrot I find utterly disgusting” (Al Olam U’Milo’oh, Conversations with Michael Seser, Keter Publishing, Jerusalem, 1992, pp. 66-67).
Sincerely,
Daat Emet