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Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism – An ideology, political current
and set of prejudices that attempt to justify an antagonistic attitude
towards Jews. Anti-Semitism is associated with the concepts of
nationalism and totalitarianism, basing itself on xenophobia and
ethnocentrism. It was based on race – mistakenly identifying Jews as a
separate race in anthropological terms. In the broader sense, it is an
antagonistic attitude, verbal or physical aggression, negative opinions
that generalize and prejudice people against Jews, and views that
attempt to justify this kind of attitude by means of religious, ethnic,
racist, political or economic messages. The negative or hostile
attitudes towards Jews that are deeply rooted in European culture are
the legacy of a conflict between Christianity and Judaism. The teachings
of the Catholic Church, discriminatory legislation and persecutions
throughout history have shaped the way Europeans see Jews, whom they
distinguish from other ethnic groups as being accursed and ritually
unclean.
During the Middle Ages, three main Jewish traits developed in the
popular mind: 1) a conviction that they are evenly scattered; throughout
the world, the result of a divine curse; 2) treating Jews as
foreigners;, regardless of how long they had lived in a given territory;
3) attributing their physical appearance with supernatural traits and
associating them with devils. This way of perceiving Jews destined the
group to become a scapegoat; Jews were blamed for natural disasters,
wars and social or economic crises. Jews were finally accorded equal
rights relatively late--in most European countries this occurred in the
second half of the nineteenth century. There were protests from the
classes that were also advancing at that time, mostly the petty
bourgeoisie and the peasants. These groups were competing in the
emancipation process. The advancing social groups and defenders of the
old order refused to let assimilated Jews participate in social and
cultural life. At the same time, national consciousness was born, and
its radical form led to nationalism (or chauvinism), which postulated
the subordination of the individual to the nation’s interests, and that
these should be considered above all else, including morality. In the
intellectual sphere, nationalism was aided by social Darwinism, which
proclaimed that weaker human groups would be overtaken by stronger ones,
and also by racism, which assessed people according to their membership
in better or worse races. While racism contradicted Enlightenment views
regarding human equality, totalitarian tendencies stood in opposition
to freedom, and restricted the slogan about fraternit to one’s own
nation, ruled by one party.
Totalitarianism (both right-wing and left-wing, which developed
later) made use of anti-Semitic slogans as well. Anti-Semitism was not a
program to solve the Jewish question, though it liked to abuse that
expression. The question for anti-Semites was the fact that Jews existed
at all. Suggesting that Jews posed some sort of threat was a tool to
attract supporters (the slogan closing ranks), and to gain complete
power over them. Modern anti-Semitism developed in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century, first in France. There, anti-Jewish propaganda
was used by the Action Francaise movement, which associated itself with
Catholicism and advocated the return of the monarchy. In 1894,
accusations of treason against A. Dreyfus, the only Jewish officer in
the French general staff, united anti-Semites. (These accusations later
turned out to be false.)
In Prussia and Austria, the first anti-Semitic political parties
were established, such as the Antisemitenliga [German, Anti-Semite
League], founded in 1879 by W. Marr. He popularized the term
anti-Semitism in his publication Zwangloser antisemitischer Hefte
[German, Independent Anti-Semitic Journal, Berlin, 1879-1880]. The
Christlichsoziale Arbeiterpartei [German, Christian-Social Worker’s
Party], founded in Berlin in 1989 under the direction of the preacher A.
Stoeker (1835–1909), managed to collect approximately 250,000
signatures in 1880 for a petition demanding that Jews be removed from
state schools and universities. In 1897-1910, the mayor of Vienna, Karl
Lueger (1844-1910), led the [anti-Semitic] Austrian Christian-Social
party, founded in 1888. The views represented by these three largest
organizations, active in the neighboring countries, lay at the roots of
Nazism. The ideological themes they developed, and their methods of
promoting them, became ready-made role models for other European
countries.
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In 1880-1881, there were pogroms in Russia. The
Jews in Russia were accused of spreading social radicalism and were
subjected to emergency laws (the May Laws). In early twentieth century
Russia, the Black Hundreds were founded, which were responsible for a
wave of anti-Jewish violence and pogroms in 1903-1906. A pamphlet titled
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, arguing that Jews were conspiring
to destroy the world, was distributed by supporters of the Black
Hundreds, and was cited as a justification for the slaughters and
pogroms carried out against Jews in 1914-1919. In the Austrian partition
of Galicia, T. Merunowicz, a member of the local diet there, attempted
to found an anti-Jewish party in the 1870’s. Despite having borrowed a
great deal from Austrian anti-Semitic ideology, his views on the Jewish
Question were influenced by the program of the Krakow conservatives.
Father S. Stojaowski (1845–1911), aided by anti-Semitic agitation,
organized a peasant movement in Galicia (1896), which was condemned by
the higher Church authorities. In the Prussian partition, anti-Semitic
ideology, modeled on German models, played a significant role in a
movement there that advocated a Polish economic renaissance.
In the Kingdom of Poland, the publication Rola, edited by J.
Jelenski (1848–1909), popularized anti-Semitic themes (Warsaw,
1883-1913). Although it drew on ideological borrowings from France and
Prussia (such as the theme of “Judeo-Masons” or the slogan about
economic boycott), its publications were distinguished by a lack of any
obvious racism and a pro-Russian servility, which made it difficult to
associate anti-Semitism closely with nationalism. The journal Glos
(Voice, Warsaw, 1886–1905), aimed at the intelligentsia, first began
promoting racism against Jews during the period 1888–1900. Until the
late 1930’s, racist tendencies did not constitute a significant
component of anti-Jewish ideology in Poland. On the one hand, this was
due to the fact that the Catholic Church clearly condemned racism; on
the other, a Jewish community had historically existed in Poland, having
distinctive dress, language and customs. As a result, they were easily
recognizable. Anti-Semites did not have to refer to
pseudo-anthropological distinguishing characteristics, though with
regard to assimilated Jews they often used genealogy as a criterion in a
way similar to racism. The National-Democratic Party, founded in 1897,
added anti-Semitism to its program in 1903 (R. Dmowski, Mysli
nowoczesnego Polaka [Thoughts of a Modern Pole]). It became the most
influential organization advancing an anti-Jewish brand of Polish
nationalism. In 1919-1926, the national parties, including the Zwiazek
Ludowo-Narodowy (Popular-National Union), Stronnictwo
Chrzescijansko-Narodowe (Christian-National Party) and Polskie
Stronnictwo Ludowe “Piast” (“Piast” Polish People’s Party), had one
third of the seats in the Sejm.
After the May coup, Dmowski, in an attempt to recover his lost
political influence, founded the Oboz Wielkiej Polski (Great Poland
Camp) in 1926. It was soon banned in Eastern Galicia for anti-Jewish
excesses in 1927, and then throughout the country in 1933. In 1928,
influenced by Italian fascism, Dmowski founded the Stronnictwo Narodowe
(SN, National Party). In 1934, some of the young radicals broke away
from SN and founded Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny (ONR, National-Radical
Camp), which had a totalitarian program inspired by Nazism. Its leaders
included J. Mosdorf and B. Piasecki.
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ONR formed units that were used during
anti-Jewish excesses, terrorist acts and unrest at universities (getto
lawkowe, or "bench ghettos", referring to the quotas for Jewish students
in higher education); as a result, it was already banned in 1934. It
was influential in many student organizations, of which only "Arconia"
accepted Jewish members. In clerical circles, there was a great deal of
support for SN and anti-Semitism. Most Catholic publications backed a
program stipulating that Jews should be economically and culturally
segregated. Their aggressive tone and spreading of hatred were conducive
to acts of violence, though these were officially condemned by the
Church. The anti-minority policies of Poland's interwar government
contributed to the Jewish community's isolation, which later made it
more difficult to organize aid for Jews during the German occupation.
During the Second World War, programmatic anti-Semitism continued
within the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne), which were for
example responsible for a series of killings of Jews carried out in
1945-1946. Nazism, often called "Hitlerism" in Poland, united
totalitarianism and anti-Semitism most decisively. In 1919, the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was founded (German
National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP), which in its 1920
program denied civil rights to those who without "German"
blood�especially Jews. Beginning in 1921, the party was led by A.
Hitler. In 1933, Hitler became chancellor, and then, in 1934, dictator.
He also became Führer of the Third Reich, which he himself had
proclaimed. The utopia Hitler was striving to create was to be founded
on the principle of isolating the "racially pure" Germans from
everything he believed would threaten its purity. An enormous machine of
state-sponsored terror helped implement this policy, which resulted in
the persecution of groups that did not fit the Nazi image of society,
above all Jews and other minorities (Nuremberg Laws), but also the
mentally ill and homosexuals. Hitler's policies led to the Second World
War and the extermination of over half of Europe's Jews (in Poland, this
figure was 90%).
Although Nazism's savageness compromised anti-Semitism as a
political concept, it was not eliminated entirely. Anti-Semitism
continued to be used for political purposes, especially in the Soviet
bloc. From the mid-1970's, a rebirth of anti-Semitism could be observed
in the West, in the form of "revisionism" (the denial or minimization of
facts concerning the Holocaust), the skinhead movement among young
people, the rise of neo-Nazi organizations and the formation of a new
radical right (Le Pen's National Front in France, the Republicans in
Germany and the Freedom Party in Austria). All these phenomena appeared
in the post-communist countries as well. In the 1990's, the number of
anti-Jewish incidents rose, such as the destruction of historical
monuments, attacks and beatings. Poland was affected as well, where
during 1991-1993 most of the existing historical monuments and active
synagogues were damaged or desecrated with offensive graffiti. Several
people were also the victims of beatings, including a rabbi; in 1997,
the synagogue in Warsaw was set on fire.
Since 1989, several dozen small, vociferous anti-Semitic
organizations have been founded in Poland. There are six parties that
are following in the footsteps of the Stronnictwo Narodowe. Anti-Semitic
remarks can be heard on the Catholic "Radio Maryja", in sermons (such
as those by Father Jankowski), and even in some of the statements made
by professors at the Catholic University in Lublin (KUL). Anti-Semitism
as an ideology is also used to stir up anti-Israeli sentiments in the
Arab countries (such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and
Libya), as well as by Islamic fundamentalism. The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion has been published most frequently there, where editions
are sometimes subsidized by the state.
(A.C./CM)
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