The current and ugly rise of antisemitism throughout the Jewish world shows little, if any, signs of abating.
Though governments in some countries have undertaken a commitment to regulate the spread of antisemitism with the introduction of laws and defensive groups aimed to regulate the violence, it is clear to everybody that antisemitism can never be totally abandoned.
In 2000 years nothing has changed, though at times the problem can be likened to a volcano which lies dormant for many years, then suddenly erupts spreading widespread terror and danger.
Israel is at war with Islamic terrorists who started the war with the barbaric raid on October 7 2023, and who have viciously spread falsehoods and substantial exaggerations about Israel’s reprisal and claims of genocide.
It has brought antisemitism to an eruptive explosion in many countries, even into world communal bodies like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
There are numerous opinions about the rise of antisemitism today. Many claim the current war has exacerbated the outbreak, though the tragedy of the Holocaust cannot be likened to any act of aggression from European Jewry.
It is too easy to liken events of today to centuries of hatred and persecution. We should dig deeper to try and find more effective ways to lessen the continued danger to Jews, wherever they live.
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin, the distinguished Russian-British social and political theorist philosopher and historian, was the son of a wealthy Jewish family in Riga, now Latvia.
Berlin was a controversial writer of many books and essays, as well as a noted public speaker.
In 1961, he published the book Jewish Slavery and Emancipation, which was largely devoted to the rise of antisemitism throughout Europe dating from the 18th century, and has been regarded as a classic treatment of the subject.
Berlin claimed two main factors were significant. Firstly, the Jewish Enlightenment in Germany which was developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, largely from the ideas and writings of German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and secondly the French Revolution.
In both cases these events liberated Jews living in Western Europe, allowing the vast majority to integrate peacefully into the Gentile society and abandon their traditional Jewish identities.
But to the strictly Orthodox Jews, this did not apply. They maintained their Jewish way of life to the letter of the law, giving rise to living conditions, more often than not in closed confines outside the reach of the city.
Berlin comments in the book:
“There is no possible argument against those truly religious Jews to whom the preservation of Judaism as a faith is an absolute obligation to which everything, including life itself, must without hesitation be sacrificed.”
Then later he endorsed the view that for these “full-blooded” Jews, the only logical solution is emigration to Israel.
The Alternative Possibility
Berlin continues:
“But it is not so clear that those Jews who believe, just in the preservation and transmission of ‘Jewish values’ which are usually something less than a complete Jewish faith, are justified in assuming without question that this form of life is obviously worth saving, even at the unbelievable cost in blood and tears which has made the history of the Jews for two thousand years a dreadful martyrology.”
Other commentators regarding this vexing question conclude the alternative possibility for Jews who have outgrown both Jewish nationality and the Jewish religion is to renounce both and allow themselves to be socially and culturally absorbed by their environment.
But the psychological resistance against this is enormous.
Distinguished author Arthur Koestler remarked:
“It’s a painful choice, yet the equally emotional factors are spiritual pride, civic courage, the apprehension of being accused of hypocrisy or cowardice, the scars of wounds inflicted in the past and the reluctance to abandon a mystic destiny, a specifically Jewish mission.”
When Koestler was interviewed after publishing this book in 1949 and was asked what advice would he give to the Wandering Jew – to decide either to become an Israeli or to renounce utterly his Jewishness – he summed up his true feelings.
“The time has come for every Jew to ask himself: Do I really consider myself a member of a chosen race destined to return to the Promised Land?
If not, what right have I to go on calling myself a Jew and thereby inflicting on my children the stigma of otherliness.”
The publication of this interview with Maurice Carr from the London Jewish Chronicle aroused general indignation among the Chronicle’s readers.
“Isn’t an Englishman of Jewish faith like any other Englishman?”
But Times Have Changed
As is the case in every walk of life, times have changed.
Even with the threat of disturbing antisemitism, since the State of Israel was created in 1948, every Jew can stand up tall and take pride in the Jewish homeland.
No, all Jews don’t live here. Neither do all Italians live in Italy.
Today, Israel is a world leader in many fields of industry and technology. An army considered one of the best in the world and every Jew who chooses to live here is made welcome.
To determine the future it is always wise to explore history and although Israel is forging ahead in the commercial world at large, Jewish values have not been discarded.
Taking a broader perspective on preservation of Jewish life it is abundantly clear that in Israel, only in Israel can Jews feel in whatever form of religious conduct they choose to follow, they can live without the fear of just being Jewish.
