The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism | Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the universal threat of antisemitism, asserting it's not just a Jewish issue but one that endangers European freedoms and societal values. They clarify that antisemitism is about denying Jews collective rights, not personal dislikes or political criticisms of Israel. The talk outlines the evolution of antisemitism, from religious and racial hatred to contemporary forms fueled by anti-Zionism and misinformation. The speaker warns that the rise of antisemitism is a symptom of societal breakdown and calls for vigilance, stressing that it's a precursor to broader intolerance and the erosion of human rights. They conclude with a call to action for European leaders to prevent the resurgence of this destructive ideology.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Antisemitism is not confined to Jews: The speaker emphasizes that hatred often starts with Jews but doesn't end with them, affecting broader society and threatening European values and freedoms.
• 🔍 Antisemitism is not merely disliking Jews: The script clarifies that personal dislike is different from the systemic denial of Jews' collective rights, which is the essence of antisemitism.
• 🏛 Historical blame-shifting: Throughout history, when societies faced failure, they often blamed Jews, a pattern that continues today with new scapegoats.
• 🕊️ The danger of unchecked antisemitism: The speaker warns that allowing antisemitism to flourish could signal the end of Europe as we know it, undermining its foundational values.
• 📚 Defining antisemitism: The transcript provides a clear definition, distinguishing between disliking Jews and denying their collective rights to exist with equal status.
• 📉 The resurgence of antisemitism: Despite significant efforts post-Holocaust, antisemitism has reemerged, with some Jews considering leaving Europe due to fear and insecurity.
• 🏙️ The new epicenters of antisemitism: The script points out that the Middle East, not Europe, is now the primary source of modern antisemitism, spread globally through new media.
• 🏡 The impact on Jewish life in Europe: Jewish communities across Europe are fearful for their future, with many considering emigration due to rising antisemitism.
• 🔗 The link between antisemitism and broader societal collapse: The appearance of antisemitism is likened to an early warning sign of societal breakdown and collective failure.
• 🌍 The mutation of antisemitism: The new forms of antisemitism are different, focusing on Israel and using human rights as a justification, which complicates recognition and response.
• 📈 The rise of anti-Zionism as antisemitism: The speaker argues that contemporary anti-Zionism is a manifestation of antisemitism, targeting the Jewish state and its right to exist.
• 👥 The societal consequences of unchecked hate: The script concludes with a warning that societies built on hate will ultimately destroy themselves and their values.

Q & A

What is the central message of the speaker regarding antisemitism?

The speaker emphasizes that antisemitism is not just a threat to Jews but to the entire society and its values of freedom, compassion, and humanity. It is a symptom of a collective breakdown and a sign of societal disease.

According to the speaker, what is the definition of antisemitism?

The speaker defines antisemitism as denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else, rather than simply disliking Jews or criticizing Israel.

How does the speaker describe the evolution of antisemitism over time?

The speaker describes the evolution of antisemitism from being based on religion in the Middle Ages, to race in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and currently focusing on the nation-state, specifically Israel.

What historical efforts did Europe undertake to combat antisemitism?

Europe undertook significant efforts such as anti-racist legislation, Holocaust education, and interfaith dialogue to ensure that antisemitism would not infect the body politic again.

Why did the speaker mention the year 9/11 in the context of antisemitism?

The speaker mentioned 9/11 as a turning point when conspiracy theories blaming Israel and its secret service, Mossad, for the attacks began to circulate, indicating a resurgence of antisemitism.

What is the speaker's view on the future of Jews in Europe if antisemitism continues to grow?

The speaker warns that if antisemitism continues to grow, Jews will continue to leave Europe, potentially leading to Europe becoming 'Judenrein' and the loss of European liberty.

How does the new antisemitism differ from the old, according to the speaker?

The new antisemitism differs in three ways: the focus has shifted from religion and race to the nation-state, its epicenter has moved from Europe to the Middle East, and it uses human rights as a justification for its hate.

What is the connection the speaker makes between antisemitism and the State of Israel?

The speaker connects antisemitism to anti-Zionism, stating that the new form of antisemitism denies the right of Jews to exist as a nation-state, Israel, with the same rights as everyone else.

How does the speaker describe the role of human rights in the new antisemitism?

The speaker describes human rights as the highest source of authority worldwide, which the new antisemitism uses to justify its hate by accusing Israel of human rights violations.

What is the speaker's warning about the consequences of not addressing antisemitism?

The speaker warns that if Europe does not address antisemitism, it will not only lead to the departure of Jews but also the death of European liberty and a permanent moral stain on Europe's name.

What historical parallels does the speaker draw to highlight the seriousness of the current situation?

The speaker draws parallels to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mentioning key moments such as the founding of the League of Antisemites in Germany, the publication of 'La France Juive', and the rise of Karl Lueger in Vienna, to warn of the potential consequences of unchecked antisemitism.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 The Broader Threat of Antisemitism

The speaker begins by emphasizing that the hatred targeting Jews has historically never been confined to them alone, citing the suffering of non-Jews under Hitler, Stalin, ISIS, and Al Qaeda. Antisemitism is presented as a threat to Europe and its hard-won freedoms, and it's defined not as personal dislike or criticism of Israel, but as a denial of Jews' collective right to exist with equal rights. The speaker warns that antisemitism is a symptom of societal breakdown and could signal the end of Europe if unchecked. The talk aims to clarify misconceptions about antisemitism, highlighting its evolution from religious and racial hatred to a hatred of the Jewish state, Israel.

05:02

📉 The Alarming Rise of Antisemitism in Europe

This paragraph discusses the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe, despite efforts to prevent it through anti-racist legislation, Holocaust education, and interfaith dialogue. The speaker recounts specific incidents and statistics indicating an increase in antisemitism, including the consideration of emigration by a significant portion of Europe's Jewish population. The narrative describes the fear and insecurity faced by Jews across Europe, suggesting that if the trend continues, Jews may leave until Europe becomes 'Judenrein' or free of Jews. The new forms of antisemitism are outlined, including its shift from a European to a Middle Eastern epicenter and the mutation of its justifications based on human rights discourse.

10:05

🔄 The Mutation and Spread of Antisemitism

The speaker explains how the new antisemitism differs from the past by focusing on the State of Israel, the shift of its epicenter to the Middle East, and its global communication through new media. It highlights the misuse of human rights as a justification for anti-Jewish sentiment, with Israel being falsely accused of severe human rights violations. The paragraph also discusses the conflation of Zionism with Judaism and the antisemitic trope of Jews being both victims and perpetrators, which is propagated widely, including within Muslim communities and the far left and right political spectrums. The speaker warns that Europe, once cured of antisemitism, is now at risk of being reinfected by these new strains.

15:09

🕊️ The Consequences and Call to Action

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker underscores that antisemitism is not just about Jews but reflects a group's inability to accept responsibility for its failures and to build a future through its efforts. It argues that societies fostering antisemitism cannot sustain liberty, human rights, or religious freedom. The speaker draws parallels between historical moments of antisemitism and the current situation, urging Europe's leaders to remember the past and not to let history repeat itself. The speech ends with a plea to the leaders of Europe to act against the rising tide of antisemitism to preserve the values and soul of Europe, emphasizing the moral responsibility they hold.

Keywords

💡Antisemitism

Antisemitism refers to hostility or prejudice against Jewish people. In the video, it is discussed as a broader societal issue that is not limited to individual dislike but encompasses a systemic hatred that has historically led to significant violence and discrimination. The speaker emphasizes that modern antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism, targeting the collective right of Jews to exist as a nation through Israel.

💡Holocaust

The Holocaust represents the genocide of six million European Jews during World War II, orchestrated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its collaborators. The script mentions the Holocaust as a historical reference point to the atrocities that can arise from unchecked antisemitism and as a warning sign of the potential dangers of its resurgence.

💡Collective breakdown

Collective breakdown refers to the societal collapse or dysfunction that can occur when a group or culture becomes overwhelmed by hatred or prejudice. The video script uses this term to describe the potential consequences of unchecked antisemitism, suggesting that it is an early warning sign of a larger societal disease.

💡Human rights

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all individuals are entitled, such as the right to life, liberty, and security of person. In the context of the video, the speaker notes that the new form of antisemitism misuses the concept of human rights to justify its existence, accusing Israel of various human rights abuses to delegitimize its existence.

💡Zionism

Zionism is the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the support for the establishment, protection, and development of a Jewish state in what is now Israel. The script discusses how anti-Zionism has become a contemporary form of antisemitism, where opposition to Israel's existence is used as a cover for hatred towards Jews.

💡Judenrein

Judenrein is a German term meaning 'clean of Jews' and was used by the Nazis to describe territories from which Jews had been expelled or eliminated. The video uses this term to illustrate the potential end result of unchecked antisemitism, where Jews are no longer present in Europe.

💡Mutating

In the context of the video, 'mutating' refers to the changing or evolving nature of antisemitism over time. The speaker explains that the forms and justifications for antisemitism have changed, from religion to race to nation-state, making it more difficult to recognize and combat.

💡Prejudice

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion or judgment not based on reason or actual experience. In the video, prejudice is discussed as a root cause of antisemitism, where individuals or groups blame others for their own failures or societal problems.

💡Tolerance

Tolerance refers to the acceptance or endurance of opinions, behaviors, or beliefs that differ from one's own. The script implies that a lack of tolerance for differences is a key factor in the rise of antisemitism and that societies that cannot accommodate diversity are unlikely to sustain freedom and human rights.

💡Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are explanations for events or situations that invoke a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation. The video mentions 9/11 conspiracy theories as an example of how quickly and easily unfounded accusations can be spread, contributing to the rise of antisemitism.

💡Humanity

Humanity refers to the human race collectively or the quality of being humane. In the script, the speaker emphasizes the importance of compassion and humanity as values that are threatened by antisemitism and hatred, suggesting that these values are foundational to a free and just society.

Highlights

The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.

Antisemitism is not about Jews; it is about antisemites.

Antisemitism is a threat to Europe and the freedoms it took centuries to achieve.

The appearance of antisemitism in a culture is the first symptom of a disease.

Criticizing Israel is not antisemitism.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.

The new antisemitism targets Jews for their nation state, the State of Israel.

The Holocaust must never happen again, but Israelis are now being labeled as the new Nazis.

Antisemitism today is spread through new electronic media.

Europe is being reinfected by parts of the world that never went through the self-reckoning of the Holocaust.

Antisemitism is a form of cognitive failure, a result of groups failing to take responsibility for their own failures.

Antisemitism re-emerges in times of recession, nationalism, and backlash against immigrants and minorities.

Jews were hated because they were different and the most conspicuous non-Christian minority in a Christian Europe.

No group that adopts antisemitism will ever create a free society.

Europe must act now to stop antisemitism to avoid a moral stain on its name for eternity.

Transcripts

Distinguished friends.

The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.

That is what I want us to understand today.

It was not Jews alone who suffered under Hitler.

It was not Jews alone who suffered under Stalin.

It isn't Jews alone who suffer under ISIS or Al Qaeda

or Islamic Jihad.

We make a great mistake if we think antisemitism

is a threat only to Jews.

It is a threat, first and foremost, to Europe

and to the freedoms it took centuries to achieve.

Antisemitism is not about Jews.

It is about antisemites.

It is about people who cannot accept responsibility

for their own failures and instead have to blame

someone else.

Historically, if you were a Christian at the time

of the Crusades, or a German after the First World War,

and you saw that the world had not turned out

as you thought it would, you blamed the Jews.

That is what is happening today.

And I cannot begin to say how dangerous it is.

Not just to Jews but to everyone who values freedom,

compassion and humanity.

The appearance of antisemitism in a culture

is the first symptom of a disease,

the early warning sign of collective breakdown.

If Europe allows antisemitism to flourish,

that will be the beginning of the end of Europe.

And what I want to do in these brief remarks

is simply to analyse a phenomenon full of vagueness

and ambiguity because we need precision and understanding

to know exactly what antisemitism is, why it happens

and especially why antisemites are convinced

that they are not antisemitic.

First, let me define antisemitism.

Not liking Jews is not antisemitism.

We all have people we don't like.

That's okay;

that's human;

it isn't dangerous.

Second, criticising Israel is not antisemitism.

I was talking to some children in Britain the other day

and they asked me is criticising Israel antisemitism?

I said No, and I explained the difference.

I asked them: Do you believe you have a right

to criticise the British government?

They all put their hands up.

I said now which if you believes that Britain

has no right to exist?

None of them put their hands up.

Now you know the difference, I said, and they all did.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews

to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights

as everyone else.

It takes different forms in different ages.

In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century,

there were hated because of their race.

Today, they are hated because of the nation state,

the State of Israel.

It takes different forms but remains the same thing:

the view that Jews have no right to exist

as free and equal human beings.

If there is one thing I and my contemporaries

never expected, it was that antisemitism would reappear

in Europe within living memory of the Holocaust.

The reason we didn't expect it was that Europe

had undertaken the greatest collective effort

in all of history to ensure that the virus of antisemitism

would never again infect the body politic.

It was a magnificent effort of anti-racist legislation,

Holocaust education and interfaith dialogue.

Yet antisemitism has returned despite everything.

On the 27th of January 2000,

representatives of 46 governments from around the world

gathered in Stockholm to issue a collective declaration

of Holocaust remembrance and the continuing fight

against antisemitism, racism and prejudice.

Then came 9/11 and within days, conspiracy theories

were flooding the Internet claiming it was the work

of Israel and its secret service, the Mossad.

In April 2002, in the middle of Passover,

I was in Florence with a Jewish couple from Paris

when they received a phone call from their son saying,

"Mum, Dad, it's time to leave France.

It's not safe for us here anymore."

In May 2007, in a private meeting here in Brussels,

I think in this building, I told the three leaders of Europe

at the time, Angela Merkel,

President of the European Council,

Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission,

and Hans-Gert Pöttering,

President of the European Parliament,

that the Jews of Europe were beginning to ask

whether there was a future for Jews in Europe.

That was more than nine years ago.

Since then, things have become worse.

Already in 2013, before some of the worst recent incidents,

the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

found that almost a third of Europe's Jews were considering

emigrating because of antisemitism.

In France, the figure was 46 percent.

In Hungary, 48 percent.

Let me ask you this.

Whether you are Jewish or Christian or Muslim,

would you stay in a country where you needed armed police

to protect you while you prayed?

Would you stay in a country where your children need

armed guards to protect them at school?

Where, if you wear a sign of your faith in public,

you risk being abused or attacked?

Where, when your children go to university,

they are insulted and intimidated

because of what is happening in some other part

of the world. And where, when they present their own view

of the situation, they are howled down and silenced?

This is happening to Jews throughout Europe.

In every single country of Europe without exception,

Jews are fearful for their or their children's future.

If this continues, Jews will continue to leave Europe,

until, barring the frail and the elderly,

Europe will finally have become Judenrein.

How did this happen?

It happened the way viruses always defeat

the human immune system, namely, by mutating.

The new antisemitism is different from the old

in three ways.

I've already mentioned one.

Once Jews were hated because of their religion,

then because of their race,

now because of their nation state.

The second difference is that the epicentre

of the old antisemitism was Europe.

Today it's the Middle East and it is communicated globally

by the new electronic media.

The third is particularly disturbing.

Let me explain.

It is easy to hate but very difficult

to justify hate in public.

Throughout history, when people have sought to justify

antisemitism, they have done so by recourse

to the highest source of authority within a culture.

In the Middle Ages, it was religion.

So we had religious anti-Judaism.

In post-Enlightenment Europe, it was science.

So we had the twin foundations of Nazi ideology,

Social Darwinism

and the so-called Scientific Study of Race.

Today, the highest source of authority worldwide

is human rights.

That is why Israel - the only fully functioning democracy

in the Middle East with a free press

and independent judiciary – is regularly accused

of the five cardinal sins against human rights:

racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity,

ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.

The new antisemitism has mutated

so that any practitioner of it

can deny that he or she is an antisemite.

After all, they say, I'm not a racist.

I have no problem with Jews or Judaism.

I only have a problem with the State of Israel.

But in a world with 56 Muslim nations

and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state,

Israel, which constitutes one-quarter of one percent

of the land mass of the Middle East.

And yet Israel is the only one of the 193 member states

of the United Nations that has its right to exist

regularly challenged with one state, Iran,

and many, many other groups committed to its destruction.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews

to exist as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.

The form this takes today is anti-Zionism.

Of course, there is a difference between Zionism and Judaism,

and between Jews and Israelis.

But this difference does not exist

for the antisemites themselves.

It was Jews, not Israelis, who were murdered

in terrorist attacks in Toulouse, Paris,

Brussels and Copenhagen.

Anti-Zionism is the antisemitism of our time.

In the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of poisoning wells,

spreading the plague and killing Christian children

to use their blood.

In Nazi Germany, they were accused of controlling both

capitalist America and communist Russia.

Today they are accused of running ISIS, as well as America.

All the old myths have been recycled

from the Blood Libel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The cartoons that flood the Middle East today

are clones of those published in Der Sturmer,

one of the primary vehicles of Nazi propaganda

between 1923 and 1945.

The ultimate weapon of the new antisemitism

is dazzling in its simplicity.

It goes like this.

The Holocaust must never happen again.

But Israelis are the new Nazis;

the Palestinians are the new Jews;

and all Jews are Zionists.

Therefore, the real antisemites of our time

are none other than the Jews themselves.

And these are not marginal views.

They are widespread within the Muslim world,

including Muslim communities in Europe,

and they are slowly infecting the far left,

the far right, academic circles, unions

and even some churches.

Having cured itself of the virus of antisemitism,

Europe is being reinfected

by parts of the world that never went through

the self-reckoning that Europe undertook once the facts

of the Holocaust became known.

How do such absurdities come to be believed?

This is a vast and complex subject,

I've written a book about it,

but the simplest explanation is this.

When bad things happen to a group,

its members can ask one of two different questions:

one, “What did we do wrong?”

Or two, “Who did this to us?”

And the entire fate of the group

will depend on which it chooses.

If it asks, “What did we do wrong?”, it is beyond

the self-criticism essential to a free society.

If it asks, “Who did this to us?”, it has defined itself

as a victim.

It will then seek a scapegoat to blame

for all its problems.

And classically, this has been the Jews.

Antisemitism is a form of cognitive failure,

and it happens when groups feel that their world

is spinning out of control.

It began in the Middle Ages when Christian saw

that Islam had defeated them

in places they regarded as their own, especially Jerusalem.

And that was when in 1096, Crusaders,

on their way to the Holy Land, stopped first

to massacre Jewish communities in Northern Europe.

It was born in the Middle East in the 1920s

with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Antisemitism re-emerged in Europe in the 1870s

during a period of economic recession

and resurgent nationalism.

And it is re-appearing in Europe now for the same reasons:

recession, nationalism and a backlash against immigrants

and other minorities.

Antisemitism happens when the politics of hope

gives way to the politics of fear,

which quickly becomes the politics of hate.

This then reduces complex problems to simplicities.

It divides the world into black and white,

seeing all the fault on one side

and all the victimhood on the other.

It singles out one group among a hundred offenders

for the blame.

The argument is always the same. We are innocent;

they are guilty.

It follows that if we are to be free, then they,

the Jews or the State of Israel, must be destroyed.

That is how the great crimes begin.

Jews were hated because they were different.

They were the most conspicuous non-Christian minority

in a Christian Europe.

Today, they are the most conspicuous non-Muslim presence

in an Islamic Middle East.

Antisemitism has always been about

the inability of a group

to make space for difference.

No group that adopts it will ever, or can ever,

create a free society.

So I end where I began.

The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.

Antisemitism is only secondarily about Jews.

Primarily it is about the failure of groups

to accept responsibility for their own failures

and to build their own future by their own endeavors.

No society that has ever fostered antisemitism

has ever sustained liberty or human rights

or religious freedom.

Every society driven by hate begins

by seeking to destroy its enemies,

and ends by destroying itself.

Europe today is not fundamentally antisemitic,

but it has allowed antisemitism to enter

via the new electronic media.

It has failed to recognise

that the new antisemitism is different from the old.

We are not today back in the 1930s.

But we are coming close to 1879 when Wilhelm Marr

founded the League of Antisemites in Germany;

to 1886 when Édouard Drumont published La France Juive;

and 1897 when Karl Lueger became the mayor of Vienna.

These were key moments in the spread of antisemitism,

and all we have to do today is to remember that

what was said then about the Jews is being said today

about the Jewish state.

The history of Jews in Europe

has not always been a happy one.

Europe's treatment of the Jews added certain words

to the human vocabulary:

disputation, false conversion, inquisition,

expulsion, auto da fe, ghetto,

pogrom and Holocaust,

words written in Jewish tears and Jewish blood.

Yet for all that, Jews loved Europe

and contributed to it some of its greatest scientists,

writers, academics, musicians

and shapers of the modern mind.

If Europe lets itself be dragged down that road again,

this will be the story told in times to come.

First they came for the Jews.

Then for the Christians.

Then for the gays.

Then for the atheists.

Until there was nothing left of Europe's soul

but a distant, fading memory.

Today I have tried to give voice

to those who have no voice.

I spoken on behalf of the murdered Roma, Sinti,

gays, dissidents, mentally and physically handicapped

and a million and a half Jewish children

murdered because of their grandparents' religion.

In their name, I say to you:

You know where the road ends.

Don't go down there again.

You are the leaders of Europe.

Its future is in your hands.

If you do nothing, Jews will leave,

European liberty will die,

and there will be a moral stain on Europe's name

that all eternity will not erase.

Stop it now while there is still time.

Thank you.

(applause)