Perspectives on Racism: Anti-Semitism as Racism
Emancipation was a mixed blessing for the Jews. Previously
denied the vote, land ownership, or access to trade,
industry, or education, they were now permitted both
citizenship and access to the benefits it conferred Such
benefits, however, did not give Jews equality. Rather,
Jewish progress inflamed anti-Semitism. Fear and hatred of
Jews festered and took on a racial rather than a religious
dimension. That is, Jews were now resented simply for being
Jews, and even changing their religion did not help. The
modern age of 'racial anti-Semitism' had arrived.
As the 1988 document prepared by the Pontifical Commission
of the Vatican, 'The Church and Racism,' indicates, the
development of modern racist theory can be traced to the
attempts by colonial conquerors and slavers to 'justify
their actions.' This pseudo-scientific theory 'sought to
deduce an essential difference of a hereditary biological
nature, in order to affirm that the subjugated peoples
belong to intrinsically inferior "races" with regard to
their mental, moral, or social qualities. It was at the end
of the 18th century that the word "race" was used for the
first time to classify human beings biologically' (sect. 3,
para. 5)
It did not take long for European racial theorists to apply
such ideology to the traditional 'other' in their midst -
the Jews. Leading the way were some of the principal figures
of the so-called Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, who held
that Jews could not be assimilated into European culture.
From the perspective of the secular theoreticians of race,
there simply was no solution to 'the Jewish problem.' Jews
were now no longer simply 'reprobates' or 'unbelievers.'
They were subhuman.
Racial anti-Semitism had considerable acceptance in pre-
Second World War Germany. The National Socialist
totalitarian party made racist ideology the basis of its
program to eliminate all those deemed to belong to an
'inferior race,' among whom were Jews, Blacks, and Slavs. As
Fisher (1990) points out, one had only to re-define a group
out of the category of 'human' in order to lose all bonds of
moral hesitancy on what a dominant group could or would do
to a minority group.
While the situation in pre-Nazi Germany seems remote from
Canada in the nineties, the rise in anti-Semitism and the
strengthening of right wing hate groups across the country
permit analogies to be drawn. One is the connection between
hate propaganda and the rise in racism and anti-Semitism.
[Continued]
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Anti-Semitism in
Canada
Realities, Remedies & Implications for Anti-Racism
Dr. Karen Mock