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antisemitism

Jewish

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Friedrich Nietzsche

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Harvard

Martin Luther

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wokeism

1980s

is, (in Germany 1880) in part the fault of the Jews in that the acceptance of Christianity (which they stubbornly refused) had in Germany become more a token of national loyalty than of religious conviction. In the 1970s, Germans had transferred their allegiance from their native states to the newly established national empire. Why couldn't the jews gesture toward doing the same insofar as they can do so without acting against their conscience'.

Yet Mommsen also felt that anti-Semitic prejudice was at least partly the fault of the Jews themselves. Why did they insist so stubbornly on clinging to their ancestral faith' Could they not see that the acceptance of Christianity had become more a token of national loyalty than of religious conviction' And even if they could not bring themselves to worship in a church instead of a synagogue, why did they have to continue to support various organizations and societies composed exclusively of Jews' After all, only a decade earlier the Hanoverians and the Hessians and the Schleswig-Holsteiners and all the other Germans had transferred their allegiance from their native states to the newly established national empire. Why couldn't the Jews do the same' Why couldn't they make the same sacrifice for the sake of the 'common fatherland'' It was the duty of the Jews, Mommsen concluded, ''insofar as they can do so without acting against their conscience,' to abandon their tribalism, their exclusivity, and 'to tear down resolutely all the barriers between them and their German fellow citizens.'' Surely assimilation was not too high a price to ask in return for emancipation.

is a free and total choice of oneself, a comprehensive attitude that one adopts not only towards Jews but towards men in general, towards history and society... it is at one and the same time a passion and a conception of the world.

The first portrait of bad faith is that of the anti-Semite. In describing the anti-Semite Sartre assumes that anti-semitism is not merely a passing attitude but a project in the fullest Sartrean sense of that term. 'Anti-Semitism is a free and total choice of oneself, a comprehensive attitude that one adopts not only towards Jews but towards men in general, towards history and society... it is at one and the same time a passion and a conception of the world. '22 AntiSemitism is an encompassing end. The anti-Semite's project is to escape the ambiguity of being both agent and an object. 'AntiSemitism is, in short, fear of the human condition. '23 Of the two strategies of bad faith, the anti-Semite chooses to deny his agency. Anti-Semitism is thus a project that necessarily embodies bad faith.

is a grounded in an opposition between 'state' and 'society'. When society came in conflict with the state, they came into conflict with Jews as their target of first opportunity.

The key conceptual opposition determining Arendt's analysis in Antisemitism is the one between 'state' and 'society.' For Arendt, anti-Semitism is a purely modern phenomenon (there is no 'eternal anti-Semitism), and it has to be understood exclusively as a political phenomenon, not a social or an economic one, and it has nothing to do with nationalism per se. The origin of anti-Semitism was caused in part by the political decisions of 'the Jews' to isolate themselves from society and to align themselves with state authority. When society came into conflict with the state, they came into conflict with the Jews as their target of first opportunity.

is a mass movement, vulgar, ideological, a new form of 'slave morality' and of the man of the herd.

1. Anti-Semitism is a mass movement, vulgar, ideological, a new form of 'slave morality' and of the man of the Herd.

is a modern phenomenon underpinned by a fundamental paradox... namely, it is not a by-product of nationalism. Rather, it rose as the modem nation-state declined (and 'society' came to replace it).

Underpinning all these contentions, and thus Arendt's theory of anti-Semitism as a whole, was a fundamental paradox: modern anti-Semitism rose as the modem nation-state declined... therefore, the suggestion that antisemitism was a by-product of nationalism was simply mistaken. As she explained, 'unfortunately, the fact is that modem anti-Semitism grew in proportion as traditional nationalism declined, and reached its climax at the exact moment when the European system of nation-states and its precarious balance of power crashed' (OT: 3). It was only in light of these events, unfolding on a European and indeed a global scale, that it was possible to understand what would have been an otherwise deeply perplexing development: the enormous significance that the Jewish problem acquired for the Nazis.

is a paradox such that the anti-semite simply has to make charges and it is invariably up to the Jews to explain them away.

The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them. Jack Schwartz

is a political phenomenon situated at the nexus of the rise of european imperialism... the decline of the nation-state... and the failure of liberal emancipation.

And, third, she argued that, as a political phenomenon, it was situated at the nexus of three fundamental developments: the rise of European imperialism... the decline of the nation-state... and the failure of liberal emancipation.

is a popular neurosis, affecting weak people who lack existential power and self-confidence.

2. As such, anti-Semitism is a popular neurosis, affecting weak people who lack existential power and self-confidence (as opposed to Nietzsche's 'Dionysian' person).

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