Antisemitism as a Specific Phenomenon - Journal for the Study of ...

2009] NEW JOURNAL ON ANTISEMITISM 7
ism, and while criticism of the policies of the State of Israel is fully
legitimate and warranted, Natan Sharansky has identified its transformation
into antisemitism as the “three Ds”: double standards, delegitimation, and
demonization.
Political opposition has become religious, and the neat distinction
between opposing Israel but not Jews has yielded to a lack of distinctions
between Jews and Israelis. The threat of a nuclearized Iran bent on the annihilation
of Israel is taken seriously by almost all Israelis without regard to
their policies on the settlements and the two-state solution–as well it should
be.
I belong to a school of thought that still regards antisemitism in the
United States as less serious than elsewhere. There are very few obstacles to
Jewish advancement and complete participation in American society. Jews
are regarded by many as a successful and privileged part of the White
majority. Even African American-Jewish tension has receded. Events that
could have triggered a dramatic increase in antisemitism, such as the Gibson
film The Passion of the Christ, the scandals on Wall Street, the collapse
of banking, and the economic crisis, have not–or not yet. And support from
the political class for Israel is strong and bipartisan, despite the efforts of
some to make it a partisan issue. Still, Leon Wieseltier, one of the true sages
of this generation, who correctly wrote that Hitler is dead and spoke of
ethnic anxiety regarding a second Holocaust, could not dismiss as outright
paranoia that there is evidence that “they”—without identifying quite
who—are out to get the Jews.
Suffice it to say that there will be much to discuss in this journal, much
to research.
Would that the issue of antisemitism were irrelevant and confined to
the dustbin of history, but it is not.
Michael Berenbaum is a rabbi, scholar, and author of several books, including The
World Must Know. He has served on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust
and directed the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Holocaust Research
Institute. He headed the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and
currently directs the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University (Los
Angeles).