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

70 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:67
cure. The eternal truth has yet to be digested by our Western civilization,
and herein lies its convulsing failure. In short, all of its ideals in the last two
thousand years have been veneer deep, and as long as this Western culture
fails to absorb the proper dosage of cure for its self-deception, human tragedies—from
local genocides to the enormity and extent of the “Shoah”—
will intermittently recur. The proof: The Holocaust was executed in view of
the Western world with soto-voce piously remorseful pronouncements, yet
tolerated in a most spiritually, ideologically, and morally decadent manner.
It testified bluntly that our civilization has no moral backbone. It is and
continues to be a civilization of individual rights, at best, at the expense of
collective moral responsibility for one another.
The Jew, who introduced to mankind the ideal guideposts of one God
and one human brotherhood, has been allowed to suffer and intermittently
been murdered. For, intrinsically, the Jew still represents the dreamer of a
terrestrial world where people can live and survive in peace with each other.
This ideal, which is the mainstay of a continuous existence of the Jewish
people, is incomprehensible to a predatory human race whose existence has
been based on brute power. Yes, the Jew is an irritant, an idealist of the
prophetic genre, and indigestible to a carnivorous world.
As an Auschwitz survivor, I have suffered no more and no less than
any of my brethren, yet even Auschwitz could not destroy my vision of a
world that may eventually disinfect itself from its lingering prejudices and
self-propelled arrogance. The Holocaust was the result of a bankrupt civilization
whose silence was deafening in post-Holocaust years. This civilization
has reemerged with a vengeance at the reestablishment of Jewish
political independence in the land of its fathers, roaring bitterly at any time
when Israel defends itself against her predators, a mandate granted all sovereign
nations yet begrudged when it comes to the Jewish state. Frankly, we
are not surprised at the noises of these cowardly voices.
Hitler is dead and the times have radically changed. Antisemitism’s
reemerging grating voices are sound bites of the cacophony of an idiotic
chorus, but this time there is no more fear. The Jewish people swore at the
annihilation sites: “NEVER AGAIN” will we tolerate its barking predators;
whether our enemies like it or may grind their teeth, better hear us: we are
here to stay forever. Tear your larynx. You suffer from a disease that only
idiots can continue to incubate.
Murray J. Kohn is a rabbi and professor of Holocaust Studies at Richard Stockton
College of New Jersey.