When Wilhelm Marr’s coined the term for the first time in a pamphlet titled ‘Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum’ in 1873, anti-Semitism was defined as “racist policies and attitudes against Jews”. The racist ideology behind anti-Semitism claimed that people belong to distinctive races; and their intellectual, moral and social qualities as well as abilities were decided biologically.
Especially because of Adolph Hitler policies and the Holocaust, even non-Jews started to perceive anti-Semitism as a despicable. In the aftermath of the World War II, with the establishment of the State of Israel in particular, efforts to attribute political meaning to philosophical roots of the concept left “anti-Semitism” with an open-ended description. As this made the concept of anti-Semitism to be used “also” as a political labeling mechanism, it also made it difficult to distinguish types of criticisms or different kinds of enmity that any given Jew might incur. This arbitrary use of the concept of anti-Semitism caused betrayal of its philosophical roots which deserve condemnation to begin with.
HOSTILITY AGAINST WHAT?
Not all categories of criticism and enmity to which one or more than one Jew in the world is/are exposed, can be explained by the term anti-Semitism. There are different types of enmity and criticism by virtue of their intellectual backgrounds and nature. In the first category, a Jew is exposed to Xenophobia as all groups who are perceived as the “others.” For those who nurtures this kind of enmity, it is not important for the enemy to be a Jew or, say, Japanese. For them, it suffices to be an “other”. It would be more correct to make an evaluation of this type of enmity in the context of ethnic nationalism or Xenophobia, but not of anti-Semitism.
In the second category, people create an irrational image of a Jew in their mind for some religious, social, economic or political reasons. Because of this image, they nurture enmity towards Jews; and in some cases, they put this hostility into action.
This type of enmity is, or should be, the dictionary meaning of anti-Semitism. This kind of animosity has its roots in Christian theology, which, in some of its interpretations, created a demonical image of Jews holding Jews responsible for the death of Jesus. Such enmity in various forms has survived to date by pervading into other religions and beliefs. For instance, the claims that Jews got involved in religious rituals using the blood of Christian children has found audience among Christian societies for centuries and cost the lives of hundreds of Jews. This theological infrastructure resides at the root of why Jews were precluded from many professions in Europe or forced to live in ghettos.
The third type of enmity evolved with the rise of political Zionism in the second half of the 19th century among non-Jews. Before that, anti-Zionism unfolded as an understanding among Jews who opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in the “Holy Land” for religious reasons. With the advent of political Zionism, which aimed at self-emancipation through formation of a Jewish state in Palestine, it has found supporters among non-Jews. Despite a clear distinctive line exists between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, certain Israeli circles have a tendency to distort the meaning of anti-Semitism in a way to include anti-Zionism as part of it.
WHAT IS ZIONISM?
In a nutshell, Zionism is an ideology that aims at establishment of a national Jewish state in the biblical “lands of Israel.” Although this was simply an ideology that nostalgically made people sing “next year in Jerusalem” , an action plan together with political Zionism was adopted. With its culturally/religiously racist and separatist content as well as expansionist policies, the plan committed many massacres, displacing millions of people. It physically and mentally tortured locals by
