In this book are eight topics essayed by Philip Slayton, an attorney and writer who serves as president of the literary society PEN Canada. He first addresses the question of Jewish identity, then moves on to Jews in the World (where we live); Jews and Muslims; Jews and Christians; Jews and Zionism; Jews as Victims; Jews and the Media; Jews as Wanderers, and, beginning on page 143, he offers some conclusions.
The essays are divided into sub-parts, some offering anecdotes, others statistics, and in still others what appears to be some opposing views. Two of Slayton’s strong viewpoints come through early in the reading of this slim volume. First, that we Jews overreact to minor events, turning every instance of antisemitic expression into catastrophes. Second, Slayton writes that expressions of hostility against Israeli governmental policies should be treated as separate, indeed fundamentally different, geopolitical statements rather than as antisemitism.
While some anti-Zionists blame every Jew in the world for Israeli policies adversely affecting Palestinians, this is not true of every anti-Zionist, Slayton points out. Along with more broad-minded non-Jewish supporters of the Palestinian cause, there are Jewish community members, himself included, who are critical of Israeli policies.
He suggests that antisemitism be divided into four categories: degradation antisemitism, violent antisemitism, organized private antisemitism, and organized public antisemitism. Of these, the first category, is the least worrisome to Slayton. If someone shouts “dirty Jew” or some other epithet at a member of our community, or daubs a swastika on the sidewalk, or passes out pamphlets denying the Holocaust, this may hurt feelings, but does no physical damage. Only if these acts become part of a large scale pattern leading to the delegitimization of our community would they be matters of concern in his view.
Physical violence against Jews, such as the fatal attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, as well as the taking of hostages in Colleyville, Texas, are far more concerning and are matters “for the state and calls for aggressive even-handed enforcement of the criminal law,” Slayton writes.
The third type of antisemitism, that which is an organized private expression of antisemitism, such as a university declining to admit Jewish students, or a neighborhood excluding Jews, or a corporation refusing to hire Jews “should be vigorously opposed by civil society, or be made illegal,” Slayton said.
The fourth, and worst, type of antisemitism in his view is that which is carried out by public entities, such as occurred in Nazi Germany. “Institutional antisemitism must be attacked politically, by all citizens, using all tools available including civil disobedience, no matter the risk,” Slayton declares.
Slayton knows that it is controversial to suggest that the Jewish community ignore “degradation antisemitism.” To elaborate on this idea, he approvingly quotes French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who wrote: “From harmless stereotype to assault to synagogue desecration, Jews flatten out every offense until it fits a single model: Auschwitz. Furiously, they even out all differences in an obsessive and passionate kind of levelling. Whoever doesn’t like them wants to kill them.”
Antisemitism: An Ancient Hatred in the Age of Identity Politics by Philip Slayton; Toronto, Canada: Sutherland House © 2023; ISBN 9781990-823107; 161 pages including index, $19.95
Republished from San Diego Jewish World