Anti Semitism....

[Austina]

I don’t know if any of you have seen the film Denial, but if you haven’t it’s worth a watch. It’s about Deborah Lipstadt being taken to court by a Holocaust denier that she called out. (It’s on Amazon Prime)

I remember the case, but hadn’t realised that a film had been made about it.

It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Spall.

If you watch the film read up about what happened to David Irving.

 

[missy]

I don’t know if any of you have seen the film Denial, but if you haven’t it’s worth a watch. It’s about Deborah Lipstadt being taken to court by a Holocaust denier that she called out. (It’s on Amazon Prime)

I remember the case, but hadn’t realised that a film had been made about it.

It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Spall.

If you watch the film read up about what happened to David Irving.

I loved that film Austina. Great recommendation

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I just had a debate about this with my dh who doesn't believe this is the right thing to do. I do think it is the right thing to do. His issue is he thinks this should be protected under free speech. We had a lively disagreement lol.

Thanks for posting Nicky. Go Australia! They rock! (IMO not my dh's opinion lol)


This gives me an idea for a thread unless you want to start it Nicky...about what should be protected under free speech and what should not. I have very definite thoughts about this as does Greg. And let's just say we agree to disagree but I have to say it makes me angry that our government (USA) can take away women's right to choose but will allow hate speech and despicable behavior to continue under the protection of free speech but as women our freedom to do with our bodies as we choose isn't protected. And I don't give a darn about what is in the constitution etc. That was written a LONG time ago and perhaps it's time for revision.

its a very fine line but i think a line must be drawn
and antisematism and holocoust denile is a good place to start

some of the absolute crap that was being said during the pandemic was outright lies and has done no end of harm to society as a whole
but how can you police the internet ?

 

[missy]

its a very fine line but i think a line must be drawn
and antisematism and holocoust denile is a good place to start

some of the absolute crap that was being said during the pandemic was outright lies and has done no end of harm to society as a whole
but how can you police the internet ?

My husband thinks it is a slippery slope when we start policing speech etc.
But I feel there is no place for hate and as you write it is a place to begin...we can never be perfect but we sure can do what we can IMO

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

My husband thinks it is a slippery slope when we start policing speech etc.
But I feel there is no place for hate and as you write it is a place to begin...we can never be perfect but we sure can do what we can IMO

Well, posit him this:
Look at it like a weapon, another problem that is uniquely out of control here with no real constraint:
Many other civilized countries have laws against hate speech and function in many ways much better than our country. We are the source for a huge amount of worldwide hate, we protect it, we coddle it, and it grows into deadly consequence. We see this every day. The slippery slope is ours.

 

[missy]

Well, posit him this:
Look at it like a weapon, another problem that is uniquely out of control here with no real constraint:
Many other civilized countries have laws against hate speech and function in many ways much better than our country. We are the source for a huge amount of worldwide hate, we protect it, we coddle it, and it grows into deadly consequence. We see this every day. The slippery slope is ours.

I will share this and see what he says. Unfortunately I’ve made many good arguments but he is unswayed. But I’ll let you know what he says.

In the meantime anti semitism is strongest in other countries. The USA has a big hate problem I agree. But other countries are even worse. It’s demoralizing. In our lifetime I doubt anything will change. Heck I doubt we will ever be free of hate as long as ignorance and fear due to ignorance rules the world. IMO

Poland, South Africa, Ukraine and Hungary top list of most anti-Semitic countries, says ADL survey

***

www.haaretz.com

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I will share this and see what he says. Unfortunately I’ve made many good arguments but he is unswayed. But I’ll let you know what he says.

In the meantime anti semitism is strongest in other countries. The USA has a big hate problem I agree. But other countries are even worse. It’s demoralizing. In our lifetime I doubt anything will change. Heck I doubt we will ever be free of hate as long as ignorance and fear due to ignorance rules the world. IMO

Poland, South Africa, Ukraine and Hungary top list of most anti-Semitic countries, says ADL survey

***

www.haaretz.com

i just felt sick even reading the questions
as if we needed more reasons to never forget

 

[missy]

Well, posit him this:
Look at it like a weapon, another problem that is uniquely out of control here with no real constraint:
Many other civilized countries have laws against hate speech and function in many ways much better than our country. We are the source for a huge amount of worldwide hate, we protect it, we coddle it, and it grows into deadly consequence. We see this every day. The slippery slope is ours.

So as I suspected it did not sway him. Because he is against government interference. His concern is where does it end. But he sees my (our) points of view of course and is against hate speech for sure. Just not pro government interference here. It's more complicated than that and I am not doing justice to his arguments but to say I see his POV too but feel my POV is more correct. Hate should never be tolerated. His main concern is what constitutes hate speech and where does it end. I keep putting in roe v wade and he keeps telling me they are different. But are they? I mean the government is restricting freedom over our bodies as women but protecting the freedom of those who want to spew hate speech. NOT OK.

Also didn't Hitler's campaign start out as hate speech and look at that damage. Greg said he was the government though and it was different. But was it??? No. It wasn't. Hate speech is VILE and should NEVER be OK. NEVER. And hate speech can and does lead to violence. It incites others. Therein lies the danger. (Some) People, are sheep and many are ignorant. And easily influenced. Unfortunately it seems those who hate the most are also the loudest

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

So as I suspected it did not sway him. Because he is against government interference. His concern is where does it end. But he sees my (our) points of view of course and is against hate speech for sure. Just not pro government interference here. It's more complicated than that and I am not doing justice to his arguments but to say I see his POV too but feel my POV is more correct. Hate should never be tolerated. His main concern is what constitutes hate speech and where does it end. I keep putting in roe v wade and he keeps telling me they are different. But are they? I mean the government is restricting freedom over our bodies as women but protecting the freedom of those who want to spew hate speech. NOT OK.

Also didn't Hitler's campaign start out as hate speech and look at that damage. Greg said he was the government though and it was different. But was it??? No. It wasn't. Hate speech is VILE and should NEVER be OK. NEVER. And hate speech can and does lead to violence. It incites others. Therein lies the danger. (Some) People, are sheep and many are ignorant. And easily influenced. Unfortunately it seems those who hate the most are also the loudest

I understand his point, yet, I cannot agree.
To my mind? No, they are not. When other speech limits an entire group, no.
Free speech has limits when people have to hide or are in fear of their lives. It isn't free for them when they start dying. Is it.
And yes, fascism always starts with an insidious campaign of othering. It is the banality of evil by degree. They jailed Hitler and then they let him go. They didn't take him seriously and laughed at him.
And more than 6 million people died.
I struggled with whether I wanted to share this as it feels very personal and also not wanting to take away from the topic as it's anecdotal but it's entirely germane to what's happening.
I just found out recently that my mother's father was a 'secret' Jew, he was an orphan taken in by his bachelor uncle, another 'secret' Jew, who changed their name and their religion to make their way. I assume with good reason, it was safer. Right around the beginning of Hitler's rise. I don't know the specifics of the story and all the people that I could ask are gone. It was never talked about. I had no idea, none of us children did. I don't know my own story. I don't know half of where I come from. All I know is I was the child who looked like my mother. The name I thought was my matrilineal line? Isn't.
They were hiding here in this country, with it's free speech.

 

[missy]

I understand his point, yet, I cannot agree.
To my mind? No, they are not. When other speech limits an entire group, no.
Free speech has limits when people have to hide or are in fear of their lives. It isn't free for them when they start dying. Is it.
And yes, fascism always starts with an insidious campaign of othering. It is the banality of evil by degree. They jailed Hitler and then they let him go. They didn't take him seriously and laughed at him.
And more than 6 million people died.
I struggled with whether I wanted to share this as it feels very personal and also not wanting to take away from the topic as it's anecdotal but it's entirely germane to what's happening.
I just found out recently that my mother's father was a 'secret' Jew, he was an orphan taken in by his bachelor uncle, another 'secret' Jew, who changed their name and their religion to make their way. I assume with good reason, it was safer. Right around the beginning of Hitler's rise. I don't know the specifics of the story and all the people that I could ask are gone. It was never talked about. I had no idea, none of us children did. I don't know my own story. I don't know half of where I come from. All I know is I was the child who looked like my mother. The name I thought was my matrilineal line? Isn't.
They were hiding here in this country, with it's free speech.

You and I are on the same page. And fwiw I understand why your grandfather and his family did what they did. Survival above all else
I am so sorry they went through that horror. No words. Man’s inhumanity to man. Unspeakable horror, unbearable pain and loss,..and we can never ever stop fighting in whatever ways we can

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/king-charles-lays-wreath-at-hamburg-kindertransport-memorial-12aFa7HwKMlqe4K8Is8jlE

keeping history alive the King and Queen paying their respects at the Kindertransport memorial in Hamburg remembering the Jewish children who were forced to flee their home for safety in the UK

im pretty sutre this is not his first visit to the memorial

this article has pictures of the monument in the UK at Liverpool st station in London

The Kindertransport statue, Liverpool Street Station, London | Talking Beautiful Stuff

talkingbeautifulstuff.com

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

been doing my history this overcast sunday morning
a sobering read
but you know
never forget

British response – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools

www.theholocaustexplained.org

 

[empliau]

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/king-charles-lays-wreath-at-hamburg-kindertransport-memorial-12aFa7HwKMlqe4K8Is8jlE

keeping history alive the King and Queen paying their respects at the Kindertransport memorial in Hamburg remembering the Jewish children who were forced to flee their home for safety in the UK

im pretty sutre this is not his first visit to the memorial

this article has pictures of the monument in the UK at Liverpool st station in London

The Kindertransport statue, Liverpool Street Station, London | Talking Beautiful Stuff

talkingbeautifulstuff.com

Apparently the artist, himself a Kindertransport survivor, has made a series of these. I used to see the Berlin one frequently, at Friedrichstrasse:

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Time for a history lesson
perhaps Hollywood needs to make another movie

Customer 'sick' after spotting swastika earrings in op shop

The charity said they were providing their staff with more awareness training.

www.nzherald.co.nz

 

[Rons Wolfe]

Time for a history lesson
perhaps Hollywood needs to make another movie

Customer 'sick' after spotting swastika earrings in op shop

The charity said they were providing their staff with more awareness training.

www.nzherald.co.nz

Ugh! I get the cringe level there, but going to assume it was an honest mistake on the part of the volunteer who let them through.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Ugh! I get the cringe level there, but going to assume it was an honest mistake on the part of the volunteer who let them through.

yes. i think you are right
but still dumb
honestly you only have to read the haul from today thread (i think its in the antique forum) to see how charity shops do not put a lot of effort into merchandise

Here its a lot of volunter work but its like just a bunch of retired people having a chin wag a lot of the time rather than actual shop keeping going on when ever i venture through the doors
(i picked up a local piece of retro ceramics that is hightly collectable that should have been $200 or $300 plus but it had $2 on it )

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Ugh! I get the cringe level there, but going to assume it was an honest mistake on the part of the volunteer who let them through.

im just thinking who would even donate something like that ?
again someone not paying attention -again see the haul from today thread

 

[Rons Wolfe]

im just thinking who would even donate something like that ?
again someone not paying attention -again see the haul from today thread

Hopefully just someone going through a relative's estate and not even looking as they threw stuff into a box to take in...

But that begs the question of who would even want to own those, unless they really were Buddhist.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Hopefully just someone going through a relative's estate and not even looking as they threw stuff into a box to take in...

But that begs the question of who would even want to own those, unless they really were Buddhist.

in my late FIL's stuff we found a copy of Mein Kemp
i have no idea what he was doing with it, he fought in the war in the RAF and was no antisemite
i threw it in the recycling, i didnt like having it in the house

 

[Rons Wolfe]

in my late FIL's stuff we found a copy of Mein Kemp
i have no idea what he was doing with it, he fought in the war in the RAF and was no antisemite
i threw it in the recycling, i didnt like having it in the house

My husband had some early Hitler propaganda that his parents brought over. He showed it to me one time, said it played a part in his grandparent's on both sides decision to bring their families to the US before the war started. Hitler's influence was already reaching Sweden back then. I'm SO glad they made that choice, on so many levels.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

disgusting

2 people charged after Hitler speeches blared on train intercom in Austria

The two suspects, who were not identified, also blasted the "Heil Hitler" Nazi salute via the train's intercom several times.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

My husband had some early Hitler propaganda that his parents brought over. He showed it to me one time, said it played a part in his grandparent's on both sides decision to bring their families to the US before the war started. Hitler's influence was already reaching Sweden back then. I'm SO glad they made that choice, on so many levels.

Similar background here. My mother's Family was lucky to leave Germany behind when they saw what was coming. They spent all their money to do so but it was the right choice.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Similar background here. My mother's Family was lucky to leave Germany behind when they saw what was coming. They spent all their money to do so but it was the right choice.

thank goodness they did

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

angry sigh
perhaps (some) people need more education ?

Abandoned puppy found with swastikas marked onto her skin

The heartbreaking story of a rescued puppy who was found with hateful nazi symbols marked on her has gone viral, but the animal shelter has said she is now happy and waiting to find a home.

www.express.co.uk

 

[Jambalaya]

All forms of prejudice are despicable. (There's actually not a strong enough word to denounce prejudice.)

Interestingly, compared to racism or anti-Semitism, prejudice against the LGBTTQQIAAP+ community has been relatively responsive to anti-prejudice campaigns. By which I mean we have come a long way in just two or three generations - compared to how racism and anti-Semitism have been with us for many hundreds of years. In those areas, inroads have been made very very slowly and incrementally and have been hard-won. And are always being chipped away at.

Racism and anti-Semitism...two of the oldest hates. As ever, I ask myself WHY. How in God's name can anyone be so vile toward people because of their skin color or religion? How is someone's skin color hurting anyone else?? How is someone's choice of higher power hurting anyone else?? (How is someone's choice of partner hurting someone else, come to that?!)

I'm not familiar with the psychological profiles of bigots, but are they just incredibly low IQ? Does that explain hate? I ask because these prejudices just sound so stupid to me. They remind me of phrenology from the Middle Ages, when people thought that you could tell things about people's personalities by feeling the bumps on their heads! If the consequences of prejudice weren't so horrific, you could just laugh at how stupid bigots make themselves look. I mean, how can anyone with more than two brain cells can possibly think that the color of someone's skin means anything?? If I go out and get a tan, am I somehow less than I was yesterday?? The correct response to prejudice is to point and laugh at the person showing off their utter stupidity....at least, it would be if prejudice didn't have such dire consequences.

Same with people's choice of higher power (if any). No one knows for sure. Maybe none of our higher powers exist and we're actually watched over by a giant mouse-ghost! Again, I trace anti-Semitism back to stupidity...stupid enough to be so arrogantly sure that one's own higher power (or lack of) is The Right One.

Sorry for the rant. It's been a long day and I just get so fed up with the intractable nature of these old prejudices. All I can hope is that personkind keeps on fighting and that maybe one day these prejudices will be small enough to be unnoticed. I guess we have come a long way with those old prejudices in the last 2-3 generations, too. Just not as far as I'd like. At least the majority of people (that I know) are horrified by prejudice.

I looked at some of the links in this thread. The one about the incidence of anti-Semitism in different countries was interesting. France was high at 17%, and Belgium, too. Those countries surprised me. And the ones near the top with fifty percent.....eeeek!

Missy, I'm on your side of the debate. I see Greg's point about government interference, but I suspect the reason that exceptions are made in this instance is because recent history tells us what can happen when Nazi sentiment runs unchecked, and so there's a greater responsibility to tamp down on such things. (I mean, greater than if the Holocaust was, say, 500 years ago.) For the majority of people, the horrors were so great, and so recent, that government interference is the lesser of the two evils. I doubt that most of us here realize the depths of twisted hatred still harbored by some people toward Jewish people (because we can't understand it). All it takes is for one of those to get into power, and social media gives such people ways and means.

And it seems to me that we are a more credulous society than ever, so we are ripe for strange beliefs to take hold. Especially in the absence of organized religion, people need new stuff to believe in. I am NOT making any comment on religion, I'm focusing on the practical results: that it was a widespread low-cost means of getting people out of the house at least once a week, seeing your buddies, feeling part of something, and thereby breaking isolation in which strange ideas can fester. We don't really have that now, so there's a vacuum.

Although most developed Western countries try to keep government interference to a minimum, I know that in Germany anti-Semitic speech is against the law. In Britain, hate speech is also against the law. Perhaps because WW2 didn't come to America's physical doorstep, some people here don't really feel, deep down, that it could happen again? Especially not if you're not part of the persecuted group so don't have relatives or ancestors who died.

Sorry for the essay. No one to chat to right now!

 

[missy]

Thank you @Jambalaya for your insightful post.

Eli Weisel, a great man, pondered the reasons behind anti semitism.
There are no good reasons obviously for hate against anyone just because their religion, race, creed etc is different than yours

“Things change, anti-Semitism remains,” said 86-year-old Mr. Wiesel. “Where did we go wrong? What did we do to deserve the hate? ‘Why,’ you ask yourself, ‘Why?’ The questions are as old as Jewish history itself.”
“This topic [anti-Semitism] is so painful and so urgent,” he said. “So urgent and so absurd. All decent and intelligent societies are duty bound to confront, unmask and eliminate this hatred.” “Here is my question and my anguish,” he said. “If Auschwitz had not cured humankind of anti-Semitism, what can and what will? I don’t like to inspire anger in people, but I have no choice. The truth must be told.”



“The arguments, old and new, remain the same, and they are so stupid,” he said. “The anti-Semite doesn’t care whether his argument is sound or not, only that he causes pain, that he humiliates.”
Fifty years ago, anti-Semites wanted to send all Jews to Palestine, he explained. Now, they want all Jews to leave the Middle East.



Wiesel said he supports the creation of a Palestinian state but only after there is peace in the region. “Peace will only be possible when [Palestinians] decide that the end does not justify all means,” he said. “When they say that Israel has no right to exist, that is a call to genocide and cannot be ignored.”
"Some anti-Semites today feel they can openly hate Jews, not knowing that hatred is not only dangerous and ugly, but stupid. The one who hates me will never see me, never have read anything that I wrote, and simply hate me because I'm Jewish," says the man with over 50 book titles to his name.


But if anti-Semitism is so irrational, why does it still exist, decades later, on the continent of the Holocaust?



"You think I know the answer?" he chuckles. "You should ask the anti-Semites. Some of them hate us because we are too rich, others hate us because we are too poor. Some hate us because we are not religious enough, others because we are too religious."
Wiesel is unequivocal about his support for Israel, which he views as a safe haven for Jews in their ancestral homeland.



Later, in his speech, Wiesel reiterates his hope in the broader human community. "I still believe in humanity in spite of man. I still believe in humanity in spite of what humanity has done," he says in closing.



"Despair is never the answer. And indifference is never an option."

The Nobel Peace Prize 1986

The Nobel Peace Prize 1986 was awarded to Elie Wiesel "for being a messenger to mankind: his message is one of peace, atonement and dignity"

www.nobelprize.org

"


Wiesel was 16-years-old when he was liberated from Buchenwald in 1945. Months before, his father had been severely beaten in the bunk below him.



“I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive,” Mr. Wiesel recounted in Night.



“The date was January 28, 1945. I woke up at dawn on January 29. On my father’s cot there lay another sick person. They must have taken him to the crematorium. Perhaps he was still breathing… No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit in his memory. His last word had been my name.”





After his liberation, Wiesel vowed not to speak of his experiences for 10 years. In 1960, “Night” was published and more than 10 million Americans have read the book since — millions more than the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, noted Rabbi Boteach. Night has been translated into at least 30 languages and is widely used in schools to teach students about the Holocaust.




" I was convinced that hatred among nations and among people perished in Auschwitz. It didn’t. The victims died but the haters are still here. New ones.


The darkest days in my life after the war, after the war, was when I discovered that the … most of the members and commanders of the Einsatz group that were doing the killings, not even in gas chambers, but killing with machine guns, had college degrees from German universities and PhD’s and MD’s. Couldn’t believe it. What do you mean? I thought that culture and education are the shield. An educated person cannot do certain things and, and be educated, you cannot, and there they were, killing children day after day and what happened to them?


I think that human beings are capable of the worst things possible and they show that there were times, and there probably are times, that it is human to be inhuman.
It’s easier to be conformist naturally; it’s easier except for those who don’t like conformism. For us it’s not easy to be conformist, I cannot stand to be conformist, I don’t accept what it is, I like to say no. If I see an injustice I scream.


My faith is a wounded faith, but it’s not without faith. My life is not without faith. I didn’t divorce God, but I’m quarrelling and arguing and questioning, it’s a wounded faith.
I think the Holocaust … I make a difference between genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust was mainly Jewish, that was the only people, to the last Jew, sentenced to die for one reason, for being Jewish, that’s all. In other centuries you could have escaped death by conversion, by running away, not here. There’s no way


But the world, how can a world be silent, that was my shock really and I say like I describe it in Night, to my father, it’s impossible, the world wouldn’t be silent, but the world was silent.


America, the silence of the world and the total indifference of the world.


Anti-Semitism is growing today. No doubt about it. All over the world, especially in Europe, and it’s true they begin with anti-Israeli attitudes and then it’s so strong that it runs over and becomes anti-Semitic.


There is a coalition of anti-Semitism today, the extreme left, the extreme right and in the middle the huge corpus of Islam. I’m worried, I go around, you know, with a very heavy heart.



Whatever the answer is, education must be its major component and if you try to educate with generosity not with triumphalism I think sometimes it works, especially young people, that’s why I teach, I’ve been teaching all my life.


What do you tell them, may I ask, when they ask that ever returning question “We don’t understand how this could have happened, this is impossible to understand”. Do you say that it is possible to understand?


In truth I don’t think it’s possible. I agree with them. Georg, that tragedy which to me was the worst, the cruellest in the court of history could have been avoided. Why wasn’t it?


By stopping Hitler. By speaking up. I’ve worked with five Presidents in America, all of them I ask the same question always: Why didn’t the American allies bomb the railways going to Auschwitz?


I began with Carter and Reagan and Clinton, the father, and Bush the father and Bush the son. I asked every President, why didn’t at least symbolically … so the Germans would have known that the world cares. It would have taken a few days to repair, that time there were 10-12,000 Hungarian Jews every day, every night, you know that, every day 10-12,000 people were gassed. It could have been avoided in the thirties …


I asked American Generals, I asked Presidents. After all, there is no answer. They said, a few of them said they didn’t want to divert from /- – -/ Come on, what a few bombs, at that time they were having hundreds and hundreds of thousands of aircrafts bombing. I remember when they flew over Auschwitz we were hoping, we were praying for them to bomb Auschwitz and die, at least die in the bomb.



They simply decided that it was not a priority. The American and the British armies liberated camps, there wasn’t a single order of the day: Let’s go and liberate the camp. They stumbled upon the camps. Same thing with the Russians, I asked the Colonel who liberated Auschwitz, they didn’t, there wasn’t a priority. But I feel that that was a mistake, it was a sin because they could have saved so many people and they didn’t.



Look, Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said “Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty”, and this is fanaticism and these words the fanatics use words and we use words, the same words, they are not the same words.
Fanaticism is the greatest threat today. Literally, the 21st century just began and it’s already threatened by fanatics, and we have fanatics in every religion, including mine and yours, unfortunately and what can we do against them? Words nothing else, I’m against violence but only words.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Auschwitz museum begins emotional work of conserving 8,000 shoes of murdered children

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — In a modern conservation laboratory on the grounds of the former Auschwitz camp, a man wearing blue rubber gloves uses a scalpel to scrape away rust from the eyelets of small brown shoes worn by children before they were murdered in gas chambers.

apnews.com

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

perhaps not anti-Semitism per se
but tone deaf and very disrespectful

Fury as ice cream van sets up outside AUSCHWITZ

The ice cream van has been condemned as 'tasteless and 'disrespectful' by the Auschwitz Museum after it appeared outside the camp's main entrance known as the 'Death Gate'.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Jambalaya]

@missy Thanks for posting that, Missy. I just had a chance to read and absorb it properly. Thanks for introducing me to Eli Wiesel. I had heard of him but didn't know exactly who he was. Just read his Wiki entry. I'm going to read Night.

He's obviously someone who has thought a lot about anti-Semitism, to put it mildly, and he also has no idea why it exists. If someone like him doesn't know....there is no reason for it at all. I think the answer must be that some people are just horrible inside and they need a group on which to unleash their inner selves. It probably doesn't matter whether Jewish, female, people of color, LGBTQ. They just need a hook to hang their inner hatred on. I think the irrationality of prejudice shows this.

He's right about the rise of anti-Semitism everywhere. It's deeply worrying. I think middle schools everywhere should educate students when young about the Holocaust and generally educate children that all forms of prejudice are wrong. If people can be brainwashed into these prejudices, can they not also be brainwashed out of them? We need to brainwash people into tolerance and kindness!

I think society needs to confront humanity's propensity towards prejudice early in schooling by telling children that these forms of prejudice exist (racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, and more) and they they are NOT OK! I think that that would be better than people stumbling across these things as they grow up and potentially being influenced by them. If they had had anti-prejudice courses in school, they would have the tools to be able to recognize it and contextualize it, and reject it.

Just need to reform the curriculum in schools globally, is all.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

i agree @Jambalaya
more education
but i dont remember anyone telling me about the holocaust, i just always seemed to know about it although i was born in 1971 so there were more survivers around then but i was shocked at my cousin's lack of knowledge when shindlers list came out at the pictures
everytime i read about anti-Semitism i find myself asking why do some people hate Jewish people ?
i just dont get it