Socialist antisemitism

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Socialist antisemitism concerns the manifestation of antisemitism in socialist movements and appears in various forms. While this phenomenon has been the subject of a significant number of scholarly writings, it is viewed by researchers as an understudied topic. [1] Researchers have argued that while socialists were not all prejudiced against Jews, some socialist movements did harbor antisemitic views. [2] Others extend their argument with the assertion that modern socialism is characterised by a longstanding antisemitic tradition. [3]

Overview

Some researchers have argued that in certain historical settings, the writings of Karl Marx have be interpreted in such a manner that allowed for a socialist antisemitism to be manifest. [4] [5] [6] Other researchers have argued that the most important element in nineteenth-century socialist antisemitism concerns the role of fascism in the context of the socialist intellectual history. [7]

European socialists and Jews have had a complex relationship. While socialist parties in the early 20th century aimed to create a classless society, they also grappled with antisemitism within their ranks and among the working class. [2] And socialist antisemitism in this period was treated as distinct from racial and clerical variants of anti-Jewish prejudice. [8] In Britain, Jewish workers were at times paradoxically viewed as a super-exploited fraction of the working class, but also an alien body, whose interests were antithetical to those of British workers. [9]

One understudied area is the history of antisemitism in Dutch labor unions, especially concerning early socialist leaders like Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis. Researchers argue that prejudice against Dutch Jews explains why Dutch Jewish workers were late in joining socialist movements. Apparently, this was because Domela Nieuwenhuis used stereotypes about Jews to attack his opponents, who relied on Jewish diamond cutters for support. After this conflict ended, antisemitism became less central a feature in Dutch labor unions. [10]

Lucien Chaze, French politician and mayor of Mustapha (1900-1903), has been described by researchers as one of the most active leaders of socialist antisemitism in French Algeria. [11]

The 1968 Polish political crisis saw the rise of an antisemitic effort by the Polish Workers' Party to rid Jewish academics from their posts. [12]

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.

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Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic Marxist theorist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Bernstein had held close association to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, but he began to identify what he believed to be errors in Marxist thinking and began to criticize views held by Marxism when he investigated and challenged the Marxist materialist theory of history. He rejected significant parts of Marxist theory that were based upon Hegelian metaphysics and rejected the Hegelian perspective of an immanent economic necessity to socialism.

Soviet anti-Zionism is an anti-Zionist and pro-Arab doctrine promulgated in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. While the Soviet Union initially pursued a pro-Zionist policy after World War II due to its perception that the Jewish state would be socialist and pro-Soviet, its outlook on the Arab–Israeli conflict changed as Israel began to develop a close relationship with the United States and aligned itself with the Western Bloc. Anti-Israel Soviet propaganda intensified after Israel's sweeping victory in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, and it was officially sponsored by the agitation and propaganda media of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as by the KGB. Among other charges, it alleged that Zionism was a form of racism. The Soviets framed their anti-Zionist propaganda in the guise of a study of modern Zionism, dubbed Zionology. The Soviet anti-Israel policy included the regulated denial of permission for Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate, primarily to Israel, but also to any other country.

New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.

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The Culture of Critique series is a trilogy of books by Kevin B. MacDonald that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. MacDonald, a white supremacist and retired professor of evolutionary psychology, claims that evolutionary psychology provides the motivations behind Jewish group behavior and culture. Through the series, MacDonald asserts that Jews as a group have biologically evolved to be highly ethnocentric and hostile to the interests of white people. He asserts Jewish behavior and culture are central causes of antisemitism, and promotes conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish control and influence in government policy and political movements.

Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside the Jewish community. From the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans to the foundation of Israel the Jewish people had no territory, and, until the 19th century they by-and-large were also denied equal rights in the countries in which they lived. Thus, until the 19th century effort for the emancipation of the Jews, almost all Jewish political struggles were internal, and dealt primarily with either religious issues or issues of a particular Jewish community.

"On the Jewish Question" is a response by Karl Marx to then-current debates over the Jewish question. Marx wrote the piece in 1843, and it was first published in Paris in 1844 under the German title "Zur Judenfrage" in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial antisemitism</span> Prejudice and discrimination against Jews based on race or ethnicity

Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews based on a belief or assertion that Jews constitute a distinct race that has inherent traits or characteristics that appear in some way abhorrent or inherently inferior or otherwise different from the traits or characteristics of the rest of a society. The abhorrence may find expression in the form of discrimination, stereotypes or caricatures. Racial antisemitism may present Jews, as a group, as a threat in some way to the values or safety of a society. Racial antisemitism can seem deeper-rooted than religious antisemitism, because for religious antisemites conversion of Jews remains an option and once converted the "Jew" is gone. In the context of racial antisemitism Jews cannot get rid of their Jewishness.

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Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.

The February Revolution in Russia officially ended a centuries-old regime of antisemitism in the Russian Empire, legally abolishing the Pale of Settlement. However, the previous legacy of antisemitism was continued and furthered by the Soviet state, especially under Joseph Stalin. After 1948, antisemitism reached new heights in the Soviet Union, especially during the anti-cosmopolitan campaign, in which numerous Yiddish-writing poets, writers, painters and sculptors were arrested or killed. This campaign culminated in the so-called Doctors' plot, in which a group of doctors were subjected to a show trial for supposedly having plotted to assassinate Stalin. Although repression eased after Stalin's death, persecution of Jews would continue until the late 1980s.

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Benjamin Tillett was a British socialist, trade union leader and politician. He was a leader of the "new unionism" of 1889, that focused on organizing unskilled workers. He played a major role in founding the Dockers Union, and played a prominent role as a strike leader in dock strikes in 1911 and 1912. He enthusiastically supported the war effort in the First World War. He was pushed aside by Ernest Bevin during the consolidation that created the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1922, who gave Tillett a subordinate position. Scholars stress his evangelical dedication to the labour cause, while noting his administrative weaknesses. Clegg Fox and Thompson described him as a demagogue and agitator grasping for fleeting popularity.

Antisemitism in contemporary Hungary principally takes the form of negative stereotypes relating to Jews, although historically it manifested itself more violently. Studies show antisemitism has become more prevalent since the fall of Communism, particularly among the younger generations. Surveys performed from 2009 and beyond have consistently found high levels of antisemitic feelings amongst the general population.

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The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement. While the international had initially declared its opposition to all warfare between European powers, most of the major European parties ultimately chose to support their respective states in World War I. After splitting into pro-Allied, pro-Central Powers, and antimilitarist factions, the international ceased to function. After the war, the remaining factions of the international went on to found the Labour and Socialist International, the International Working Union of Socialist Parties, and the Communist International.

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Henry Mayers Hyndman was an English writer, politician and socialist.

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Zionism in the Age of the Dictators is a 1983 work by the American free-lance journalist, outspoken pro-Palestinian activist, Trotskyist and Jewish author Lenni Brenner. The book makes the argument that Zionist leaders collaborated with fascism, particularly in Nazi Germany, in order to build up a Jewish presence in Palestine.

Anarchism in the Netherlands originated in the second half of the 19th century. Its roots lay in the radical and revolutionary ideologies of the labor movement, in anti-authoritarian socialism, the free thinkers and in numerous associations and organizations striving for a libertarian form of society. During the First World War, individuals and groups of syndicalists and anarchists of various currents worked together for conscientious objection and against government policies. The common resistance was directed against imperialism and militarism.

Anti-antisemitism is opposition to antisemitism or prejudice against Jews, and just like the history of antisemitism, the history of anti-antisemitism is long and multifaceted. According to historian Omer Bartov, political controversies around antisemitism involve "those who see the world through an antisemitic prism, for whom everything that has gone wrong with the world, or with their personal lives, is the fault of the Jews; and those who see the world through an anti-antisemitic prism, for whom every critical observation of Jews as individuals or as a community, or, most crucially, of the state of Israel, is inherently antisemitic". It is disputed whether or not anti-antisemitism is synonymous with philosemitism, but anti-antisemitism often includes the "imaginary and symbolic idealization of ‘the Jew’" which is similar to philosemitism.

Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.

References

  1. Gjerde, Å. B. (2018). ‘The omnipotence of spring’: Ideas of progress in Norwegian socialism before 1940. In Socialist Imaginations (pp. 167-194). Routledge.
  2. 1 2 McGeever, B., & Virdee, S. (2017). Antisemitism and socialist strategy in Europe, 1880–1917: an introduction. Patterns of Prejudice, 51(3-4), 221-234.
  3. Herzig, A. (1981). The Role of Antisemitism in the Early Years of the German Workers' Movement. The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 26(1), 243-259.
  4. Marzec, W. (2017). Under one common banner: antisemitism and socialist strategy during the 1905–7 Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland. Patterns of Prejudice, 51(3-4), 269-291.
  5. Fine, R. (2014). Rereading Marx on the “Jewish Question” Marx as a Critic of Antisemitism?. Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology, 137.
  6. Geller, J. (1994). Of Mice and Mensa: Anti-Semitism and the Jewish Genius. The Centennial Review, 38(2), 361-385.
  7. Stoetzler, M. (Ed.). (2014). Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology. University of Nebraska Press.
  8. Wistrich, R. S. (1975). Socialism and Antisemitism in Austria before 1914. Jewish Social Studies, 37(3/4), 323-332.
  9. Virdee, S., & McGeever, B. (2023). A flawed democracy. In Britain in fragments (pp. 11-41). Manchester University Press.
  10. Stutje, J. W. (2017). Antisemitism among Dutch socialists in the 1880s and 1890s. Patterns of Prejudice, 51(3-4), 335-355.
  11. Szajkowski, Z. (1948). Socialists and Radicals in the Development of Antisemitism in Algeria (1884-1900). Jewish Social Studies, 257-280.
  12. Simon Gansinger. Communists Against Jews: the Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland in 1968". Fathom Journal. Autumn 2016. Accessed 4 June 2024.