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Since We're Debating Labels, Stop Calling It Anti-Semitism. It's Jew-Hatred.

(Forward) Dr. Stephen D. Smith - As hundreds of publications across the country capitalize the "b" in Black, arguing that this reflects a common identity and heritage, it is time for a similarly introspective debate about the language we use to describe discrimination against Jews. Whether spelled anti-Semitism or antisemitism, we should retire the term entirely and begin calling it what it really is: Jew-hatred. The German journalist Wilhelm Marr coined the term "anti-Semitism" in 1879 to give an air of modernity to long-embraced animosity toward the Jewish people. Earlier Germans were blunter: They called it "Judenhaas," literally Jew-hatred. Wilhelm, himself a deeply anti-Jewish political agitator, founded in 1880 the League of Antisemites, the first organization committed to combating the alleged Jewish takeover of Germany and German culture. In other words, the term "anti-Semitism" was coined to mainstream Jew-hatred. Anti-Jewish sentiment is the canary in the coal mine of societal violence. Once Jews are scapegoated, that antagonism almost always spreads to others. The writer is Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education.
2020-07-09 00:00:00
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