anti-Semitic Beliefs Research Articles

Policies or Prejudices? An Analysis of Antisemitic and Anti-Israel Views on Social Media and Social Surveys

Abstract This paper examines the extent to which personal biases affect political views, in the context of how antisemitism influences opinions about Israel. Two empirical analyses are conducted. The first one analyzes social media chatter about Jews and Israel in the UK, revealing a strong, positive relationship between negative chatter about both of them at the daily-location level. In order to establish causality, social media chatter about a “Jewish” football team in the English Premier League (Tottenham) is used as an instrument for negative expressions about Jewish people to explain negativity toward Israel. The second empirical analysis uses the 2016 wave of the German Social Survey, which reveals a strong and robust relationship between several commonly used measures of antisemitic beliefs and holding anti-Israel views. A causal interpretation of this finding is supported by an IV analysis motivated by Voigtländer and Voth who show that Nazi indoctrination during the WWII period had a lifelong impact on antisemitic views. In both analyses, the IV estimates are considerably larger than OLS coefficients.

Jesus Built My Strawman: The Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International and “minister” Edward Jay Robin Belanger

The Canada-based Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International [CERI] falsely purports to be a community of strict King James Bible literalists. CERI’s religious claims are a strategic mask for the “church’s” true nature and objectives. CERI is a “legal cult,” a group organized around a central guru figure: “minister” Edward Jay Robin Belanger. This fake church’s doctrine combines stereotypic pseudolaw concepts derived from the US Sovereign Citizen movement, conspiratorial anti-government and anti-Semitic beliefs, with passages from the 1611 King James Bible. CERI and Belanger make no faith-based promises, but, instead, claim that a combination of esoteric paperwork, proclamations of Christian status, and demands for international treaty-based religious accommodation, grants CERI’s members special and extraordinary advantages (e.g., to defy and neutralize government authority, eliminate debts, and escape sanction for criminal misconduct). This study investigates CERI and Belanger’s nearly 25-year history of pseudolaw and criminal activity, using 21 Canadian legal proceedings conducted between 2009 2019 to develop a profile of CERI’s followers, CERI litigation tactics, and to explore the usually short-lived relationships between Belanger and his followers. CERI is the most aggressive and litigious Canadian pseudolaw group, but CERI adherents and Belanger consistently fail in court. CERI and Belanger are relevant to the developing understanding of the broader social impact and operation of pseudolaw, as an example of a long-duration but small population group. While many pseudolaw groups are true social communities, CERI functions primarily as a parasite/host pairing, where Belanger exploits those who adopt CERI strategies. This legal cult of personality operates chiefly within the broader Canadian pseudolaw ecosystem, but in a marginal, though remarkably persistent, manner.

Authoritarian Politics and Conspiracy Fictions: The Case of QAnon

The hypothesis of this article is that, for its adherents, QAnon is truthful, rather than true; that is, it captures their perception of the way things typically happen, rather than picturing what really has happened—and it does this in a way that seems more vivid and complete than actual experience. Why that is the case can be explained in terms of the peculiar nature of fictional representations, combined with the capacity of imaginary worlds, to symbolize real-world concerns in ways that resonate with prejudices and preconceptions but escape direct censure. After reviewing the literature on the conspiracy movement, we argue for QAnon as a conspiracy story, rather than a conspiracy theory, and interpret that story as “structured like a fantasy”, giving imaginative expression to a set of social feelings and normative grievances that would otherwise not dare speak their own names. We conclude that QAnon is an authoritarian fiction centered on anti-Semitic conspiracy beliefs that disturbingly reprise key themes of fascism, but that it presents this within the symbolic disguise of a fantasy scenario that is calculated to attract alienated white, middle-class and working-class, individuals. This argument helps explicate adherents’ resistance to the falsification of Q claims and predictions.

The Force on the Front

Police involvement in the Christian Front Movement in Brooklyn, NY grew unnoticed from 1938-1940, resulting in anti-semitic violence even after the police comissioner and mayor were forced to address the issue after the arrest in 1940 of 17 Christian Front Members accused of planning terrorist activities. The Christian Front was able to grow in an area like Brooklyn due to its high population of Irish-Catholics, and since the Christian Front was a religiously-based anti-semitic group led by an Irish Catholic priest, these people aligned well with the movement's beliefs. With a large Irish-Catholic police force, it is evident that the police not only had membership in the Christian Front but also those sympathetic to the movement. The stronghold of the Christian Front and the anti-semitic beliefs prevalent throughout the NYPD resulted in the creation of an environment where anti0semitic attacks could proliferate unaddressed, and where Irish Catholic nationalists could spread and impose their beliefs of anti-semitism and through their position of power in a law enforcement role.

I.4. Le maréchal Pétain et la « question juive »

Did Marshal Petain protect French Jews between 1940 and 1944, or did he help enforce the Final Solution in France? It is important to examine the opinions, choices, and policies of Philippe Petain instead of simply settling for ideological answers. Prior to the war, Petain exhibited anti-Semitic beliefs, which was typical of the French in the 19th century. While he was not overly aggressive, he was clearly prejudiced against Jews. The xenophobic aspect of his anti-Semitic attitudes can be seen in the laws his government passed starting in the summer of 1940. Petain first helped implement the Jewish Statute of October 1940, then took steps to further endanger Jews in the country. He was never fully satisfied with France’s anti-Jewish legislation, which he deemed not sufficiently targeted or effective. By enforcing German anti-Semitic ordinances, Petain sought to keep control of the country while still demonstrating his willingness to collaborate with Germany. Ultimately, however, he began to feel overwhelmed by the situation. While he did not adhere to the Nazi’s criminally racist attitudes, he refused to acknowledge its specificity. Out of blindness and selfishness, Petain insisted on framing Jewish persecution as a type of collateral damage that could not be avoided in war.

Retroactivism in the Lesbian Archives: Composing Pasts and Futures

Retroactivism in the Lesbian Archives: Composing Pasts and Futures

Chinese Philosemitism and Historical Statecraft: Incorporating Jews and Israel into Contemporary Chinese Civilizationism

AbstractPhilosemitism – the idealization of Jews and Israel – and Chinese-Jewish history function as a platform of soft power for growing China–Israel relations and as a means to bolster Chinese nationalism. Given the Chinese Communist Party's current positioning of China as a globally dominant power as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, this article re-examines the contemporary incarnation of philosemitism in China as part of a civilizationist narrative designed to position China as globally central and superior. This not only places heavy emphasis upon Jewish racial stereotypes and erases genuine historical Jewish voices but it also ignores evidence of anti-Semitic beliefs in China.

‘Hitler had a valid argument against some Jews’: Repertoires for the denial of antisemitism in Facebook discussion of a survey of attitudes to Jews and Israel

Existing research suggests that, in contemporary liberal democracies, complaints of racism are routinely rejected and prejudice may be both expressed and disavowed in the same breath. Surveys and historical research have established that – both in democratic states and in those of the Soviet Bloc (while it existed) – antisemitism has long been related to or expressed in the form of statements about Israel or ‘Zionist’, permitting anti-Jewish attitudes to circulate under cover of political critique. This article looks at how the findings of a survey of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitudes were rejected by users of three Facebook pages associated with the British Left. Through thematic discourse analysis, three recurrent repertoires are identified: firstly, what David Hirsh calls the ‘Livingstone Formulation’ (i.e. the argument that complaints of antisemitism are made in bad faith to protect Israel and/or attack the Left), secondly, accusations of flawed methodology similar to those with which UK Labour Party supporters routinely dismiss the findings of unfavourable opinion polls, and thirdly, the argument that, because certain classically antisemitic beliefs pertain to a supposed Jewish or ‘Zionist’ elite and not to Jews in general, they are not antisemitic. In one case, the latter repertoire facilitates virtually unopposed apologism for Adolf Hitler. Contextual evidence suggests that the dominance of such repertoires within one very large UK Labour Party-aligned group may be the result of action on the part of certain ‘admins’ or moderators. It is argued that awareness of the repertoires used to express and defend antisemitic attitudes should inform the design of quantitative research into the latter, and be taken account of in the formulation of policy measures aiming to restrict or counter hate speech (in social media and elsewhere).

The Anti-Semitic Roots of the “Liberal News Media” Critique

Anti-Semitic beliefs that associated Jews, especially New York Jews, with the news media helped create the idea of a “liberal news media.” Anti-Semites around the world have linked Jews with “control” of the news media since the nineteenth century. In the postwar United States, anti-Semitic critiques of the news media were closely linked with Cold War–era anticommunism, Christian conservatism, and reaction to the civil rights movement by white conservatives. Anti-Semites of the postwar period were usually fervent Christian anticommunists who believed that Jews secretly manipulated and masterminded the news in order to promote the civil rights movement, destroy the Christian United States, and pave the way for communist world government.

Chana Orloff

Chana Orloff (1888–1968), a Ukrainian-born artist who emigrated to France in 1910 by way of Palestine, was one of the most important Jewish artists of the School of Paris and a pioneering woman in the early Israeli art world, yet her story has been marginalized in both the narratives of European modernism and the history of Israeli art. I propose that Orloff's biography and artistic production, particularly her sculpted portraits of Jewish friends and colleagues in Paris between the two World Wars, demonstrate how diaspora, gender, and displacement play a critical role in a revised narrative of twentieth-century modern art. I argue that Orloff's work offers a compelling visual counter-discourse to prevailing negative stereotypes of Jewish identity in European visual culture. During a time when many émigré artists wished to distance themselves from their Jewish identity in light of widespread anti-Semitic and xenophobic beliefs that their work contributed to the “decline” of French culture, Orloff proudly did just the opposite.

Nazi indoctrination and anti-Semitic beliefs in Germany.

Attempts at modifying public opinions, attitudes, and beliefs range from advertising and schooling to "brainwashing." Their effectiveness is highly controversial. In this paper, we use survey data on anti-Semitic beliefs and attitudes in a representative sample of Germans surveyed in 1996 and 2006 to show that Nazi indoctrination--with its singular focus on fostering racial hatred--was highly effective. Between 1933 and 1945, young Germans were exposed to anti-Semitic ideology in schools, in the (extracurricular) Hitler Youth, and through radio, print, and film. As a result, Germans who grew up under the Nazi regime are much more anti-Semitic than those born before or after that period: the share of committed anti-Semites, who answer a host of questions about attitudes toward Jews in an extreme fashion, is 2-3 times higher than in the population as a whole. Results also hold for average beliefs, and not just the share of extremists; average views of Jews are much more negative among those born in the 1920s and 1930s. Nazi indoctrination was most effective where it could tap into preexisting prejudices; those born in districts that supported anti-Semitic parties before 1914 show the greatest increases in anti-Jewish attitudes. These findings demonstrate the extent to which beliefs can be modified through policy intervention. We also identify parameters amplifying the effectiveness of such measures, such as preexisting prejudices.

Penser la musique, penser la race ? L’antisémitisme chez les musicologues et critiques musicaux sous l’occupation

Thinking music, thinking race? Anti-Semitism among musicologists and musical critics under Nazi occupationAnti-Semitism was seemingly marked by paradoxes among musicologists and music critics under Nazi occupation. Music is thought to be transcendent and apolitical, and for this very reason it is considered to be of particular use to a defeated society in attempting to regenerate its national roots and traditions. Composers who were free to express their anti-Semitic beliefs in such a context also wrote about the fraternity and humanity of European peoples toward each other. On the other hand, musicians who had never before adopted an anti-Semitic stance contributed to the anti-Semitic ideology by becoming accustomed to and accepting of the persecution of their Jewish colleagues, thus enabling themselves to continue in their own activities which were considered essential to the patriotic effort to revive the spirit of the country.As intellectuals and institutional players having political and social influence and responsibility, these musicographers contributed to developing an anti-Semitic policy. The means they used were through joining groups or associations, through tacit responsibility, by carrying out orders and by adopting ideologies which could be passive or active, in which case all their creative forces were used. The discourse that prevailed in the aftermath of the war was to explain, to justify and to affect a moral reconstruction and in this context music was considered to be a “protected space”. Individual commitment or “purely musical” text was therefore deemed apolitical regardless of its pragmatic context.From a historical perspective one can see a large grey zone of daily anti-Semitism which encompassed small, pragmatic decisions and conformist discourses while at the same time there existed an autonomous discourse, an infatuation with cultural collaboration and unambiguous anti-Semitic formulations.Maybe it is precisely this “normality” of anti-Semitic phenomena among musicographers that enriches research on the cultural, intellectual and daily life in France under Nazi occupation.

THE AUSTRO-MARXIST STRUGGLE FOR “INTELLECTUAL WORKERS”: THE LOST DEBATE ON THE QUESTION OF INTELLECTUALS IN INTERWAR VIENNA

This essay examines the efforts by Austro-Marxists to identify, define, and incorporate “intellectual workers” (geistige Arbeiter) into their movement. In this struggle, socialists faced a hegemonic conservative establishment that controlled the largest scholarly societies and intellectual publications and held most positions in the universities and educational bureaucracy. Despite notable successes in “Red Vienna,” a closer examination of the discourse on intellectuals reveals that conservative ideas remained entrenched in interwar Austria. Austro-Marxists could not overcome the class biases and status anxieties of the educated middle class (Bildungsbürgertum), a problem that became more pronounced as the 1920s unfolded. The analysis of this lost debate reveals that the historiography of interwar Vienna requires revision to account for the relative weakness of progressive and radical ideologies and the persistence of antidemocratic, anti-Semitic, and authoritarian beliefs within Viennese intellectual culture. The participants in this “Black Viennese” cultural field have largely escaped critical scrutiny despite, and likely because of, their pervasiveness during the First Republic and after World War II. In looking at Austrian and European debates on the role of intellectuals in modern society, this article places conservatives back at the center of interwar Austrian intellectual and cultural history, while contending that they must bear greater responsibility for the authoritarian and fascist turns of Austria during the 1930s.

Christian and Muslim Anti-Semitic Beliefs

One hundred Muslims and one hundred Christians were administered a battery of tests to determine the nature and extent of anti-Semitic beliefs. The two groups differed considerably in terms of rationale, level, and course of anti-Semitic beliefs. Specifically, differences may be explained via dimensions of personal and social identity. The implications for emotional development and its role in understanding prejudices are discussed.

The Anti-Semitic Origins of Henry Ford's Arts Education Patronage

Henry Ford (1863-1947) was a complex man. Perhaps the greatest irony of his life was the contrast between his ushering in modern urban America through mass produced gasoline-fueled automobiles and his deeply held philosophy that all Americans should live as the their forbearers did. Henry Ford saw twentieth century cities as a pestiferous growth and contrasted the unnatural, twisted, and cooped up lives of city people with the wholesome life of independence and sterling honesty that the agrarian life offered. (1) Ford was noted for editorializing in his personal newspaper, the Dearborn Independent (published in Dearborn, Michigan, his hometown and headquarters of Ford Motor Company), real United States lies outside the cities. (2) As historian Roderick Nash puts it, nostalgic, backward looking Henry Ford repeatedly deplored the very conditions that Ford the revolutionary industrialist did so much to bring about. (3) Ford's mass production methods drove prices down for all sorts of goods, including musical goods. Music was increasingly available on the radio and on phonograph records. The widespread availability of popular music of the early twentieth century alarmed Henry Ford. Richard Peterson states, Rather than see the auto and mass production as having any part in the changes, he saw the problems as stemming from alcohol, tobacco use, and sexual license--all three fostered in the atmosphere created by jazz dancing. (4) In Ford's mind, the people responsible for damaging society were those who promoted jazz music and dance: African Americans, recent immigrants, and particularly people who Ford often termed the international Jew. (5) If the problem was simple, then the solution was equally simplistic. Henry Ford's cultural solution was to create and promote the music and dance of nineteenth century agrarian America. Many people shared this view that old-time music was morally superior to music of the present. The purpose of this historical investigation is to propose that Henry Ford was a propagandist of American folk arts education and an arts educator for selective audiences. His well-documented anti-Semitic beliefs and writings influenced his promotion of early American folk music and dance. Like his inventor contemporaries, Ford enjoyed experimenting in chemical laboratories. But he also engaged in sociological experiments. He had a vision, based on anti-Semitic beliefs, about creating a more perfect society through arts education. With his financial wherewithal along with his own passion and determination to reintroduce to Americans a better and simpler way of life, Henry Ford was on a mission to promote, to the extent of propagandizing, American folk dance and music. This active promotion evolved into a culminating project in his life, in the rural South, in an agrarian, coastal Georgia community. Research Questions Given the purpose of this historical investigation, three research questions are posed. These questions are concerned with understanding the nature and beliefs of Henry Ford to help explain his motivations in promoting American folk arts education. The questions are: (1) What was the nature of Henry Ford? (2) What were the reasons behind Ford's interest in promoting folk arts education? (3) What were the motivations behind Ford's philanthropy in the rural South? Politics and Anti-Semitic Beliefs Throughout his life, Henry Ford enjoyed spending time in nature, primarily watching birds. His love of nature shaped his belief that people living in modern society needed to respect wildlife and the land in its natural state. Ford and Thomas Edison both held the view that society's rapid modernization was creating a population of people who did not respect nature nor share their views on conservation. As the human population grew in the 1910s, songbird and geese populations decreased. Noting this, Ford became involved in the politics of conservationism. …

Russian Anti-Semitism and the Scapegoating of Jews

Throughout Russian history, Jews have often been blamed when turmoil has arisen in the country. It is surprising, therefore, that Russian politics in the 1990s focused so little on Jews as a source of the political and economic crises afflicting the country. This article investigates anti-Jewish attitudes in Russia over time and cross-sectionally, carefully scrutinizing the hypothesis that perceptions of economic, social and political upheaval activate latent authoritarianism into anti-Semitism. Little if any support is found for the hypothesis and therefore it is argued that scapegoat theory, as currently constituted and applied to Jews, is too simplistic to be useful. Russian Jews were not subject to intolerance and repression in the 1990s because anti-Semitic beliefs were not widespread enough to be used successfully by political entrepreneurs seeking advantage through attacks on Jews.

Drama and the World of Richard Wagner (review)

Reviewed by: Drama and the World of Richard Wagner Katherine R. Syer Drama and the World of Richard Wagner. By Dieter Borchmeyer . Trans. by Daphne Ellis . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. [ x, 391 p. ISBN 0-691-11497-8. $39.50.] Index. Dieter Borchmeyer is one of the most active German scholars working in the sprawling area of Wagner studies. As the span of Wagnerian centenary observations unfolded towards 1983, Borchmeyer emerged as author of the substantial monograph Das Theater Richard Wagners: Idee-Dichtung-Wirkung (Stuttgart: P. Reclam, 1982), as editor of a collection of Wagner's writings, Dichtungen und Schriften: Jubiläumsausgabe in zehn Bänden, as well as co-editor of Wagner-Parodien (both Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1983). Amidst five subsequently edited Wagner-related volumes, the 1982 book appeared in English, translated by Stewart Spencer, as Richard Wagner: Theory and Theatre (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). For this much-modified version, Borchmeyer largely rewrote one of the original four sections—that concentrating on the stage works themselves—"for an English audience" (p. xv). This new material turned out to be less a matter of addressing a different audience than a valuable rethinking, as it has resurfaced, reworked, in Richard Wagner:Ahasvers Wandlungen (Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 2002). It has now appeared in English, translated by Daphne Ellis, as Drama and the World of Richard Wagner. Borchmeyer openly admits that many chapters in this recent book derive from earlier publications, but a newcomer to his writings in either language will not likely be aware of the extent to which this is the case. Yet the book is no mere pastiche. The rethinkings involved in the first translation project triggered a chain of evolutions and expansions of topics that yielded much original material that helps to make Drama and the World of Richard Wagner a distinctive volume. One senses that Borchmeyer is always aware of the operas as living theatrical works; he is intimately familiar with Wagnerian production practices in Europe. Borchmeyer's analytical interest in original contexts and aesthetics raises pressing issues about interpretation that are relevant to today's stages. The chapters of the book not centered on the operas offer potent myth-debunking vignettes pertaining more to Wagner biography and reception history. Drawing upon much recent scholarship, Borchmeyer repeatedly argues that Wagner's beliefs and relationships occupy a more nuanced and often paradox-ridden middle ground than popular polarized representations would suggest. He is keenly aware how much resistance there is to such claims; many of his arguments are shaped as closing arguments on long-standing debates. What we have in this volume is an impressive representation of Borchmeyer's entire Wagner publication history, with the transformations of the author's own ideas playing a defining role. The book's original self-reflexive title refers of course to Wagner and his oeuvre, not Borchmeyer directly. Ahasvers Wandlungen could easily have been translated literally as Ahasuerus's Transformations, but perhaps Drama and the World of Richard Wagner was intended to have broader appeal. The original title is more provocative, in that it refers to the figure of the Wandering Jew that figures prominently in Wagner's stage works from Der fliegende Holländer to Parsifal. Any reference in a Wagner-centered work to Jewish themes opens up a minefield. Opinions concerning Wagner's anti-Semitism remain sharply divided, as evidenced by the passionate conflicts that erupted at the end of the conference "Richard Wagner und die Juden" that Borchmeyer helped to organize in Bayreuth in 1999. Early on, Borchmeyer cast himself in the camp of acknowledging Wagner's anti-Semitic beliefs but not regarding his [End Page 437] artworks or any twentieth-century anti-Semitic crimes as direct expressions or byproducts of those beliefs (his selection of Wagner writings for the Jubilee edition did not include the notorious essay "Das Judentum in der Musik"). For some, this perspective remains a fundamental flaw in Borchmeyer's Wagner work. But it should be noted that Borchmeyer explores issues of Jewishness and culture broadly and with much seriousness. As a weighty postlude built into the chapter on Die Meistersinger, he tackles the issue of Beckmesser's possible...

Friend or foe: the defamation or legitimate and necessary criticism? Reflections on recent political discourse in Austria

This paper illustrates the necessity of very differentiated approaches to context when analyzing political discourses. Specifically, the case of antisemitic rhetoric will be regarded because antisemitic beliefs were tabooed in official domains, in postwar Austria. Nevertheless, politicians continued to use such prejudices for political purposes. Certain linguistic devices, like presuppositions and insinuations can only be understood and interpreted when enough co-text and context knowledge is assumed. The paper argues for an interdisciplinary approach in the Social Sciences, because such complex problems, like populism, racism or antisemitism cannot be grasped by one traditional discipline. It also argues for an intertextual approach which regards historical developments and socio-political factors while analyzing discourses.

The Dream of the Millennium

The Dream of the Millennium

Orthodox Religious Beliefs and Anti-Semitism: A Replication of Glock and Stark in the Netherlands

The Glock and Stark theoretical framework on Christian beliefs and anti-Semitism implies that orthodox religious beliefs perpetuate secular anti-Semitism via particularism and religious anti-Semitism. Several critics have argued that the major weakness of this study is its failure to examine explanatory variables other than religious beliefs. This paper addresses these issues using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey. Although the results tend to support the assumption that nonreligious variables are far more important to the explanation of anti-Semitism and, too, that they attenuate the impact of Christian orthodoxy, the effects of the latter are by no means spurious. The most important conclusion of this paper is therefore that there still is, in Holland at least, a religious factor at work, albeit a modest one, generating anti-Semitic beliefs. Numerous studies have documented that people who consider themselves to be Christians are more likely to be anti-Semitic than those who are not religious. Despite the large amount of data that has been collected on this issue, however, the problem of whether and, if so, how and to what extent Christian religion per se engenders less compassion for Jews has never really been solved. Ambiguity remains because most studies have not been theory-guided, and consequently their findings were purely ad hoc. Further, in studying religion and its role in supporting anti-Semitism, one must always consider the possibility that nonreligious variables may create spurious patterns of relationships. Relatively little research has yet been done, however, to determine their confounding influences in order to support or challenge the assumption - held by many but made explicit by a few - that the Christian churches are conducive to anti-Jewish sentiments in their members. This paper examines the role orthodox Christian beliefs play in religious and secular anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey. The study was triggered by the recent revival of hostility towards Jews across much of western Europe. Many of those who try to understand this upsurge emphasize anti-Semitic prejudice deeply entrenched within European Christian culture and history as the core of the problem. We therefore decided to examine whether vestiges of this legacy remain in Holland to