anti-Semitic Rhetoric Research Articles

The Crisis of the 1930s and American Antisemitism

Abstract This article explores the economic and psychological impact of the Great Depression on the American population, emphasizing the rise of antisemitism during the 1930s. We begin with a historical overview of the economic downturn following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, with an emphasis on the ensuing unemployment and social despair. We argue that the representation of the Great Depression diverged from reality, with public discourse constructing an ‘imagined crisis’ that amplified fears and uncertainties. This crisis rhetoric led to the scapegoating of the Jewish community, which was unjustly blamed for the nation’s hardships. The article provides an in-depth analysis of how Henry Ford’s dissemination of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and Father Charles E. Coughlin’s radio broadcasts contributed to spreading antisemitic sentiments by exploiting economic anxieties and promoting a narrative of Jewish conspiracy. Furthermore, the article discusses the historical context of American antisemitism, identifying it as a complex phenomenon influenced by various factors, including religious, economic, and political antisemitism. Despite efforts to combat antisemitic rhetoric, figures like Ford and Coughlin played a significant role in shaping public perceptions and directing blame towards the Jewish community during times of crisis. We conclude that the crisis of the 1930s, marked by unprecedented economic hardship and social unrest, was exacerbated by ideological discourses that targeted Jews as scapegoats, reflecting a disturbing pattern of prejudice and discrimination that has echoed into contemporary times.

The Discursive Construction of Antisemitism in Nazi Children’s Books: Elvira Bauer’s Trust No Fox (1936) and Ernst Hiemer’s The Poisonous Mushroom (1938)

AbstractThis article deals with the construction and performance of antisemitism in Nazi children’s books. It provides an explorative discourse analysis ofTrust No Foxas reported (Bauer, Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid! Ein Bilderbuch für Gross und Klein, Stürmer-Verlag, Nuremberg, 1936) andThe Poisonous Mushroomas reported (Hiemer, Der Giftpilz—ein Stürmerbuch für Jung u. Alt, Stürmer-Verlag, Nuremberg, 1938) through the lens of Critical applied legal linguistics (CrALL). It seeks to elucidate how ‘Jewishness’ is constructed in the two books, with a view to enhancing our understanding of the intertextual and interdiscursive embeddedness of anti-Semitic rhetoric generally and nomination and predication strategies specifically. To this end, a specialised corpus of 10,002 tokens, 2,345 types and 43 illustrations was compiled. Subsequently XML annotation was applied with the data being parsed into headings, sentences and/or lines. It was found that the books follow a Jewish/non-Jewish dichotomy, consistently referring to breaches of custom, morality, religion and law. Both works purport to provide descriptive accounts of ‘Jews as they are,’ when, in fact, they generate the normative illusion of ‘Jews as they ought to be’ according to Nazi ideology. It is suggested to use the insights gained into the anti-Semitic rhetoric of children’s books to detect, describe and critique patterns of anti-Semitic rhetoric today.

Ochrona zwierząt i antysemityzm w niemieckim czasopiśmiennictwie specjalistycznym w latach 1919–1939

Animal Protection and Antisemitism in German Professional Press in the Years 1919–1939 The article discusses the entanglement of antisemitism and animal protection movement on the basis of the professional press of German veterinarians, animal protectionists, and meat producers from 1919 until 1939. The focal point is the question of shehitah. The article shows to what extent this question was a part of a general debate on the slaughter reform and the development of new stunning methods. Not surprisingly, most of the articles in the analyzed press were in favor of the introduction of the stunning obligation before the slaughter, which was from the Jewish perspective equal to the ban of shehitah. The article differentiates between the arguments of the majority of proponents of the obligation and those of their radical antisemitic colleagues. It argues that the animal protection movement in its majority cannot be described as racist or as a natural partner of national socialists, for only some representatives of it, such as Max Müller or Rudolf Einhauser from Munich, displayed a clear antisemitic rhetoric.

Kaplan Louis, At Wit’s End: The Deadly Discourse on the Jewish Joke

The subject of Louis Kaplan’s erudite book, true to its subtitle, is the “deadly discourse on the Jewish joke” in Germany and Austria from the Weimar and Austrian Republics through Nazism. According to Kaplan, the Jewish joke and Jewish wit—the German term der jüdische Witz encompasses both—alienated many Jews, not to mention non-Jews, especially those with antisemitic tendencies. To understand their antipathy to Jewish humor, Kaplan examines the outsized role of the Jewish joke in various cultural debates. The book’s final chapter explores the Jewish joke’s discursive reemergence in West Germany in the early 1960s. What made this discourse in its various permutations “deadly” was the danger of the malicious reproduction of the putative trademarks of Jewish self-conception in Jewish humor—self-deprecation, self-criticism, and self-irony—in antisemitic rhetoric. Kaplan structures his book via individual case studies. One such example is Arthur Trebitsch, a crank Viennese Jewish antisemite, who wrote Geist und Judentum (Spirit and Judaism) in 1919. Through a series of logical contortions Trebitsch attempts to prove Aryan superiority and Jewish inferiority with an exposé of the “authentically Jewish” (echt jüdisch) joke, with its preference for rhetorical sleight of hand in degrading traditional values. Riveting is the account of Alfred Wiener’s effort, which he initiated in 1925 on behalf of the leadership of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Central Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens). The association was German Jewry’s watchdog to monitor antisemitism. Wiener strove to censor self-mocking Jewish humor on stage, even if it also satirized antisemites; however, his initiatve received pushback from popular Jewish comedian Kurt Robitschek, who defended the right of free speech. Pivotal to Kaplan’s exposition is Nazism’s exploitation of Jewish self-critical jokes to validate antisemitism and to serve Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda. Kaplan cites the example of Rasse und Humor (Race and Humor, 1936) by Siegfried Kadner. In it Kadner justifies Nazi antisemitism by claiming that the Nazis were merely repeating the negative attributes Jews readily admitted to in their own jokes. Whereas Trebitsch and Kadner identified justifications for antisemitic claims in Jewish jokes, Wiener attempted to preempt this rationale for antisemitism by nipping typical Jewish humor in the bud.

Антисемитская риторика иеромонаха Илиодора (Труфанова) как отражение кризиса Русской Православной Церкви в начале XX века

The article analyzes the anti-Semitic rhetoric of hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov) as one of the most scandalous Clerical figures of the Russian Empire in the early XX century. The process of politicization of the Russian Orthodox Church for legitimizing power and serving the national ideology in the context of the Synodal crisis is reviewed. Many clergymen were the spiritual leaders of legal monarchical organizations and thus supported their national policies. The Jewish issue became a marker of the crisis of the Church. The views of hieromonk Heliodorus are the clear confirmation of this.

Religious Intolerance in America: A Documentary History

Religious Intolerance in America: A Documentary History

About this Issue

About this Issue Nicholas Rademacher, Co-editor In our lead article, Richard Gribble, CSC (Stonehill College) sheds new light on the history of the censure of Father Leonard Feeney (1897–1978), a once popular Jesuit priest whose combative behavior and instigation of controversy on the church’s doctrine of salvation led to his excommunication from the Catholic Church. After providing an overview of Feeney’s position on the church’s teaching regarding salvation, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, and his defiance of his ecclesiastical superiors that led to his excommunication, Gribble reexamines the historical record and recounts the efforts of Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of Boston to secure Feeney’s reconciliation with the church near the end of Feeney’s life. Next, Samuel Mertz (Independent Scholar) examines the life and legacy of Father Thomas Tobin (1897–1978), a once-prominent but now largely forgotten public figure in mid-twentieth-century Oregon. A champion of labor rights and Catholic social teaching, the Portland priest rose to prominence during the Second World War as a trusted mediator between unions and management in Portland. But, as Mertz reveals, his influence waned as war-time solidarity on the homefront fractured in the post-war decades. This issue also includes another installment of our ongoing feature, “Forgotten Classics.” Carol K. Coburn (Avila University) revisits the groundbreaking and consequently controversial 1963 essay, “The Local Superior as Spiritual Leader,” by Sister Annette Walters, CSJ; Leslie Woodcock Tentler (Catholic University of America) brings David Lodge’s 1980 British novel Souls and Bodies to the attention of American readers as a “neglected classic” that charts the course to a pluralistic church before and after Vatican II; Ramón A. Gutiérrez (University of Chicago) reflects on the significance of Fray Angelico Chávez’s 1954 book, La Conquistadora: The Autobiography of an Ancient Statue, which tracks the Christianization of New Mexico from the perspective of a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary; and Angela Alaimo O’Donnell (Fordham University) recovers Elizabeth Cullinan’s fiction, including two novels and two short story collections, that broke new ground by revealing the world of Irish American Catholicism during the mid-twentieth century. In this issue’s cover essay, Judy Coode commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of Pax Christi USA. Drawing on interviews and archival material, she documents the origins of the organization and the expansion of its understanding of the peace of Christ to include nuclear disarmament, racial justice, and economic justice for all. Copyright © 2022 American Catholic Historical Society

Expressing rivalry online: antisemitic rhetoric among Dutch football supporters on Twitter

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to analyse online expressions of rivalry and hate speech in relation to antisemitic and philosemitic discourse(s) in Dutch professional men’s football (soccer). We collected data from Twitter using the Twitter API and scraped Tweets relating to a match between the supposedly ‘Jewish’ club Ajax and its rival Feyenoord on 17 January 2021. A selection of the collected Tweets was analysed more in depth using narrative digital discourse analysis to interpret the Tweets. The research shows that antisemitic chants and slurs find their way towards the online domain, sometimes explicit and other times implicit. The analysis elaborates how these Tweets, while seemingly targeted towards the football rival, contribute to an exclusionary discourse in which being a ‘Jew’ is not wanted and contribute to the normalization and reproduction of antisemitism in football.

Dossier: The Hunger Plan: The Holocaust, Resource Scarcity, and Preventing Genocide in a Changing Climate

Nazi leadership sought to exploit the biological fear of starvation and scapegoat the Jewish population and other “useless eaters” for taking more than their fair share. The Nazis utilized and hyperbolized well-known prejudices against Jewish people, and entrenched narratives of Jewish parasitism as a threat to current and future German lives. In this analysis, food scarcity was one of several reasons for the Holocaust, and the first step to seeking Lebensraum for pure Germans to live to the highest international standard. This article will focus on different aspects of the complex antisemitic rhetoric surrounding issues of resource scarcity, including Hitler’s concept of Lebensraum, the ways in which the Nazi party discussed and understood food, food security, and the memory of World War I, as well as how that rhetoric influenced their policies, including Herbert Backe’s Hunger Plan. This analysis presents the so-called Final Solution as an answer to not only the Nazi’s Jewish problem, but a key aspect to their food security plans as well. Placing this analysis in the context of genocide prevention, the increasing insecurity and pressures climate change places on natural resources must be acknowledged as a trigger for future genocides.

Exploring Contemporary Jewish Identity and Anti-Semitism via Metalepsis in Howard Jacobson’s Shylock Is My Name (2016)

ABSTRACT Given that many of the critically acclaimed works from his canon extensively (and comically) explore Jewish identity, it is no surprise that the Hogarth Press selected Howard Jacobson to write a contemporary adaptation of The Merchant of Venice for the ‘Shakespeare Retold’ series, a project which commissions some of the world’s most renowned authors to modernise and novelise Shakespeare’s plays. In addition to a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Merchant, Jacobson’s novel, Shylock Is My Name, features metalepsis with the presence of Shylock as a character. Jacobson’s metaleptic inclusion of Shylock into his narrative affords a rich juxtaposition between Shakespeare’s early modern Jew and Jacobson’s twenty-first century (Anglo-)Jew, Simon Strulovitch. In contrast to Shylock, Strulovitch’s Jewish identity is elusive and indefinable in Jacobson’s post-Holocaust England. Whereas Shakespeare’s Merchant has often been attributed to informing public perceptions of Jews and Jewishness over the centuries, Jacobson’s twenty-first century adaptation establishes the absence of a concrete sense of Jewish identity in his modern equivalent. Conversely, the depiction of contemporary anti-Semitic rhetoric is nearly identical to the anti-Jewish diatribes of Shakespeare’s play. Thus, whereas Jacobson’s metalepsis illustrates fluidity and diversity within Jewish identity, the anti-Semitism of the novel matches, sometimes verbatim, that of Shakespeare’s Merchant.

Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America's Northern Border

Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America's Northern Border

Imagining the Urban Poland: Revolution and Reconceptualization of Urban Society in the Kingdom of Poland, 1905‒1914

The aim of this article is to analyze how the concept of mieszczaństwo was redefined in Polish political discourse between 1905 and 1914 in conjunction with concepts of intelligentsia and bourgeoisie. My hypothesis is that before the Great War, in a time of powerful social and political revolutions that took place on the streets of Warsaw, Łódź and other cities, new ways of conceptualizing the urban society emerged. I shall discuss the circumstances that led to the forming of the concept of the Polish mieszczaństwo during the debate about the urban self-government in the Kingdom of Poland after the 1905 Revolution. As the city itself became the subject of political competition, and the right to govern the city became a demand of the Polish public opinion. For National Democratic Party it was an excellent occasion to expand anti-Semitic rhetoric and promote the idea of the Polonization of cities as a long-term goal. However, I argue that this rhetoric would not find public response if the intelligentsia itself would not redefined its attitude to other groups of urban dwellers. The mieszczaństwo, which had no political meaning previously, became the main factor of the imagined modernization of Poland. Despite the price of the ethnic conflict it became obvious that Poland had to be urbanized to be modernized.

Egyptian-Israeli Relations during the Government of Mohamed Morsi (2012-2013)

The article highlights the details of the foreign policy of the Arab Republic of Egypt and its impact on the regional security of the state of Israel in between 2012-2013. After the Islamists came to power, they began to dominate expectations that the political force led by Mohamed Morsi would initiate an active anti-Israel policy, however, with active anti-Semitic rhetoric, the "Muslim brotherhood" was able to maintain peaceful relations with Israel. The purpose of this study was to characterize the relationship between M. Morsi's government and the state of Israel during the period 2012 to 2013while revealing the impact of various factors on the preservation of peace in the region, especially in the face of the conflict situation that intensified in neigh boring countries such as Libya and Syria. The main approaches to the study of the problem under consideration were analytical method and content analysis. It is concluded that the article can also contribute to the study of the history of the Middle East within the framework of Arab-Israeli relations against the deterioration of the political situation and the strengthening of religious radicalism in the region.

«Геть отрую з наших хат!»: протиалкогольний дискурс газети «Наш лемко»

The article examines the anti-alcohol policy of Nash Lemko newspaper (Lviv, 1934–1939) to determine its main aspects. According to the materials of the newspaper, the rapid intoxication of Rusins had a socio-psychological nature: burdened with landlessness, foreign bureaucracy arbitrariness and raising taxes, a typical resident of a mountain village lost the purpose of existence. Drawing on the experience of activists of the European and Ukrainian temperance movements, Nash Lemko systematically promoted a healthy lifestyle among its readers, appealing to their minds both with statistics and criminal chronicles and by means of artistic influence. Despite the unsightly moments (primarily anti-Semitic rhetoric), this policy resulted in a growing understanding among the Lemkos that their problems were mainly caused by their own reckless attitude towards alcohol and nicotine. The authors conclude that the Lemkos adequately responded to this social problem, as was evidenced by the rapid growth in the number of the “Revival” circles in mountain villages, which united Rusins-abstainers. This consolidation was very important for the Lemko community on the eve of the Second World War.

Introduction

ABSTRACT From its modest beginning in the 2000s, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has grown into a worldwide phenomenon that changed the discourse on Israel. Commentators pointed out that, at a minimum, the BDS has transformed the Israeli-Palestinian debate. More ominously, the BDS spawned an entire discursive tradition of delegitimizing Israel and played an essential role in increasing antisemitism. Empirical evidence seems to indicate that the dramatic increase in antisemitic rhetoric and attacks is at least partially related to the BDS campaign. Most recently, the BDS activists took credit for the International Criminal Court decision in Hague to try Israel for war crimes. This special issue explores the BDS phenomenon – its impact and implications for Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as the inextricable linkage between its anti-Israeli/anti-Zionist propaganda and antisemitism.

Analyzing Genetic Testing Discourse on the Web Through the Lens of Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan

Recent progress in genomics has enabled the emergence of a flourishing market for direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. Companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, and have already tested tens of millions of customers. Consequently, news, experiences, and views on genetic testing are increasingly shared and discussed on social media. At the same time, far-right groups have also taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic “purity.” In this article, we set to study the genetic testing discourse on a number of mainstream and fringe Web communities. We do so in two steps. First, we conduct an exploratory, large-scale analysis of the genetic testing discourse on a mainstream social network such as Twitter. We find that the genetic testing discourse is fueled by accounts that appear to be interested in digital health and technology. However, we also identify tweets with highly racist connotations. This motivates us to explore the connection between genetic testing and racism on platforms with a reputation for toxicity, namely, Reddit and 4chan, where we find that discussions around genetic testing often include highly toxic language expressed through hateful and racist comments. In particular, on 4chan’s politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly anti-semitic rhetoric, often conveyed through memes.

“And We Will Fight for Our Race!” A Measurement Study of Genetic Testing Conversations on Reddit and 4chan

Progress in genomics has enabled the emergence of a booming market for “direct-to-consumer” genetic testing. Nowadays, companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, and have already tested tens of millions of customers. At the same time, alt- and far-right groups have also taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic “purity.” In this paper, we present a measurement study shedding light on how genetic testing is being discussed on Web communities in Reddit and 4chan. We collect 1.3M comments posted over 27 months on the two platforms, using a set of 280 keywords related to genetic testing. We then use NLP and computer vision tools to identify trends, themes, and topics of discussion. Our analysis shows that genetic testing attracts a lot of attention on Reddit and 4chan, with discussions often including highly toxic language expressed through hateful, racist, and misogynistic comments. In particular, on 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly antisemitic rhetoric, often conveyed through memes. Finally, we find that discussions build around user groups, from technology enthusiasts to communities promoting fringe political views.

The European and Russian Far Right as Political Actors: Comparative Approach

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the far right (nationalist) as political actors in Russia and in Europe. Whereas the European far-right movements over the last years managed to achieve significant success turning into influential political forces as a result of surging popular support, in Russia the far-right organizations failed to become the fully-fledged political actors. This looks particularly surprising, given the historically deep-rooted nationalist tradition, which stems from the times Russian Empire. Before the 1917 revolution, the so-called «Black Hundred» was one of the major far-right organizations, exploiting nationalistic and anti-Semitic rhetoric, which had representation in the Russian parliament – The State Duma. During the most Soviet period all the far-right movements in Russia were suppressed, re-emerging in the late 1980s as rather vocal political force. But currently the majority of them are marginal groups, partly due to the harsh party regulation, partly due to the fact, that despite state-sponsored nationalism the position of Russian far right does not stand in-line with the position of Russian authorities, trying to suppress the Russian nationalists. This is sharply contrasting with the situation with the far right in Europe, which are more well-established and institutionalized as political actors, using conventional forms of political activity. However, despite some differences with the European counterparts, the Russian far right have obvious potential as political actors, which can be realized under certain circumstances, enabling them to play more significant in the political system of Russia.

Austrian postwar democratic consensus and anti-Semitism

AbstractThis paper explores the relation between the use of anti-Semitic rhetoric in post-war Austrian parliamentary debate and the development of the consensus-oriented, corporatist model of Austrian democracy, the “consociational model,” between 1945 and 1955. Specifically, this paper examines the anti-Semitic stereotypes found in parliament, an arena where “the sayable” of official politics is defined, and whether such anti-Semitic stereotyping serves political-strategic purposes. The predominant pattern of exclusion proves to be the attribution of ambivalence, drawing on the repertoire of nationalist anti-Semitic stereotypes, depicting “emigrants” as “cowards,” incapable of love for and defense of their countries. The analysis shows this pattern of exclusion is rooted in an ethnicized, homogeneous, and masculinist understanding of the people – recurrent in contemporary right-wing movements and parties. It follows the lines of Carl Schmitt’s concept of the political, in which the distinction of “friend” and “enemy,” and hence, the eradication of pluralism and ambivalence, is pivotal.

Opera by the Book

In 1944 with Nazi Germany just months from defeat, a curious and now little-known book was published in Regensburg: a collection of essays and biographies that strove to define the contemporary state of opera. Titled Die deutsche Oper der Gegenwart (German Opera of the Present Day), this substantial and lavishly produced volume documents the aesthetics of opera during the Third Reich through its profiles of sixty-two composers, more than 250 design drawings and photographs, prose essays on drama and staging, and an extensive works list. The National Socialist alignment of the book’s primary author (the theater historian Carl Niessen) and publishing company (Gustav Bosse Verlag) contextualizes the volume’s problematic scholarly priorities. Niessen interleaved explanations and endorsements of viable manifestations of contemporary German opera with anti-Semitic rhetoric and venomous critiques of rival aesthetic views. The book’s time-capsule version of the “state of the art” also includes evidence that contradicts postwar claims by composers, such as Winfried Zillig, who later recast themselves as persecuted modernists but whose statements within the volume demonstrate their complicity. Pamela Potter has recommended that musicologists address the longstanding historiographical problem of defining “Nazi Music” by paying detailed attention to particularities. Analyzing the form, contents, and rhetoric of a single printed object permits insights into the definition, valuation, and canonization of contemporary opera near the end of the Third Reich.