Financial crisis brings out the anti-semites

It never fails. Whenever there is a financial crisis or trading scandal in the stock markets, the anti-Semites come out of the woodwork.  The classic stereotype of the Jewish Shylock out to have his Christian pound of flesh dies very hard, if at all.  The Jew as economic opportunist sucking the financial life-blood out of a nation or of the whole world is continually reborn.

So the crude anti-Semitic postings at extremist or financial websites and comment boards, and at Internet blogs available for viewing over the past couple of weeks, should not come as a total surprise. Still, I have to admit being dismayed to see these lasting age-old canards about Jews and money finding fresh outlet. 

ADL at 95: Battling old hatreds in new forms

As the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Anti-Defamation League approaches on July 10th, I can't help but think that its founder, Sigmund Livingston, probably would have wished we had not reached this milestone. After all, when you create an organization with the aim of ending anti-Semitism and seeking to erase bigotry in all its forms, you can't help but want to achieve your goal and put yourself out of business.

The hard realist in me tells me that Livingston, a Chicago lawyer and nobody's fool, likely knew that ADL was to be his life's work - and that it would take generations beyond his own to come to the end of a difficult road. Today, more than 60 years after World War II and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, we know only too well that not only did anti-Semitism not end in the ashes of that global war stamped with Hitler's genocidal Jew-hatred, but that a new if not improved kind of Jew-hate has replaced it.

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Mearsheimer and Walt in Israel

The title of the event is: "The Israel Lobby - Helping or Hurting Israel?" It will take place at Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv on Thursday, June 12. The presenters are American professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

A few preliminary comments are in order. Israel is truly a democratic country where freedom of expression is a prized value, not something to pay lip service to. So the very fact that two professors who for several years have been lambasting Israel and American Jews all over the world are welcomed to Israel, speaks volumes.

Secondly, the subject of the Israel lobby and its impact in America is a legitimate matter for examination. It is always helpful to take a look at the institutions of Israel and American Jews and to ask questions about how they operate and their value to the Jewish State.

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