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rangerrebew

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Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« on: October 20, 2013, 10:23:27 am »
Rising Tide of Hate for European Jews


Jonathan S. Tobin   | @tobincommentary    10.16.2013 - 7:00 PM 



Earlier this month I wrote about the new Pew Research Center study that detailed the demographic challenges facing an American Jewish community that is losing touch with religion and key elements of Jewish identity. I have a lot more to say about it and the way America’s embrace of Jewry has led to trends that threaten the future of non-Orthodox and especially secular Jews that will be published in the November issue of COMMENTARY’s print edition. But the positive news coming out of their survey focused on the pride felt by most American Jews, even if they were indifferent to core Jewish values and not raising or educating their children to carry on Jewish tradition and faith. At the heart of the comfort felt by American Jews is the fact that few had experienced even the mildest forms of anti-Semitism in the form of a social snub let alone violence.

But that is not the case with European Jewry.

As a survey of European Jews conducted by the European Union reveals, a large percentage of them are not only conscious of anti-Semitism but live their lives in such a way as to try to avoid being the victims of anti-Semitic violence. Across the continent, one in four Jews say they are afraid to wear a kippah or any symbol of Jewish identity in public, figures that rise far higher in countries such as Sweden, France and Belgium. This shows just how dangerous Europe is becoming for Jews and how deadly the revival of Jew hatred around the globe — undoubtedly the worst since the Holocaust — has become.



The poll conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights was taken online over the course of the last year in Sweden, France, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Latvia. It will be published next month but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency obtained the results. Though the fact that it is Internet-based diminishes its credibility and once the raw numbers are released it will have to be given a thorough analysis. But the figures are still startling in that they show just how many Jews are worried about being the victims of anti-Semitic violence.

Among the most disturbing responses is the fact that 49 percent of the 800 respondents (by no means a small sample size) say they “avoid visiting places and wearing symbols that identify them as Jews for fear of anti-Semitism. Forty percent of French Jews and 36 percent of those in Belgium feel the same way.

Also alarming is the fact that, in contrast to the American experience, a majority of Jews in some countries are convinced that anti-Semitism is on the rise.


In Hungary, 91 percent of more than 500 respondents said anti-Semitism has increased in the past five years. The figure was 80 percent or above in France, Belgium and Sweden. In Germany, Italy and Britain, some 60 percent of respondents identified a growth in anti-Semitism, compared to 39 percent in Latvia.

Figures for people who said they had experienced an anti-Semitic incident in the 12 previous months were 30 percent for Hungary, 21 percent for France and 16 percent in Germany.

Just as interesting is the fact that those who have experienced such incidents are almost equally split on the identity of the anti-Semites:


Twenty-seven percent of respondents said the perpetrators were Muslims; 22 percent blamed people with “left-wing views”; and 19 percent said the people responsible had “right-wing views.”

But an even better indicator of the tone of European society is revealed in the question about reporting such incidents:


More than 75 percent of respondents said they do not report anti-Semitic harassment to police and 64 percent said they do not report physical assaults, with 67 percent saying that reporting incidents was either “not worth the effort” or otherwise ineffectual.

If Jews don’t think it is worth it to report even physical assaults, it can only mean one thing: that they believe such behavior is no longer considered beyond the pale or even frowned upon by mainstream European opinion. Given the drumbeat of incitement against Israel, which serves as a thinly veiled excuse for traditional anti-Jewish attitudes, throughout Europe, it is little surprise to see that this is being reflected in such incidents.

After a period during which Jewish life revived there in the aftermath of the Holocaust, it is obvious that much of the continent is in the process of reverting to its pre-World War Two attitudes. At the very least, surveys like this call into question the future of Jews in Europe. At worst, it portends worse to come. But either way, the lack of security for Jews in supposedly enlightened Europe makes the defense of Israel all the more important.


http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/16/rising-tide-of-hate-for-european-jews-anti-semitism/

Topics: anti-Semitism, European Jewry
« Last Edit: October 20, 2013, 10:24:16 am by rangerrebew »

Offline EC

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2013, 10:36:37 am »
Morning ranger! Posting shift change already?

I have noticed a rise in anti Jewish rhetoric recently - especially in France for some reason. Thought it might be the blue car phenomenon - you know, you buy a blue car and suddenly you see only blue cars on the road - but this is deeper, according to the article.

Will dig. Have a good Sunday!
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Offline 240B

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2013, 10:56:28 am »
I have to say that according to my own small personal experience, the vast majority of Jewish hate in America has come from extreme Leftists and secular Jews. (which are often the same thing, btw)
 
Secular Jews believe that attacking Jewish tradition will somehow mollify the Gentiles. They believe that if the Gentiles do not know that Jews exist, there will be no antisemitism, and thus, they will be safe.
 
This belief displays a fatal misunderstanding of the pathological nature of antisemitism. Antisemitism is not rational, and is not based on actions or actual fact. No matter how much American Jews suppress their own Judaism and Judaism in general, antisemitism will still survive. It cannot, from what I have seen, ever be extinguished.
 
I know most American Jews believe that by joining with the enemy, that by joining with the Left, they will somehow be safe. This is folly. It is only a matter of time before Obama and the Left shift from persecuting Christians as they are doing now, to discriminating and attacking Jews, whether they are secular Leftists or not. Antisemitism is not a rational emotion.
 
Secular Jews are attempting to apply logic to an irrational situation. American secular Jews can be as fanatic Left and as antisemitic as they want, when everything comes down to the core, they will still be on the block along with all the others, whether they like it or not. That is the nature of Jewish hate. It has no boundaries.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2013, 12:20:45 pm by 240B »
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline EC

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2013, 11:26:31 am »
Hate may be a strong word, my friend.

I have noticed the difference between Jews in the UK, the USA and Israel. Talking generalities here.

In the UK - seriously, no one cares. I was friends with a guy for years before I noticed he was Jewish - it simply doesn't even blip on the radar. Dad is Jewish - no one cares.

In Israel, there is a huge amount of pride in Jewish culture. My foster daughter (damned long story) is incredibly proud of her heritage. My oldest friend - well, he is a Rabbi and will talk your ear off about the Torah, the diaspora and the homecoming.

America? It is something to be ashamed of.

Just my observations.
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2013, 12:16:45 pm »
I recall several stories from Europe over the last few years about Jewish cemeteries being vandalised. Here's one from East London; another from Paris and Avignon, France, as well as Nice, France.
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Offline EC

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2013, 12:52:42 pm »
Yep. The London one is - hopefully - an outlier due to the rise of the racists. East London is their home nest and they are scum.
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Offline Fishrrman

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2013, 03:22:00 am »
[[ I recall several stories from Europe over the last few years about Jewish cemeteries being vandalised. Here's one from East London; another from Paris and Avignon, France, as well as Nice, France. ]]

Sooner or later, the vandalization of cemetaries will be last on the worry list of European Jews.

It's only a matter of time before muslims take over Western Europe. It may not be for fifty years, it may not be for seventy-five. But SOMEday, muslims will conquer Western Europe -- this time by demographics, if not by the sword.

When that happens, expect nothing less than a second holocaust.

It will probably be more than just Jews next time.
But they'll be at the front of the line....

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2013, 03:33:25 am »
Nothing new @ all.  The Jews have been blamed for everything in Europe for the past 1,000+ years.
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Re: Rising tide of hate for European Jews
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2013, 04:50:38 am »
My wife's grandmother would disagree with you. Violently. I wrote about her once.


Elizabetta

Had a few people ask for the story, so why not. She is long since dead, the incidents in question were 70 years ago and yeah, she is a heroine in our family.

1944 was not a good time to be an Italian. Though Italy had officially surrendered, their former allies were turning the country into a battleground, much to the local resident’s disapproval. It was a rough time. Not much food, cities being bombed or shelled and everywhere the hated grey uniforms and the much more feared black uniforms who were still searching through the ruins of a country for Jews.

With the cities in chaos and most men between the ages of 16 and 50 in hiding or in the hills, life went on. Bombs may fall overnight, but lunch still needs to be prepared the following day. Marketing done, buying what is available. Children need to be fed, washed and taught. Clothes cleaned, ironed and mended. And the people you have been concealing for years need protecting at all costs.

I have seen it. Been in it. A crawl space for the pipe work, maybe 3 foot wide, 10 foot long and 4 foot high, accessed through a small hatch in the kitchen. Go in there and the dark clamps down on you. You feel the walls closing in like fists. It was home to a family of 4 for nearly three years. Later on they had two fully grown adults added, a pilot and a gunner who had managed to eject in time and survive the crash of their aircraft.

Rats in a trap, if they were caught. When they were caught.

Elizabetta was ironing clothes, a minestrone simmering on the stove, when the knock happened. Two ordinary soldiers and an SS officer at the door. Not really looking as such, just wanting light valuables they could loot and some food before they fell back ahead of the Allied advance. Her eldest daughter (my wife’s mother) opened the door and invited them in. Just a little bit too fast. Everyone got into the crawlspace in time, but there was no time to cover the access hatch with the coal bin that usually hid it from view.

One soldier tossing the bedroom looking for valuables. The second and the SS officer came on into the kitchen and saw the hatch. A barked order and the second soldier - a youngish and obviously very scared Italian conscript - opened the hatch and took a look.

"Nothing in here." The kid, he couldn’t have been more than 20, lied. The officer didn’t believe him. Bent down and took a look through the hatch himself. That is when Elizabetta hit him as hard as she could with a hot 6 pound flat iron, right where the neck and the skull join. The officer was dead before he hit the ground with a crash that brought the second soldier running.

He ran right into Elizabetta’s flatiron, swung hard by a seriously pissed off woman. He fell, half concious, and by the time the father of the family and the airmen had climbed out of the crawlspace she had beaten him to death with it. They had to drag her off him. She was in a complete rage. Turned on the remaining soldier who had dropped his weapon and grabbed him, snarling “What do you do here?”

"I just want to go home, Ma’am."

Wrong answer. She slapped him hard. “Are you a man? We have these cockroaches killing us slowly and you want to go home?”

There is a reason that two of the three most feared crime syndicates on Earth come from Italy. Italians not only believe revenge is a sacred duty and trust, they believe it should be carried out as promptly and efficiently as possible. Everyone knows the Sardinian proverb (Not Sicilian, despite what you think you know from the Godfather) “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” You read that and think, well it means to wait to get your revenge. Wrong. They have another proverb too. “Rage burns cold.”

I don’t know who the airmen were. Elizabetta couldn’t remember their names by the time I met her - she could barely remember her own - and much looking through the various archives has not given their names yet.

The family that was there? Well the father, a doctor, came out of retirement to preside at the birth of my wife, her sister and her brother in turn. Their eldest daughter died back in ‘48 - some sort of fever - but the children of the younger daughter we see every single year without fail. They are family. Blood by shared blood.

Jews don’t have saints. But if they did, one family at least would have one called Elizabetta.

---------------------

My own family I love, revere and respect. My wife's family - exactly the same.
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