Why has anti-Semitism become a perennial controversy that keeps erupting like a semi-active volcano on global media headlines? The latest instance is of the presidents of three prestigious American Universities known for their liberal ethos—Harvard, Penn and MIT—who recently faced intense Congressional interrogation over outbreaks of antisemitism across US campuses since the October 2022 flare-up of Israel-Hamas hostilities.
Who are Semites?
Before dealing with the anti-Semitism phenomenon, let us understand who Semites are and what their history is. Also why anti-Jewish sentiment is considered anti-Semitism but anti-Arab is not considered so.
The ancient Israelites are considered original Semites, descending from the biblical patriarch Abraham. Moses is seen as their key religious leader, said to have united and freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery circa the 13th century BCE. Over centuries, the Israelites established two Biblical Jewish kingdoms centred around Jerusalem, with rulers like the heroic King David and the wise King Solomon.
The original Semites spoke related Semitic languages and inhabited the Middle East and North Africa. Key ancient Semitic cultures and figures include:
- Akkadians: Semitic civilization centred in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq/Syria). The Akkadian Empire reigned 2334-2154 BCE under Sargon the Great.
- Phoenicians: The Phoenician civilization emerged around 3200 BCE in the Levant region (eastern Mediterranean). As renowned ancient sea traders, the Phoenicians spread across the Mediterranean, establishing key ports and trade networks.
- Assyrians: The ancient Assyrians formed a powerful civilization in Upper Mesopotamia, growing over the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE into a warlike empire dominating the Middle East under rulers like Tiglath-Pileser I and Sargon II.
- Babylonians: Babylonian civilization emerged centred on Lower Mesopotamia, inheriting earlier Akkadian/Sumerian traditions. The Babylonians most famously constructed the ziggurat of Etemenanki of Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign 605-562 BCE. The ziggurat was a stepped pyramidal temple tower characteristic of major Mesopotamian cities between around 2200 BCE and 500 BCE. Constructed using a mud brick core and baked brick exterior, the tower had no internal rooms. Ziggurats were typically square or rectangular at the base, averaging about 170 feet (50 meters) square or 125 by 170 feet (40 by 50 meters). Roughly 25 ziggurats have been discovered, with equal numbers originating from the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations.
Overall, the long interwoven histories of ancient and modern Semitic peoples remain complex. While the semantics focus heavily on Jews now, we must understand these connections through balanced, ethical approaches, accounting for all groups affected across history.
Arabs and Jews
In ancient times, both Arabs and Jews traced their ancestral origins back to the Biblical patriarch Abraham. Arabs consider their forefather to be Abraham’s son, Ishmael, by the Egyptian slave Hagar. The Jewish people descend from Isaac, who was Abraham’s son by his wife Sarah. Despite these early connections, Arabs and Jews largely developed separately for centuries.
Jews had ancient kingdoms centred in the Levant region but faced conquest first by Babylon and then by Rome. After Rome adopted Christianity, Jews became marginalised as a religious minority, facing periodic persecution. As Christianity took hold across the Middle East and North Africa, many Jewish communities assimilated into the dominant Arab society. Arabic-speaking Jewish scholars, like Maimonides, gained influence in the medieval Islamic world during its Golden Age.
In the 7th century CE, Islamic Arab armies emerged from the Arabian peninsula led by the Prophet Muhammad. They quickly conquered the Middle East and North Africa, including areas that had remained predominantly Jewish like Palestine. Over the following centuries, most Jews adopted Arabic language and culture.
Under early Muslim rule, Jewish people were considered dhimmis, a protected minority, although facing certain restrictions and extra taxes. While there were sporadic outbreaks of violence, Jewish communities generally flourished culturally and economically during the early Islamic period. There was substantial interfaith cooperation and coexistence.
During the 11th century under caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, however, Jews faced heightened persecution like forced conversions or property confiscation. Such repression continued periodically under later Muslim rulers. Things deteriorated substantially during the Crusades when both Jews and Muslims were massacred by Crusader armies moving through the region.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, tensions heightened over the issue of Jewish settlement in Ottoman and then British Palestine and the creation of a Jewish national homeland there. This conflict ultimately resulted in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War following Israeli independence. It launched over a century of ongoing struggle between Arab states and Palestinian nationalist groups against the state of Israel. The long history of relatively peaceful coexistence gave way to protracted, violent conflict in the modern era. Efforts continue to broker peace.
Anti-Semitism in the West
Jews faced extensive persecution and antisemitism in Western countries, especially in Europe, over many centuries. Some key examples include:
In medieval Europe, antisemitism was widespread based on religious grounds. Myths accusing Jews of killing Christ, host desecration, well poisoning and “blood libel” led Catholic mobs, and those inspired during the Crusades to attack Jewish communities. Thousands of Jews were massacred, especially during the Black Death. Jews faced expulsions from England, France and Spain during the 13th-15th centuries.
In Imperial Russia, Jews were restricted to living in the Pale of Settlement and endured pogroms, resulting in thousands killed, especially in the 19th century. Antisemitic persecution increased under the Czar following the assassination of Alexander II.
In the late 19th century, fake antisemitic conspiracy theories like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion falsely accused Jews of plotting global domination. This fuelled racial antisemitism across Europe.
In Germany, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler engaged in virulent, racist antisemitic propaganda. After taking power in 1933, Hitler’s regime enacted the Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews of rights. Violence against Jews escalated through events like Kristallnacht, then expanded into a horrifying, industrial genocide, killing 6 million Jews across Europe.
In the United States, while founding ideals promoted religious tolerance, antisemitism emerged in forms like people barring Jews from clubs, hotels and universities. The lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 and the refusal to accept a ship of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler exemplified American antisemitism early on. Today, antisemitic incidents still occur, but decreasing overall as tolerance expands.
In Western countries, Jews endured everything from legal restrictions to mob violence to attempted genocide based on virulent antisemitism emerging out of Christianity and then morphing into racial hatred in the modern era in Europe. More acceptance emerged slowly in the 20th century. In recent years, there have been controversies regarding anti-Semitism on the campuses of some prestigious American universities.
1) Harvard University: In 2020, a Harvard student group calling itself the Palestine Solidarity Committee held an event featuring a speaker who compared Zionists to Nazis and defended calls for Israel’s destruction. The event sparked outrage from Jewish students and alumni. Harvard conducted a review and the student organisers apologised for hosting antisemitic content. But some, like Alan Dershowitz, alleged institutional anti-Semitism among certain student groups and faculty persists.
2) New York University (NYU): In April 2022, an NYU dorm resident received antisemitic texts from another student. NYU’s President condemned the messages amid a rise of campus antisemitism nationwide. Still, Jewish students noted administrators declined meeting requests to address their safety concerns fully prior.
3) University of Southern California (USC): A student leader in 2020 was removed after questioning whether a student could “maintain an impartial view” for their council position because they were Jewish and involved in campus Jewish groups. The comments renewed scrutiny of previous allegations that the USC student government maintained institutional bias against pro-Israel Jewish students.
Overall, these controversies sparked tensions on these elite campuses regarding perceptions of unchecked anti-Semitism. Administrators condemned incidents, but disagreements simmer over the pervasiveness of anti-Jewish bias within campus cultures and student organisations. Balancing free speech, and inclusion and combating bigotry remains an evolving challenge.
Anti-Jewish sentiment has deep historical roots and remains persistent in parts of Europe and the United States today. However, it is complex, with signs of gradual change towards more tolerance as well. Some relevant details:
In Europe, anti-Semitism emerged early on within Christian-majority societies. Myths falsely accusing Jews of crimes like “blood libel” or blaming them collectively for Jesus’ death fuelled periodic mob violence for centuries. By the 20th century, these transformed into racist conspiracy theories like Nazism, leading to the Holocaust genocide across Europe. So the roots run deep.
De-Nazification Efforts
Post-WWII de-Nazification efforts combated some explicit antisemitism in public spheres. But implicit bias and neo-Nazi sentiments never fully disappeared in sections of European society and re-surged with events like the 2015 Paris Kosher market attack. Surveys indicate some decline more recently in overt antisemitic views among European populations, especially younger demographics. However, incidents still occur and memories of WWII atrocities linger culturally.
In the US, less pronounced but still very damaging legacies of early anti-Jewish discrimination left impacts. For decades, Jews faced restrictions like being barred from clubs, hotels and universities with notions they didn’t fully fit white Christian American identity. High-profile incidents like the Leo Frank lynching case reinforced perceptions of them as perpetual outsiders. This fuelled lasting insinuations about divided national loyalties.
However, post-WWII shifts towards meritocracy, growing diversity and expanded civil rights protection helped foster gradual mainstream acceptance of American Jewish identity today, especially among younger generations, based on recent surveys. Still, fringe nativist groups prone to various racism/antisemitism remain active with incidents reported annually from vandalism to online trolling campaigns. It likely requires sustained, concerted efforts across schools, media, etc. to completely counterbalance centuries-long legacies at societal levels. But positive trends exist.
Why Jews Were Hated
While historically the Jewish people have endured tremendous persecution, to promote balanced discourse, there are instances in history where Jewish individuals or groups have also perpetrated harmful acts or exploitation against others. Some examples include:
As early financiers and moneylenders in Medieval Europe, several Jewish businessmen engaged in predatory lending practices that, while common across the industry, increased anti-Semitic backlash when peasants blamed all Jews collectively for abusive high-interest loans. However, context is vital, as lending was one of the few professions open to Jews who faced exclusion from guilds, land ownership and many occupations.
Some Zionist factions in British Palestine following WWII, most notably the Irgun and Lehi paramilitary groups, employed highly violent militant tactics. This included bombings that killed hundreds of Arab civilians along with British authorities before Israeli independence. Their actions tainted early Israeli state formation in the eyes of the Arab world.
More recently, examples persist of Israeli politicians making extremist remarks promoting prejudice or harmful policies against Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.
Vocal human rights organisations counter the Israeli government’s controversial occupation and settlement policies in Palestinian territories from a place of conscience, law and ethics. And nobody can ignore what has been done to the hapless people of Gaza.
Arabs are Semites too
Why violence – verbal or physical – against Jews, and not Arabs, is labelled anti-semitism? Aren’t the reasons more political than historical?
Well, anti-Semitism is specifically associated with prejudice or discrimination against Jewish people, not Arabs or other Semitic peoples, for a few reasons:
1. History of the term: The term "anti-Semitism" was coined in 1879 by German journalist Wilhelm Marr to refer specifically to anti-Jewish racism. It was never intended to apply to discrimination against other Semitic peoples like Arabs.
2. Semantics: While Arabs, Assyrians, and other groups are technically also Semites ethnically, in common usage "Semitic" refers primarily to Jews. This is likely because Jews have faced the longest history of prejudice and discrimination among Semitic groups.
3. Uniqueness of anti-Jewish racism: Anti-Semitism targeting Jews has some unique elements that set it apart from discrimination against other ethnic or religious groups, such as conspiracy theories about global Jewish control. These unique forms of anti-Jewish racism have come to define what anti-Semitism refers to.
4. Accepted usage: Leading scholars on racism and both Jewish and Arab advocacy groups accept that "anti-Semitism" refers specifically to anti-Jewish attitudes and not to discrimination against Arabs or other Semitic groups. This accepted usage precedence further solidifies the term's meaning.
So, history, semantics, the uniqueness of anti-Jewish racism, and widely accepted usage all contribute to anti-Semitism being identified with hostility targeting Jews rather than blanket discrimination against all Semitic peoples. The term has never applied equally to atrocities against Arabs or other groups.
Vagaries of historical processes?
Well, that’s how it is.
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