Those Who Forget The Past. The Question of Anti-Semitism

Iso artikkelikokoelma antisemitismistä. Random House 2004. Pehmeäkantinen, 649 sivua.

After the horrors of World War II, people everywhere believed that it could never happen again, but today the evidence is unmistakable that anti-Semitism is dramatically on the rise once more. The torching of European synagogues, suicide terror in Israel, the relentless comparison of the Israelis to Nazis, the paranoid post–September 11 Internet-bred conspiracy theories, the Holocaust-denial literature spreading throughout the Arab world, the calumny and violence erupting on American college campuses: Suddenly, a new anti-Semitism has become widespread, even acceptable to some.

In this chilling and important new book, Ron Rosenbaum, author of the highly praised Explaining Hitler, brings together a collection of powerful essays about the origin and nature of the new anti-Semitism. Paul Berman, Marie Brenner, David Brooks, Harold Evans, Todd Gitlin, Jeffrey Goldberg, Bernard Lewis, David Mamet, Amos Oz, Cynthia Ozick, Frank Rich, Jonathan Rosen, Edward Said, Judith Shulevitz, Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Toobin, and Robert Wistrich are among the distinguished writers and intellectuals who grapple with painful questions: Why now? What is—or isn’t—new? Is a second Holocaust possible, this time in the Middle East? How does anti-Semitism differ from anti-Zionism?

These are issues too dangerous to ignore, too pressing to deny. Those Who Forget the Past is an essential volume for understanding the new bigotry of the twenty-first century.

Repeated attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in France, the constant drumbeat of slanders against Jews in the Arab media, and even the unveiling of swastikas at anti-Israel demonstrations on American college campuses all document a recent resurgence of anti-Semitism. But this anthology is hardly redundant. Rosenbaum, who examined efforts to "explain" evil in Explaining Hitler (1998), has compiled a cross section of outstanding, thought-provoking, and deeply disturbing articles and essays on the revival (or resurfacing) of the "longest hatred." Jeffrey Goldberg looks behind the moderate facade to uncover the depth of Jew hatred in Mubarak's Egypt. Bernard Lewis analyzes the links between European and Arabic anti-Semitism. Tariq Ramadan offers a hopeful piece that pleads for tolerance, respect, and interreligious dialogue. Cynthia Ozick provides devastating examples of how the "big lie" technique is used to demonize Israel (of course, under the guise of sympathy for the Palestinian people). This is an important and vital contribution to efforts to comprehend what is new and what is the same in this ancient virus of ignorance and hatred. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

Something has changed.

After the horrors of World War II, people everywhere believed that it could never happen again, but today the evidence is unmistakable that anti-Semitism is dramatically on the rise once more. The torching of European synagogues, suicide terror in Israel, the relentless comparison of the Israelis to Nazis, the paranoid post September 11 Internet-bred conspiracy theories, the Holocaust-denial literature spreading throughout the Arab world, the calumny and violence erupting on American college campuses: Suddenly, a new anti-Semitism has become widespread, even acceptable to some.

In this chilling and important new book, Ron Rosenbaum, author of the highly praised Explaining Hitler, brings together a collection of powerful essays about the origin and nature of the new anti-Semitism. Paul Berman, Marie Brenner, David Brooks, Harold Evans, Todd Gitlin, Jeffrey Goldberg, Bernard Lewis, David Mamet, Amos Oz, Cynthia Ozick, Frank Rich, Jonathan Rosen, Edward Said, Judith Shulevitz, Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Toobin, and Robert Wistrich are among the distinguished writers and intellectuals who grapple with painful questions: Why now? What is or isn t new? Is a second Holocaust possible, this time in the Middle East? How does anti-Semitism differ from anti-Zionism?

These are issues too dangerous to ignore, too pressing to deny. Those Who Forget the Past is an essential volume for understanding the new bigotry of the twenty-first century.

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