ANTISEMITISM: Here and Now.

AuthorSmith, Anthony
PositionBook review

ANTISEMITISM: Here and Now

Author. Deborah Lipstadt

Published by: Scribe, Melbourne, 2019, 288pp, $32.99.

In the words of Deborah Lipstadt, antisemitism is 'back', but she hastens to add 'I am not sure it ever went away'. It is now the case that in parts of Western Europe, Jews do not feel safe to wear a yarmulke in public, while last year's shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue seems to be emblematic of growing antisemitic incidents in the United States.

Professor Lipstadt is well placed to write this book. After the publication of her 1994 book Denying the Holocaust, infamous Holocaust denier David Irving attempted to bring a legal case against her and her publisher under English libel law. Irving not only lost the case, and was bankrupted, but also was proven to have willingly falsified historical evidence to suit his political bent. (This was the subject of the 2016 movie Denial, with actress Rachel Weisz playing Lipstadt.) Her fundamental point (reiterated clearly in the movie) has been that Holocaust denial is generally the product of an underlying worldview, which is often unstated--either as the anti-semitism of the extreme right or the desire to undermine the legitimacy of Israel's right to exist. The Holocaust is, after all, one of the best documented atrocities in history. In trials in the immediate post-war period, no Nazi defendant ever tried to deny it happened --they were either 'following orders' or had 'no involvement'. Denial, then, is a distortion to fit a hidden political agenda.

One question that frequently arises around this topic is why this form of ancient hatred has persisted for at least two millennia. Lipstadt does not exacdy attempt an answer to this in a systematic or concerted way. There are passing references to (mis) perceptions of the global control of wealth, religious prejudice in the history of Christianity and, more recendy, the Palestinian situation. Lipstadt, though, is not particularly interested in further extrapolation on what is essentially an 'irrational' passion. As the book notes, even if one accepted in pre-war Germany that Jews controlled the banks (a myth, as it happens), it is still an illogical step to full-blown anti-semitism against an entire people group. Lipstadt is firm on the point that this anti-semitism has nothing to do with what Jews have ever done.

Thought-provoking Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari (21 Lessons for the 21st Century, 2018) observes that there is a tendency amongst...

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