Comments on: Antisemitism and the mythological Jew…writes Chuck Volpe

By: Alexandra Landau

Alexandra Landau — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 01:09:36 +0000

Dear Chuck,

I have very much enjoyed reading your article and do agree very much with your comments. I have moved to Australia from Vienna, Austria – my home town, you can imagine that there we are very much exposed to this sickening outlook about our race. Now living in Hobart since beginning of June I am looking for a new Jewish community in Tasmania. I was a member of B’Nai Brit living in Melbourne.
Hope to hear from you again soon

Shalom

Alexandra

By: Ron Jontof-Hutter

Ron Jontof-Hutter — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:49:55 +0000

Hi Chuck, nice surprise to hear from you after so many decades!
You are right about taking a new approach to combating antisemitism. Interfaith meetings have not had great results. I am sometimes told that Nostra Aetate which exonerated Jews as a people from the death of Jesus, has been the “solution.” However, apart from it not really making much difference, it does not apply to the non-Catholic churches. It also does not address the antisemitism of European culture and folklore found in art, literature, opera, music, fairy tales and of course politics including the Shoah, AFTER the Enlightenment. The basis of antisemitism is theological much of which evolved from Church founder Augustine. His insistence that Jews be forever pariahs, has never been repudiated. That should be the point of departure as it also involves Israel.
Ron Jontof-Hutter author of the satire on antisemitism, “The trombone man:tales of a misogynist”

By: Marta Mikey Frid

Marta Mikey Frid — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:34:38 +0000

Anti-Semitism is not a disease. By calling it a mental disorder we exempt its perpetrators from their responsibility for their hideous crimes There is no basis for designating it as a pathology. We have yet to find a scientific psychiatry that could provide empirical evidence to such a claim. It is the product of a political ideology masking itself as a religion in order to legitimate its economic interests. Its impulse is nothing more than the raw greed for power, and the ‘Fear of the Enemy” it deems necessary to mobilize toward the attainment and defence of that purpose.

By: Shirley Zauer

Shirley Zauer — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 09:41:55 +0000

While I agree with the thrust of this well-written treatise on anti-Semitism, I have always been puzzled by the ubiquitous claim that anti-Semitism is a danger to Western civilisation. Why is it? It seems to me, perhaps naively, that it is a direct danger only to the Jews and to the State of Israel. The West seems to be just fine, other than the imminent danger of it being enveloped by determined Islamism.