Though it, of course, started in the immediate aftermath of the Shoah, I feel we're watching a position I call Judeo-Nihilism really take hold. It's a big shift from the community sentiment when I was young. Yeah, antisemitism was a problem, but the perception (liberal Jews in the US) was that it would get better, that the world might be a bit jumpy about Israel stuff, but we might finally see the end of the worst antisemitism in our lifetime.
This sentiment has been building, quietly, over the last half century though. The sentiment that there's no hope. That they'll never change. That the gentiles will never accept Jews as equals and that it's not worth it to try to change their minds.
The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz - Zvi Rex
This sentiment, the basis of secondary antisemitism, has never felt truer. Every essay on the use and misuse of Holocaust memory seems to say that Jews misuse it in their defense and everyone should be allowed to use it as they please. Except the Jews.
And what are the essays and books we all find ourselves reaching for to explain our situation? To discuss where we are? Just listing the titles feels like we're giving up:
Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition
The Holocaust Was the Fulfillment of Western Civilization
We're watching money that had been going into fighting antisemitism get rerouted to other things (usually still from and to Jewish groups).
We're watching our Synagogues close themselves up, hire more security.
We've had decades of pointing to Leftist antisemitism and that it's all growing, and we've had two and a half years of it skyrocketing, of right wing antisemitism taking over the mainstream discourse. We've had Hasan Piker and Nick Fuentes, polls watching the younger generations get more antisemitic to the point where it feels like Millennials might be the low water mark, the spot where antisemitism hit its lowest point before regression to the mean.
We've spent most of the last century out and about, fighting for causes, showing solidarity, working for a better world for everyone. And I wonder if that's ending. I can't blame other Jews for withdrawing, for getting more insular, for wanting to only interact with people who won't call you a kike or a zio if they decide you aren't one of the good ones.
So what do I think is going to change? More security, more 'you must be a member' before you can do things at a synagogue. A partial withdrawal from civil society. For example, though Galindo lost, thankfully, if Platner wins the primary, then I expect Jewish donations to the Dems to start declining. They may already but certain exceptions certainly exist.
And, while on the topic of the world trying to force Jews back into dhimmitude and the sufferance of European gentiles. We're not doing that. We'll end up with more Israelis, and fewer Jewish political donations.
Anyway, this has been rambly, just trying to get this thought down. Any additions? Links to more essays/books/whatever welcome.
