The Current Rise in Antisemitism
The Current Rise in Antisemitism
by: Sonja Swettenham
Embedded Files
TW: Deals with extreme antisemitism, genocide, hate speech, dehumanization, and abuse.
“We were loaded onto trains and we were taken away to - we didn’t know where . . . we survived together.” Elli Friedmann was born in 1931 in Samorin, Czechoslovakia. She grew up in a modest, religious home with her parents and her brother, Armin. Her father owned a general store, and in his free time, he would study the Talmud (a compilation of rabbinic discussions about Jewish law). They attended synagogue on Sabbath and holiday.
When Elli was 13, the Nazis occupied her village and she and her family were taken to a Ghetto in another the nearby town. Her father was taken to a forced labour camp, after which she, her mother, and Armin were taken to Auschwitz. Elli and her mother were separated from Armin, and were later transferred to another work camp named Plaszow, then returned back to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, Elli saved her mother from being taken to the infirmary (for which weak workers were often selected to be killed), before they were transferred once again to a camp in the German town of Augsburg, where they were forced to make parts for the German air force. Conditions in Augsburg, while still horrible, were far from the terrors of Auschwitz and Plaszow. The women at the camp there were able to secretly observe Jewish traditions: for example, they used smuggled oil, potato rations, and threads from their blankets to make candles to observe the Sabbath and Chanukah. They felt hope from these small acts of resistance. As the Allies were approaching Augsbourg, the Nazis transferred Elli and her mother to a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp.
Throughout this whole period (about a year), Elli’s family endured constant fear, malnutrition, abuse and dehumanization. Miraculously, they found Armin at Dachau, and after three weeks, were again forced onto trains. They did not know their destination, but on April 30, 1945, the trains cars opened and the prisoners were met by American liberators.
Elli, Armin, and their mother returned to their hometown of Samorin to find their house stripped of their belongings, and to discover that Mr. Friedmann had died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. To escape the sorrow, the Friedmanns moved to the United States. Elli came to New York City at 20 years old and went to college, where she studied Jewish history. She eventually became a history professor and has written several books about her experiences during and after the Holocaust. She is 91 years old today, and has a very large family, with several grandchildren. (Museum of Jewish Heritage)
Elli’s is the story of one of millions of Jewish people who experienced the Holocaust, the largest genocide in history, in which six million Jews (two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe at the time) were murdered by the Nazis. While the Holocaust is the most extreme example of antisemitism, discrimination against the Jewish people has been occurring for over 2000 years and continues today.
Anti-Jewish behaviours and actions pre-dated Christianity (the struggles of the Jews, as documented in the Torah, demonstrate various sufferings they endured). That said, the most visceral antisemitic hatred is arguably rooted in the non-acceptance by the Jewish people of Jesus (who was himself Jewish) as the Jewish “Messiah” - the saviour that would bring an age of peace - foretold by Jewish scriptures. According to the New Testament (Christian scriptures that chronicle the life of Christ), Jesus was indeed the Messiah and was crucified by Roman authorities at the urging of the Jewish community (Matthew 27:25). The crucifixion and the casting of blame in the New Testament provided the basis for deep racial and religious antisemitism. Although the Roman Catholic Church renounced the idea that the Jewish people were responsible for Jesus’ death, this did not occur until after the Holocaust: centuries after antisemitism had developed deep roots.
After the crucifixion, Roman armies destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Jews were exiled and dispersed across the globe. By the 400s, Christianity was the primary religion in the Roman Empire. As Christianity became more powerful throughout Europe, antisemitism grew and there was a sense (backed by many Church laws) that Judaism was evil and that Jewish people should be marginalized. Jews were often denied citizenship and the right to own land, and prevented from holding certain jobs (for example, in government and the military), because they were thought to be clannish and disloyal outsiders. As they were excluded from many professions, Jewish people participated in businesses that Christians were reluctant to take up because of religious rules (e.g. money-lending and banking). This in turn led to the antisemitic myth that Jewish people control finances of countries and the world – a trope that was particularly common in the 20th century and which is now being cited again by right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Other antisemitic actions and myths that began in the middle ages are still current today. For example, Jewish people were first forced to wear yellow stars in the 12th century, as they were later by the Nazis. Moreover, in the 13th century, the completely unfounded myth that Jewish people murdered Christian children to obtain their blood at Passover (referred to as the blood libel) was spread. Many antisemitic tropes and unfounded myths emerged centuries ago that are still current today in antisemitic expression. (Berenbaum)
Periods of antisemitic violence have occurred in Europe over centuries. Massacres of Jews occurred in France and in what is now Germany during the Crusades. In the 12th century, after the Roman Catholic monarchs overthrew Islamic rulers (who had ruled Spain with tolerance and inclusion, and had welcomed collaboration with Jewish thinkers), the Spanish Inquisition was initiated, as the Catholic Church set out to uproot and punish heresy. This led to approximately 300,000 Jews fleeing, largely to Eastern Europe (where, over time, they were also segregated and persecuted) and Turkey. Jews who remained in Spain were forced to convert to Christianity or risk being killed. Antisemitism was also exhibited by the early fathers of Protestantism (such as Martin Luther, in Germany) – who, like Roman Catholics – accused Jews of murdering Jesus. These prejudices among Protestants influenced not only the thinking of Protestants in Germany, but even in North America.
Antisemitic lies continued to circulate throughout Europe in the first half of the 20th century. The desperation of Germans after their defeat in WWI led to Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power. Hitler took advantage of people’s anguish and discontent to gain popularity by blaming Jewish people for German misfortunes. He claimed that Jews were evil and had caused all of the issues that “pure,” Aryan people had to endure. Propaganda allowed him to spread his lies. (The picture to the right reads “He is to blame for the war”). As WWII progressed, the Holocaust was executed by the Nazis. (“Why the Jews: History of Antisemitism.”)
There is an astounding lack of knowledge about the Holocaust among young people. In 2020, an American survey of 11,000 Americans across all 50 states, aged 18 - 39 years old, was taken. It found that 10% of them had never even heard the word Holocaust. 63% of they survey-takers did not know the number of Jews who had been killed in the Holocaust, and nearly 50% of them could not name one concentration camp. (Ramgopal)
Aside from the lack of knowledge about the Holocaust, there are shocking statistics regarding how many people believe it actually happened. 7% of the survey-takers were not sure if it occurred, and 3% denied that it happened. More surprisingly, 11% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust. (Ramgopal) On a global level, only 54% of people in the world had heard about the Holocaust in 2014, and 32.5% of people believed that facts about the Holocaust have been distorted. (Green)
In conjunction with these staggering statistics, there has been a significant rise in antisemitic incidents and occurrences recently. According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2021 was the highest year on record for reports of violence, harassment, and vandalism directed against Jewish people. One such example occurred when two young Orthodox Jewish boys were playing outside of their house in California and were shot with red paintballs.
General social unrest and challenging economic conditions have historically led to an increase in antisemitic incidents, in large part due to conspiracy theories surrounding Jewish people’shaving tremendous societal and economic power. The uncertainty and challenges of today’s post-Covid world and the polarization of political views in Western democracies seems to be creating conditions in which antisemitism is again on the rise
Additionally, when influential people openly express antisemitic views, it can lead to large increases in antisemitism in the population at large. For example, musician Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), an outspoken Holocaust denier, has recently been making widescale antisemitic remarks on his social media. This included a tweet from November declaring that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” To make matters worse, he very recently did an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in which Ye denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler, saying “I see good things about Hitler, also . . . [the Nazis] did good things, too. We gotta stop dissing the Nazis all the time.” Ye has 31.5 million Twitter followers, while there are only 14.8 million Jewish people in the world. Even more troubling, Ye idolizes former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, and dined with him a month ago. (Simpson)
The rise of antisemitism has been evident in Canada as well, in particular at some Ontario universities over the past few years. In 2018, on the University of Guelph campus, posters were erected condeming Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQ students. Moreover, at the University of Toronto, in 2018, a Jewish student emailed several professors to discuss with them the potential of pursuing a PhD with a focus on Middle Eastern studies. In response, a professor accused him of being an agent of the Israeli government. At York University, a multicultural parade was held in early 2020 to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which included a student wearing a shirt that read “anti-Zionist vibes only.” (“Ontario Antisemitism: An Overview”)
Antisemitic hate speech and symbols - as well as other racist slurs - have also grown disturbingly frequent across the country. For example, former leader of the Green Party Annamie Paul, who is Jewish and Black, was participating in an online leadership debate in 2020, when she received comments that called her a “N****r” and “F**king Jew” over chat. Also in 2020, Toronto’s Village Shul, a Jewish learning centre, held a virtual Kiddush (blessing for holidays and sabbaths) that was suddenly interrupted by several “Zoombombers,” shouting antisemitic slurs over the call. One of them exclaimed “Hitler should have killed you all.” (“Ontario Antisemitism: An Overview.”)
Here in Ottawa, during the Freedom Convoy in early 2022, truckers and protesters proudly displayed swastikas and Confederate flags across the country and in the heart of the capital. (Liles)
Just last month, the Government of Ontario promoted strengthened Holocaust education in response to increasing antisemitism. In its News Release detailing the initiative, it noted Statistics Canada data that hate crimes against Jewish people had risen by 47% in 2021 and that Jewish Canadians were the largest target of Canadian hate crimes. (“Ontario Strengthening Holocaust Education to Counter Rising Antisemitism”)
Even within our own school community, the OCDSB, antisemitism has arisen at school board proceedings. In an email from Director of Education Camille Williams-Taylor from Friday, December 9th, students were updated on “vile, antisemitic statements and messages targeted at Trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth. Many of these statements have included antisemitic slurs, epithets, threats of harm, aggression, and in some cases, illegal activity.” Nili Kaplan-Myrth is a Canadian-Jewish physician in Ottawa who was elected as an OCDSB trustee this past October.
After a public discussion was held regarding the possibility of returning to a temporary mask requirement at the OCDSB, the speakers, including Kaplan-Myrth, were disrupted repeatedly by hecklers and the police had to evacuate the building to remove the crowd. Afterward, Kaplan-Myrth’s email inbox and voicemail were filled with “horrible, antisemitic, threatening messages,” calling her a “ki–,” “f–king c–t,” and that she “deserve[s] the hate [she] get[s].” (Kaplan-Myrth) While public debate on the issue is warranted and healthy, attempts to quash debate through intimidation and hate speech is not.
Antisemitism must, like all forms of discrimination and hatred, be quashed. We have seen the violence and death it has caused – from the Spanish Inquistion, to pogroms, to Nazi death camps, to recent synagogue attacks – and we must act responsibly to speak out against it. To help combat antisemitism, one can educate themselves by reading current articles on antisemitic occurrences and reading or listening to accounts of Holocaust survivors; speaking out against antisemitic rhetoric; and supporting Jewish communities in Canada and around the world.
If you would like to learn more about combating antisemitism, go here: ANTI-SEMITISM: 90 WAYS YOU CAN RESPOND
If you would like to read more memoirs of the Holocaust, consider these books: The Imperative to Witness: Memoirs by Survivors of Auschwitz | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
To report a hate-motivated incident in Ottawa, you may report it by calling 613-236-1222, pressing 1 for English, then 2 to connect to the Communications centre. One may also file a report online. (Ottawa Police)
*Three more that are not listed that I would recommend are Elie Wiesel’s Night, Lily Ebert and Dov Forman’s Lily’s Promise, and The Diary of Anne Frank*
Works Cited
Berenbaum, Michael. “Anti-Semitism | History, Facts, & Examples | Britannica.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 November 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/anti-Semitism. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. “FSWC.” FSWC, https://www.friendsofsimonwiesenthalcenter.com/antisemitism/ontario. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Government of Ontario. “Ontario Strengthening Holocaust Education to Counter Rising Antisemitism.” Ontario Government, 9 November 2022, https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002465/ontario-strengthening-holocaust-education-to-counter-rising-antisemitism. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Green, Emma. “The World is Full of Holocaust Deniers.” The Atlantic, 14 May 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/the-world-is-full- of-holocaust-deniers/370870/. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Kaplan-Myrth, Nili. “Kaplan-Myrth: Abuse is not an argument. Let's choose not to accept incivility.” Ottawa Citizen, 5 December 2022, https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/kaplan-myrth-abuse-is-not-an-argument-lets-choose-not-to-accept-incivility. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Liles, Jordan. “Swastikas and Confederate Flags Seen at Canada's 'Freedom Convoy.'” Snopes, 17 February 2022, https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/02/17/swastikas-canada-freedom-convoy/. Accessed 19 December.
Museum of Jewish Heritage. “Elli’s Story.” Museum of Jewish Heritage Holocaust Curriculum, https://education.mjhnyc.org/survivor-stories/elli/. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Ottawa Police. “Hate Motivated Incidents.” Ottawa Police Service, https://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/who-we-are/hate-motivated-incidents.aspx. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Ramgopal, Kit. “Survey finds 'shocking' lack of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z.” NBC News, 16 September 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/survey-finds-shocking-lack-holocaust-knowledge-among-millennials-gen-z-n1240031. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Simpson, Katie. “As Kanye West praises Hitler, advocates fear antisemitism is going mainstream.” CBC, 1 December 2022, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/antisemitism-mainsteam-kanye-podcast-1.6671015. Accessed 19 December 2022.
Page updated
Report abuse