Don't Avoid `Anti-Semitism'

by Robert B. Goldmann
Special to the Jewish Week

Why did the media speak of a "white supremacist" when James von Brunn shot his way into the Washington Holocaust Museum? His Web site is replete with hate for Jews, denies the Holocaust, speaks of Jews as the source of evil in the world. He should be characterized as a Nazi. That he also hates Afro-Americans and killed an Afro-American security guard does not make his attack on one of the most revered Jewish institutions less anti-Semitic. Yet "anti-Semitism" rarely appeared in the coverage and the comments that followed. Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote a column in which it did not occur at all. Why?

We have become so accustomed to see extremist attacks in black-white terms that the oldest form of discrimination

and persecution - anti-Semitism - has been subordinated to other forms of prejudice The reasons raise questions about the pluralistic tradition that holds the American society together.

It seems that Jews, along with other ethnic groups that have become integrated, do not figure as minorities. "Minorities" used to have numerical and social connotations, but now has acquired a highly charged political meaning related to three large groups - African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Latino immigrants.

With this change, the United States has morphed from a pluralistic society to a multicultural one. Instead of a nation that cultivates common social and political values, we have become a country that celebrates parallel cultures. Instead of fostering the English language that unites us, we find municipal, state and federal governments, as well as many businesses, offering Spanish as an alternative.

We all had reason for pride in electing an Afro-American as president, who during the campaign called for overcoming race and ethnic prejudice. Yet we don't follow his advice. Multiculturalism is a challenge to a society in which immigrants, even as they speak their native languages at home, and practice the customs of their countries of origin, urge their children to speak English.

Because racism has become the dominant evil, von Brunn is identified as a white supremacist, even as he committed a crime against a Jewish museum devoted to the memory of the Holocaust that he denies. Jews have become integrated, and perhaps this is why desecrations of graves in Jewish cemeteries and other anti-Semitic acts get little attention in our media.

Yet they deserve it, if only because this country has a long history of anti-Semitism, from the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 to the difficulties well-qualified Jewish students faced up to the 1950s, when they sought admission to Ivy League colleges, or the absence of Jews in the higher ranks of key industries, such as steel and automobiles, until the naming of Irving Shapiro as head of Dupont made headlines in 1973.

The issue of pluralism versus multiculturalism, of integration versus separateness deserves a national debate. This country has been guilty of racism in its worst forms, but also of prejudice and its consequences against other ethnic groups. We can't make up for past sins, but we should strive to find ways of living together instead of in parallel communities, and we can try not to replace past prejudice with new kinds. The federal government should help in fighting discrimination against any group and support the pluralism that has served the nation well.

Robert B. Goldmann is a journalist and author. His autobiography, "Wayward Threads," was published by Northwestern University Press. He has published articles in the International Herald Tribune, and is a regular contributor of op-ed columns to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and as a speaker on Deutschlandradio Kultur.

Signup for our weekly email newsletter here.

Check out the Jewish Week's Facebook page and become a fan! And follow the Jewish Week on Twitter: start here.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization