A
theologian and a social psychologist have expressed separate opinions with
regard to mankind's ongoing antipathy toward the Jews, and they are most likely
correct in their professional assessment of the situation.
However,
it must be said that the fact neither even knew of the work of the other, shows
that neither has painted a complete picture of what's happening in that domain.
In fact, it can be said that a phenomenon having to do with the human character
that's been manifesting itself for thousands of years, is too vast a subject to
be discussed definitively from a single point of view.
Devorah
Shoenfeld is the theologian who wrote: “To defeat virulent anti-Semitism, we
must understand its theological roots,” an article that was published on
November 2, 2018 in New York Daily News. Amy Cuddy is the social psychologist
who wrote: The psychology of Anti-Semitism,” an article that also came under
the subtitle: “Why is prejudice against Jewish people so often expressed in
sudden waves of virulent, even exterminatory attacks?” It was published on
November 4, 2018 in the New York Times.
The
two “umbrella” theories through which human behavior has often been
interpreted, were Charles Darwin's “Survival to the fittest,” and Sigmund
Freud's “Sexual repression.” And both have been successful at explaining a
great deal of what's observed. What the two theories have in common, is that
they deal with the way that an individual does respond to occurrences having
the potential to threaten his survival or occurrences that get in the way of
his own potential to achieve a more successful life.
These
theories being too “deep” and too complicated to use by the often-superficial
media to explain phenomena that capture the public's imagination for a day or
two, a simplistic theory was used to explain the anti-social and sometimes
deadly behavior of some individuals. The media blamed the action of the
“misfits” on a society that has allowed such behavior to sprout. But when mass
shootings began to multiply in America, this interpretation was dropped in
favor of the search for deeper reasons.
And
then there was the Jewish interpretation of the phenomenon they call
anti-Semitism. The Jewish leaders came up with all kinds of excuses as to why
human beings of all races and religions, living in every spot on the globe,
turned against the Jews; which they did not at first sight, but upon
discovering what the Jews were up to. The Jewish leaders blamed the phenomenon
on Christianity, Islam, the Communism they themselves created, the Fascism they
inspired, the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, the kids that hate freedom … etc,
etc, etc...
In
her article, Devorah Schoenfeld picked the Christian excuse and blamed it for
the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. She first quoted the gunman as having
quoted a passage from the bible. But knowing there isn't enough here to develop
a complete theory, she stated the following: “His hatred is complex, merging
bad Christian theology with toxic rhetoric of white nationalism,” and went all
over the map trying to stitch together a coherent narrative.
What
Schoenfeld did not explain, however, is why the white nationalists would march
in the streets and chant: “Jews will not replace us,” instead of what she says
is motivating them, namely that, “Jews are bad. Jews rejected Jesus because
there is something wrong with them, and that is why Jews are not Christians”.
As
to Amy Cuddy's article, she used a modified version of the approach that says
society is at fault, but then made a promise she could not fulfill. She said
that the theory she developed with colleagues explains “why anti-Semitism often
erupts in such violent bursts.” But instead of telling how this ties-in with
the action of the Pittsburgh gunman, she said this: “In Germany's economic crisis,
Jewish people were cast as powerful and manipulative agents of disaster.” That
is, the Jews were scapegoated. Maybe so, but that's in a Germany that was
experiencing an economic crisis; and this is an America that’s experiencing an
economic boom. The theory does not match the reality it purports to explain and
cannot be taken seriously.
What’s
missing in these two articles? What's missing is the courage to tell the truth.
What's wrong is not with the human race, it's with the Jews themselves. No one
has ever looked at Jews and attributed to them a stereotypical trait out of
thin air. What happened, instead was that at first, people got along well with
Jews until the latter started to behave abnormally.
For
example, when the Jews said they were the chosen children of God, someone responded:
Like hell you are; in fact, it looks to me like you're the children of Satan.
When
a new convert to Judaism said that long-ago, Jews were gassed and incinerated
in a faraway place, therefore he is owed compensation, someone responded: Like
hell you are; in fact, there has never been gas chambers or crematoriums.
When
Jews bribed and blackmailed politicians to stand with them against their own
people, the people marched in the streets and chanted: Jews will not replace
us. And so on, and so forth.