A valuable if not complete treatment of its subject

books:

	• Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate Jean-Paul Sartre Schocken, 1995 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Still Relevant Today

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote ANTI-SEMITE AND JEW shortly after World War II. Not surprisingly, it was the specific form of anti-semitism of the preceding years that formed the basis for the views and positions expressed in this book. Times have changed and the expression of anti-semitism has changed with it. We are now more likely to see virulent anti-semitism from Islamic rather than Christian societies and from the political left rather than the right. Yet many of Sartre's observations are relevant nonetheless with only a bit of tweaking to modernize them.

Anti-semitism, according to Sartre, is not merely an opinion, but rather a stance towards the world and the society in which Jews live. In a passage relevant today, Sartre asserts that the existence of anti-semitism precedes any facts used to justify it. One cannot help but think of the excuse - and that is what it is - an excuse, of criticizing Israel over the occupied territories as a basis for anti-semitism. Yet Israel offered to return those territories in exchange for peace and was rebuffed. Clearly, Sartre's analysis should be with us still.

Further, as the anti-semite adopts his stance in order to portray the Jew as a non-belonging Other, the anti-semite will rarely think or act on his own. Again, could this be more relevant today, in which one almost longs to hear critics of Jews making an original accusation, not out of any desire to further the prejudice, but for the more simple reason of hoping against hope that some pebble of originality might be seen in a prejudice that should long ago have hit the ash heap of history? But no, it is the same old, same old, time and time again.

In contrast with the anti-semite, Sartre places the democrat. Some excellent points are made via this comparison. The democrat is a feeble defender of the Jew because, although the anti-semite hates the Jew as a Jew, the democrat defends the Jew on the more ambiguous grounds of being a man and a citizen. The democrat lacks the passion of the anti-semite, leaving the Jew with passionate enemies but only tepid defenders. It does not take a genius to figure out which side will make all the concessions and Sartre is correct when he argues that half of the battle against anti-semitism would be won if the friends of Jews brought the passion and perseverance to the cause as the anti-semite brings to his.

Sartre is on his weakest grounds when he inappropriately advocates socialism as the answer to anti-semitism and he quickly devolves into inconsistencies. Sartre openly advocates laws that prohibit statements tending to bring discredit to any Frenchman, including Jews. But then, on the very next page, Sartre states that political action can never be used against the freedom of citizens! Often it is amusing to watch socialists flop over their own ideas and make fools of themselves. This humor is blunted, however, when it is presented not as pure theory but as a means to address a serious issue.

Despite Sartre's misguided politics and abstract theorizing, his analysis of anti-semitism is still often spot on and still relevant to this day. Some of the statements one hears about Jews are nothing short of unbelievable and should be tackled head on. ANTI-SEMITE AND JEW is useful for such purposes.

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Characterizes antisemitic behavior

To the question, "Why be an anti semite," Sartre answers: "Because it's fun!"

Still, as this work shows, the thrill of destructive and irrational behavior has its consequences: no one is safe if Jews must fear for their lives.

Perhaps the best part of the book is Sartre's characterization of antisemitic discourse. One might think that antisemitism is an opinion like any other. If it were, many antisemitic arguments would be logical, perhaps to explain why Jews are, as a people, just too different or too unhelpful to society at large, and explaining why something needs to be done about it. In addition, most antagonism to Jews would be the results of actual provocations.

Sartre convincingly shows that the majority of antisemitic discourse is quite different, consisting instead of taunts and threats. "Never believe," cautions Sartre, "that the antisemites are unaware of the absurdity of their replies." It's all part of the fun, given that their adversaries are the ones who believe in words and thus oblige themselves to use words responsibly.

This is a perceptive study and is well worth reading.

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A valuable if not complete treatment of its subject

There is an Anti- Semitic review in this page in which the following mistakes and errors are made. The writer of the review says that Sartre is Jewish. He is not and so far as I know none of his ancestors were Jewish. The Anti- Semitic reviewer says that the 'Torah teaches hatred of Gentiles' This is outrageous, and stupid. The Torah teaches that every human being is created in the image of God, and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. The Torah teaches that every human being is of infinite value.
As for the Sartre book Sartre does understand a great deal about the attitude of assimilated Jews. However he does not know or understand Jews whose Jewish identity is not formed by ' the other' but rather formed positively through belief in their own heritage.
I too think that Anti- Semitism takes different forms at different times, and it is difficult to understand the present kind of radical fundamentalist Islamic anti- Semitism in the same terms as one understands the Anti-Semitism of the extreme left.
But with all this there is the point that Sartre was fundamentally sympathetic to the Jewish people and to the sufferings caused by the evil of anti- Semitism.

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Sartre is still relevant.

Sartre's work is still a classic. His insights are provocative and pointed. I am especially impressed by his comments on what is now called universal human rights. Sartre is concerned that in stressing our common humanness we forget that there are important difference that should not be ignored.

too limited to its time and country

This book, written just after World War II, tries to explain what makes anti-Semitism attractive to anti-Semites, the effect of anti-Semitism on Jews, and the ultimate causes of anti-Semitism.

In Sartre's view, "By treating the Jew as an interior and pernicious being, [the anti-Semite] affirm[s] at the same time that [he] belong[s] to the elite." In other words, every person is a king so long as he/she has someone to look down upon. This seems like a perfectly plausible interpretation of mid-century antisemitism; it seems to me, however, that today's Arab Jew-hatred has more concrete causes.

Sartre's description of Jews is a bit narrow. He writes that "the Jew considers himself the same as others. He speaks the same language; he has the same class interests, the same national interests; he reads the newspapers that the others read, he votes as they do, he understands and shares their opinions." And according to Sartre, these "inauthentic" Jews seek to avoid any trace of "Jewish traits."

Perhaps an accurate description of the most assimilated Jews in France in the 1940s- but certainly not of more religious Jews, or even of most American Jews (though I do know some who seek to avoid overly "Jewish" physical traits). Few of Sartre's generalizations are true of (for example) the most insular Hasidic sects, and some are equally untrue as to America's more liberal Jews.

Finally, Sartre argues that anti-Semitism is the result of capitalism and of social classes, because anti-Semites seek to unite the bourgeiousie and the proletariat. Given the existence of anti-Semitism in communist and precapitalist societies, this view seems to me implausible.

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