Posted: 10/21/2005 9:29:58 AM EDT
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To me, this word is rapidly losing relevance and it's because it has so many meanings to so many people. I realize this is my own point of view as "anti-semitism" still has as much "pop" in the news as ever and much like "racism" is one of the main tools of media hype. 1. Generally it's prejudice towards Jews, but strictly speaking Jews are not the only Semitic people. That's the first flaw. 2. Next, it has two separate avenues of application, one against the Religion and the other against the ethnic group. Can it really be both? Shouldn't it be anti-Judaism? 3. Then there is the more modern twist of it being anti-Zionist, in other words against a homeland for the Jewish peoples (the ethnic version or the religious version). The origin of the term is fairly recent but basically comes from a claim of the superiority of aryan over semitic peoples. It seems strange to accept the "semitic" label when little is spoken of the aryan label anymore, except in some dark corners of the world. Are Jews doing themselves any good by clinging to this term? Is it just some Jews that fight this battle or is this a very widespread issue? Is it indeed why some Jews have become more or less secular Jews. And finally is this a similar issue to the "racism" controversy? |