Monday, June 23, 2008

Is Jewish Identity Responsible for Hatred of the Jews?

The Shalem Center's Azure Magazine Spring 5768 / 2008, No. 32 includes an English translation ov A.B Yehoshua's: “An Attempt to Identify and Understand the Root of Antisemitism.”

The essay was first published in Hebrew in 2005 and provoked intense public debate. Azure, following its commitment to provide a forum for the most challenging contemporary voices in Jewish thought, presents the first English translation of A.B. Yehoshua’s controversial essay.

Yehoshua sets out to analyze and describe the quintessence of antisemitism in its various historical and cultural incarnations. He asserts that it is Jewish identity’s unique structure that itself creates antisemitism’s venomous "reaction".

After publication of his essay in Hebrew, Yehoshua said: “Because there is something unclear in their identity, the antisemite can easily project his problems, his fantasies, on the Jews. The Jew is like a text with a lot of gaps. As a Zionist, I know our purpose is to be among ourselves and not to wander again in the world. The Diaspora Jews have to know that the structure of their identity invites antisemitism. They need to decide themselves if the price is too high."

The essay is too long to post in full. I haven't even read it yet...I'm putting it aside for later, knowing full-well that it will be challenging...

Click here to read A.B. Yehoshua’s essay in Azure 32.

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