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PARTISAN REVIEW
Political Memoir,
among other books. He is a member of the Council of
Foreign Relations and served from 1981 to 1987 as Chairman of the
New Directions Advisory Board of the United States Information
Agency.
The next speaker is Robert Wistrich: he is Erich and Foga
Neuberger Professor of Modern Jewish History at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. In addition, he is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at
London University. He is the author most recently of
Anti-Semitism: The
Longest Hatred .
Without further ado, Norman Podhoretz.
Norman P o dhoretz:
I want to talk about anti-Semitism in America
today, but there's a problem. Once upon a time, anti-Semites proudly
proclaimed themselves as such, but thanks to the Holocaust, not even the
most egregious anti-Semite today is willing to admit that he is one.
Today anti-Semites want to be allowed to say anti-Semitic things with–
out being called anti-Semites. My view is that if they don't want to be
called anti-Semites, they should stop saying anti-Semitic things.
My view also is that what matters in assessing the extent of anti–
Semitism is not so much the existence of anti-Semites - for such people
will always exist so long as there are Jews, and maybe even if there were
no Jews, as the example of Poland more or less demonstrates today - but
the way they are treated by society. If they are shunned, relegated to the
margins, regarded as disreputable, then we can say that the problem is
only a minor nuisance. If, on the other hand, anti-Semites are tolerated,
or worse, encouraged - if, that is, they can operate with impunity or
even be rewarded - then we have something to worry about.
For approximately two decades after World War II, the first condi–
tion prevailed. Anti-Semites certainly existed in America, but after the
Holocaust had demonstrated where it could lead, the open expression of
anti-Semitism became for all practical purposes taboo. That taboo was
first broken by black radicals in the late sixties, in connection with the
Six Day War of 1967 and the New York teachers' strike in that same
year. Suddenly things were being written and said by blacks about Jews
that had not been heard in America for a very long time. Yet the blacks
who were saying these things were more likely to be given a grant by
the Ford Foundation than to be shunned. It was those of us who called
attention to this development and expressed anxiety about it who were
shunned and accused - not for the last time - of racism.
Admittedly there was some resistance both from blacks and whites to
the emergence of anti-Semitism among black radicals, but not nearly
enough to stop it in its tracks or prevent it from spilling over into other
segments of the black community. Today, twenty-five years later, we see
