IS THERE A CURE FOR ANTI-SEMITISM'
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people, in struggling for survival and protecting themselves, are going to
make mistakes. They must carry their own fight, and our own
understanding must go as far as possible. My point is something else.
Anti-Semitism is your problem first and foremost: fight it in the best way
you can. It's also our problem, as it were, and I think it is important
that the Gentile community and the politicians in it be made to
understand their own responsibilities and not take a passive position. I
don't care how hard the Jewish people in the United states or elsewhere
fight: winning the struggle against a dangerous anti-Semitic movement
will require allies, much as the struggle of black people requires allies.
In that sense one can say, you have your responsibilities, we have
ours; they certainly do dovetail. But I hope my remarks were in no way
taken as suggesting that I think the Christian community has a paternal–
istic responsibility
to
its little Jewish brothers. I have never held to such a
position with regard to either blacks or Jews.
Stanley Crouch:
The evangelical tradition that was referred to in the
last comment from the audience, with regard to these black Jews, is
largely a Christian tradition. Let's be serious about this. People talk
about things like the survival of nations. From the moment that
intercontinental ballistic missiles were created, from that very day, the
fate of Israel was based upon the sympathy of other countries. The
United States and Russia were constantly worrying about what that
could mean
to
them. Had there been some international anti-Semitic
surge, all these people would have had
to
do was go in there and
program the computers and that would have been the end of that.
Now the thing is, I think, it is important that perhaps World War
Two made it impossible for anyone who considered himself civilized to
be satisfied with an irrational attitude towards Jews. Now that didn't
mean that there weren't nuts who were constantly going to have such
an irrational attitude. But the fate of black Americans in this country, of
Jews, of every minority, is about the way in which the ideas of universal
humanism arc argued in positions of power and how they affect policy.
If the majority of the people turn against you all, or turn against us, it's
over. Now we can call it names, we can do this or that, but there are
far too many more of them.
The impact upon the discussion of the dangers
to
every educated
civilization when we discovered what the Nazis did is an invaluable
lesson, and I don't think that's a lesson the world has forgotten. Now,
there are going to be jerks who are going to jump up and say, "It
didn't even happen," but I don't think they are going to win.
As important as anything is the fact, as Marty was saying, that people
talk honestly and arc able to assess what has been successful and what has
