Insight: The Three Faces of Anti-Semitism
This is an insight written by Sara Rissanen on the recent Bahá’í Chair for World Peace lecture, “The Three Faces of Anti-Semitism” by Professor Jeffrey Herf held on October 6, 2020.
When introducing the lecture and the topic of anti-Semitism, Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi mentioned that anti-Semitism is on the rise. This surprised me. I, along with many other Americans, believed that the peak of anti-Semitism in our world was in the 1940s during the holocaust.
The holocaust was truly one of the greatest tragedies of our modern world. It was a horrid and hateful event in history. When I hear the word anti-Semitism, it seems distant, like something from the past. Something that we defeated when the allies won World War II. But this is not the case. Bringing light to modern-day anti-Semitism is just as crucial as solving the structural racism that has recently been brought to light in our country.
Professor Herf’s historical perspective on anti-Semitism was useful because understanding history allows us to have a greater understanding of the history of how anti-Semitism came about and how it shows up today. Understanding our history allows us to not repeat the mistakes of the past. Professor Herf best sums up his talk with, “[Historians] have demonstrated that antisemitism rests on lies and myths that are deeply embedded in our major religious and secular traditions. And we’ve demonstrated that it’s most dangerous form is a paranoia apparent in a conspiracy theory.”
Professor Herf expressed that “the path to peace requires self-criticism.” As a society, an understanding must be reached that there are things that should have been done differently. I think that it’s only by coming to these realizations with humility that we are able to move forward towards a path of peace.
More and more, I am realizing that we cannot address just one aspect of peacebuilding. We cannot address racism and not acknowledge anti-Semitism. We can’t address environmentalism but not acknowledge the role of women. These aspects of peacebuilding need to be addressed together, not just in how they overlap with each other but how these aspects when worked on conjointly can bring about world peace.
I would like to thank Professor Herf for sharing his knowledge on this topic and showing us how much we have to learn from history.
You can watch the full video of the lecture on our YouTube page here.
About the Author
Sara Rissanen is a senior studying Marketing at the University of Maryland. She is currently the Marketing Specialist at the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace. Sara hopes to create a better future by opening the conversation of peace-building among her peers.