The state of Jews in Europe?

Great Debates
1

From time to time I go to Mark Steyn’s website, mostly for his excellent “Song of the Week” feature. This time I read one of his political articles, Exodus, on the rise of violent anti-Semitism in Europe:

[Quote=Mark Steyn]

…Even if you put to one side the public school in Denmark that says it can no longer take Jewish children because of the security situation, and the five children of the chief rabbi of Amsterdam who’ve decided to emigrate, and the Swedish Jews fleeing the most famously tolerant nation in Europe because of its pervasive anti-Semitism; even if you put all that to the side and consider only the situation in France… No, wait, forget the Villiers-le-Bel schoolgirl brutally beaten by a gang jeering, “Jews must die”; and the Paris disc-jockey who had his throat slit, his eyes gouged out, and his face ripped off by a neighbor who crowed, “I have killed my Jew”; and the young Frenchman tortured to death over three weeks, while his family listened via phone to his howls of agony as his captors chanted from the Koran… No, put all that to one side, too, and consider only the city of Toulouse. In recent years, in this one city, a synagogue has been firebombed, another set alight when two burning cars were driven into it, a third burgled and “Dirty Jews” scrawled on the ark housing the Torah, a kosher butcher’s strafed with gunfire, a Jewish sports association attacked with Molotov cocktails…
[/QUOTE]

Take a minute and read the whole thing.

These are terrible incidents that Steyn catalogues. Do they add up to an even half-way accurate picture of the state of European Jews in the early 21st century? Are such problems increasing? If so, what’s the endpoint - do basically all the Jews emigrate? What accounts for this?

2

Although this is far, far milder than the murders and other crimes catalogued by Mr. Steyn, it should be noted that French politicians condemn kosher (and halal) meat and try to scare voters with stuff like “Most of the meat you eat is kosher or halal.”

3

Mark Steyn is a right wing, manipulating, hate-speaker. This does not exclude the possibility that he may actually be right on some points, though.

4

One reason that Israeli real estate prices have been so high lately is that so many French Jews have been buying second homes in coastal cities. Now, while they claim they’re just doing it for *vacance *- and indeed, Israeli beaches are flooded with Francophones during summer months - many of them admit that it’s good having someplace to move to if things get worse back home. You know, just in case.

5

Yeah, I know he’s as partisan as the next guy, and has his axes to grind. As you say, though, he may be right about this. I’m sure he’s not making up the events he mentions; the question is if they add up to a real, identifiable, growing trend.

6

I wouldn’t have thought so. Presumably the individual events are true, though strangely such horrific crimes have not been widely reported in the liberal press. In my own little corner of Europe, it is common enough to see people who are obviously Jewish living their lives normally without obvious fear of imminent assault.

I suspect that the endpoint will come when the situation in Israel / Palestine is resolved.

My guess is the brutally oppressive regime which Israel imposes on non-Jewish Palestinians has something to do with it, in combination with the barbarity of militant Islam. I don’t think our own classic European anti-semitism is the cause, though I could be wrong.* What do others think?

Sandwich

  • admittedly, I couldn’t be bothered reading the link to find out about Sweden’s ‘pervasive anti-semitism’. I’m going to stick with ‘famously tolerant’ for the time being.
7

I assume there are real organizations that keep statistics on hate crimes in Europe. I suspect they’d be much better sources then Steyn.

8

Here’s a report on French hate crime. Hate crimes appear to be on the rise but note that whether its rising or shrinking, the actual numbers of such crimes given are pretty low.

(also, the primary target of French hate crimes appear to be Muslims. Not that that makes the targeting of Jews any less of a problem, but I doubt Steyn is going to ever write a similarly apocalyptic sounding article railing against the greater number injustices visited on French Muslims).

9

It’s much the same problem that besets homosexuals. Although currently perhaps not to the same extend. Which is probably fortunate, as they have no homeland to flee to. From the outside it appears rather bad, however as it is, both groups overwhelmingly seem to continue to blame all their bad luck on right wing groups, and throw their support behind various political parties that support the policies that have led to the current situation. So I must assume the situation is not all that bad, and I’m not going to be overly concerned about something the primary individuals are not themselves.

10

So THAT’S where Michelle Bachmann got it from!

11

It’s probably correct to also mention that many Israelis, who hold second citizenship, do so for the exact same reason but in reverse direction.

12

That’s true, although the French tend to have more disposable income.

13

Heh, I can almost hear the scornful howls and whispers of the average lower-middle class Israeli: “stupid, money grubbing… French!” :wink:

14

Hold a tick, isn’t the state of Jews in the Middle East ?
(sorry, had to be done)

15

This seems about the same for the Netherlands. A report here (tbf from 2009 & it’s in Dutch) says the total incidents of anitsemetic violence over 2008 is 14, 9 of which are “doelbekladding” which I assume means graffiti. They conclude saying that the period from 2006-2009 shows a downward trend in antisemitism.

Anotherreport (sorry, in Dutch again) however, shows a total of 108 incidents reported of anti-Semitism over the same period, of which 30 are emails and 17 are swearing. This report shows an increase in anti-Semitic incidents going from 81 in 2007 to 167 in 2009.

Of course any anti-Semitism at all is unacceptable, but the first report indicates that the numbers very closely mirror the numbers for incidents of discrimination against Muslims.

What I personally see is that society is becoming less tolerant overall. There is nasty atmosphere wrt to “the other”. It has become completely acceptable for mainstream politicians to say that there is a “problem wrt Muslims” and in general society it is acceptable to make discriminatory statements about Muslims. They are heavily marginalised, and they lash out. It has been noted for some time now that Muslims are the ones perpetrating violence against homosexuals and Jews. This is in no way an excuse, and it does not make it acceptable, but I think this is what is happening. Everyone is turning on “the other”.

Among people whose ancestors are Dutch back to WWII you will find very, very little anti-Semitism, if at all. In the UK I have heard people say things like “of course, Jews are just a bit different”, this would never occur in Holland.

If the children of rabbi Evers felt they needed to emigrate I am very sorry if that was because they did not feel safe and welcome in their own country.

I do wonder how much might be to do with the climate of criticism of Israel’s politics? It could be that it actually causes more anti-Semitism, it could also be that some political discussions are being perceived by some as being anti-Semitism. This might make people feel less welcome, when actually it is about political opinion. If that is the case we should work on finding the ground and the tone in which to have that discussion.

Just some of my thoughts & experiences in the matter. I hope we can move back to a society of more tolerance again, but with the current political situation I don’t see it happening :frowning:

16

As opposed to, what? Voting for the right wingers who’d like to see them imprisoned or killed?

17

For a couple of millennia, the majority of Jews have been living in diaspora.

18

But without a “state”.

19

That seems to be this case. The wiki article doesn’t mention anything Steyn claims in the second part of that quote, and indeed it’s not clear what the religion of any of the attackers is, but the antisemitism of the attackers is clear.

20

They do Eurovision. I guess they are in Europe, sorta?

Of course, if the Palestinians ever decided to stop killing themselves publicly over their families’ stolen land and stage a military takeover of the land with actual tactics and strategy, they presumably could drive the Jews out, and, well, I think we can all agree that there are parts of Europe that could fit a Jewish state. But I think somehow they’d end up in the Americas.