The Hissing of Hatred Towards Jews

In Italy, as in the rest of Europe, there is a hissing stream of hatred toward Jews and things Jewish, including Israel. It’s usually condemned by governments of the moderate right and left, but it persists. Is it possible to side with Arabs in the seemingly endless conflict with Israel without being anti-Semitic? Yes, it is. If by siding with Arabs is one hoping for the destruction of Israel? Not necessarily. But something else is worming its way to the surface of normal life. In Italy, a land I love, three events have recently cast shadows, crossing the line from intelligent disagreement to venomous strike. One attack is from the left, another from the right, the third is from the Roman curia.

The first assault has made national headlines and needs no more explanation here. In Turin there is an annual international book fair. This year it was decided to honor some of Israel’s most prestigious authors—Amos Oz, David Grossman, and Abraham Yehousha. Some leftists, led by the leader of the Communist party, protested that honoring Israelis at the same time that Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday was tantamount to the fair taking an Anti-Palestinian stance and they called for a boycott. One hardly need wonder for long if this would have been the response to a salute to Arab authors.

The Roman church has decided to allow the Latin Good Friday Mass which before Vatican II referred to Jews as blind and perfidious but now only contains this pearl: “Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men. Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved.” Well, it’s better than being called perfidious, I suppose, and the odious reference to Matthew 27:25 is omitted, but, still, I could do without prayers for my conversion with its implied condemnation of retrograde Judaism.

If all that weren’t enough, on January 16 anonymous Italian bloggers took it upon themselves to publish the names of 150 Italian professors identifying them as “publicly and politically” loyal to Israel, not to Italy. While their university affiliations were listed their home addresses and phone numbers were not. But how long would it take even a fascist (for this assault is from the far right, from people who look back fondly to the good old days of il Duce) to find it out…and take action?

The obvious intention of the blog was to intimidate Jews. The government of Italy took swift action. Reuters reports that it was removed and that Interior Minister Giuliano Amato ordered police to investigate. Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni called the blog a shameful “kind of Ku Klux Klan of the digital age.” Reuters further reported that the blog had “links to far-right websites and themes like Holocaust revisionism, appeals to boycott Israel” and in support of Mussolini.

An Italian colleague, Donatella Ester De Cesare wrote a letter of appeal which reminded that “The aggression towards intellectuals is the first sign of the savagery. We ask your solidarity. A word, a gesture could be important.” Faced with this cry for help, academics around the country discussed what could be done. Initially it was proposed that letters to the Italian embassy in Washington be sent thanking the government for its swift action. One well-known professor of Holocaust studies put Donatella’s letter on her website. But then it was suggested that here we would not close down even the most obnoxious of webpages. “Sure I would love to shut down David Duke’s website and a host of others, ban David Irving’s books and so forth, but here we’ve agreed not to do things like that.”

I signed a petition which reads in part, “We stand in solidarity with, and thank those colleagues from Italy, of different faiths and ethnicities, to let them know that they are not alone and that, as scholars, we have an obligation to stand against racism and anti-semitism.”

Will it help? Probably not; the Italian government already knows how academics feel, and so does the fascist right. But still, it’s a beginning. Anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism is rife. The serpent has slept; now he awakes, ever with more audacity. “The perfidious Jew is your enemy,” he hisses; into willing ears.