Philosemitism

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Celebration of Hanukkah at the Sejm in the city of Warsaw, 2015

Philosemitism, also called Judeophilia, is "defense, love, or admiration of Jews and Judaism".[1] Such attitudes can be found in Western cultures across the centuries.[2] The term originated in the nineteenth century by self-described German antisemites to describe their non-Jewish opponents.[3][1] American-Jewish historian Daniel Cohen of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies has asserted that philosemitism "can indeed easily recycle antisemitic themes, recreate Jewish otherness, or strategically compensate for Holocaust guilt."[4]

Etymology[edit]

The controversial term "philosemitism" arose as a pejorative in Germany to describe the positive prejudice towards Jews; in other words, a philosemite is a "Jew-lover" or "Jew-friend".[5]

Concept[edit]

The concept of philosemitism is not new, and it was arguably avowed by such thinkers as the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who described himself as an "anti-anti-Semite."[6]

Philosemitism is an expression of the larger phenomenon of allophilia, admiration for foreign cultures as embodied in the more widely known Anglophilia and Francophilia. The rise of philosemitism has also prompted some[who?] to reconsider Jewish history, and they argue that while antisemitism must be acknowledged, it is wrong to reduce the history of the Jewish people to one merely of suffering (as has been fostered by well-meaning gentile philosemites).[citation needed]

Religious philosemitism[edit]

Christian philosemitism which has been associated with Dispensational theology and Puritanism promotes a positive view of the Jewish people for religious reasons (in contrast to Christian antisemitism). Christian philosemitism generally arises from a premillennial and an Israel-centered understanding of biblical prophecy, causing the belief that God still sees the Jews as his chosen people.[7][8]

Prevalence[edit]

In Europe[edit]

Germany[edit]

Iris Dekel writes that in twenty-first-century Germany, philosemitism "is performed in three interconnected social domains: institutional, where state institutions declare their commitment to protecting Jews as a religious minority; group, where the contingent relations between love for the Jews and exclusionary statements about them appears, mostly in casting Jews as both strange and unknown and embraced; and individual, where individuals exhibit positive sentiments toward Jews as an ideal collective".[9]

Poland[edit]

Depiction of Polish king Casimir III the Great visiting his Jewish mistress Esther, by Polish painter Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (1870)

While Jews had lived in Poland since before his reign, king Casimir III the Great allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as people of the king. About 70 percent of the world's European Jews, or Ashkenazi, can trace their ancestry to Poland due to Casimir's reforms.[10] Casimir's legendary Jewish mistress Esterka remains unconfirmed by direct historical evidence, but belief in her and her legacy is widespread and prolific.[11] South of the Old Town of Kraków king Casimir established the independent royal city of Kazimierz, which for many centuries was a place where ethnic Polish and Jewish cultures coexisted and intermingled.

Czechoslovakia[edit]

The case of the myths created around the supposed special relationship between Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the founding father of Czechoslovakia, and influential Jews from the U.S. or elsewhere, myths created by Masaryk and adopted in amended forms by Czechoslovak Jews, let cultural historian Martin Wein quote Zygmunt Bauman's and Artur Sandauer's concept of an "allosemitic" worldview, in which, in Wein's words, "antisemitism and philosemitism overlap and share stereotypes, producing exaggerated disregard or admiration for Jews or Judaism."[12] In this sense, Wein quotes Masaryk's statements about a decisive Jewish influence over the press, and him mentioning Jews and freemasons in the same breath, when it came to lobbies he allegedly managed to win over.[12]

In the Americas[edit]

United States[edit]

Mark Twain's essay Concerning the Jews has been described as philosemitic. Israeli scholar Bennet Kravitz states that one could just as easily hate Jews for the reasons Twain gives for admiring them. In fact, Twain's essay was cited by Nazi sympathizers in the 1930s. Kravitz concludes, "The flawed logic of 'Concerning the Jews' and all philo-Semitism leads to the anti-Semitic beliefs that the latter seeks to deflate".[13] Philosemitic ideas have also been promoted by some American Evangelicals due to the influence of Dispensationalism.[8]

In Asia[edit]

Very few Jews live in East Asian countries, but Jews are viewed in an especially positive light in some of them, partly owing to their shared wartime experiences during the Second World War. Examples include South Korea,[14] Japan, and China.[15] In general, Jews are stereotyped with characteristics that in South Korean culture are considered positive: intelligence, business-savviness and commitment to family values and responsibility, while in the Western world, the first of the two aforementioned stereotypes more often have the negatively interpreted equivalents of guile and greed. In South Korean primary schools the Talmud is mandatory reading.[14] According to Mary J. Ainslie, philosemitism in China is "part of a civilizationist narrative designed to position China as globally central and superior".[16]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Samuels, Maurice (2021). "Philosemitism". Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism. Springer International Publishing. pp. 201–214. ISBN 978-3-030-51658-1.
  2. ^ Burnett, Stephen G. (2013). "Philosemitism in History edited by Jonathan Karp and Adam Sutcliffe (review)". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 31 (4): 132–134. ISSN 1534-5165.
  3. ^ Sutcliffe, A. (2011). The Unfinished History of Philosemitism. Jewish Quarterly, 58(1), 64–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/0449010X.2011.10707112
  4. ^ Cohen, Daniel (2020). "Good Jews". S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 7 (1): 118–127. doi:10.23777/SN.0120/ESS_DCOH01. ISSN 2408-9192.
  5. ^ With Friends Like These Review of Philosemitism in History in the New Republic by Adam Karp
  6. ^ The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 4 by Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley
  7. ^ "Christian Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to the Jew Bill, 1656-1753. A Study in Jewish and Christian Identity". University of Bristol. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  8. ^ a b Frey, Jörg (2022-04-04), "Anti-Judaism, Philosemitism, and Protestant New Testament Studies: Perspectives and Questions", Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, Brill, pp. 149–181, ISBN 978-90-04-50515-5, retrieved 2024-02-13
  9. ^ Dekel, Irit (May 2022). "Philosemitism in contemporary German media". Media, Culture & Society. 44 (4): 746–763. doi:10.1177/01634437211060193.
  10. ^ "In Poland, a Jewish Revival Thrives—Minus Jews". The New York Times. 12 July 2007.
  11. ^ "Esterka: między legendą a prawdą historyczną". Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  12. ^ a b Wein, Martin (2015). "Masaeyk and the Jews". A History of Czechs and Jews: A Slavic Jerusalem. Routledge. pp. 44–50. ISBN 978-1138811652. Retrieved 2 July 2015 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Kravitz, Bennett (2002). "Philo-Semitism as Anti-Semitism in Mark Twain's "Concerning the Jews"". Studies in Popular Culture. 25 (2): 1–12. ISSN 0888-5753. JSTOR 41970387.
  14. ^ a b Alper, Tim. "Why South Koreans are in love with Judaism". The Jewish Chronicle. May 12, 2011. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  15. ^ Nagler-Cohen, Liron. "Chinese: 'Jews make money'". Ynetnews. April 23, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  16. ^ Ainslie, Mary J. (2021). "Chinese Philosemitism and Historical Statecraft: Incorporating Jews and Israel into Contemporary Chinese Civilizationism". The China Quarterly. 245: 208–226. doi:10.1017/S0305741020000302. ISSN 0305-7410. S2CID 218827042.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Samuels, Maurice (2021). "Philosemitism". Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, eds. Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, Kalman Weiser. Palgrave Macmillan-Springer International Publishing. pp. 201–214. ISBN 978-3-030-51658-1.

External links[edit]

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