Philosemitism

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

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

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

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

In Europe

Germany

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

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

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

United States

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

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

• Anti-antisemitism
• Conversion to Judaism
• Ger toshav
• Judeo-Christian
• Messianic Judaism
• Sacred Name Movement

References

Sources

• Alan Edelstein. An Unacknowledged Harmony: Philo-Semitism and the Survival of European Jewry. (Contributions in Ethnic Studies). ISBN 0-313-22754-3
• David S. Katz. Philo-Semitism and the Readmission of the Jews to England, 1603–1655. ISBN 0-19-821885-0
• Hilary L. Rubinstein & William D. Rubinstein. Philosemitism: Admiration and Support in the English-Speaking World for Jews, 1840–1939. (Studies in Modern History). ISBN 0-312-22205-X
• Frank Stern. The Whitewashing of the Yellow Badge: Antisemitism and Philosemitism in Postwar Germany. (Studies in Antisemitism) ISBN 0-08-040653-X
• Marion Mushkat. Philo-Semitic and Anti-Jewish Attitudes in Post-Holocaust Poland. (Symposium Series, Vol 33). ISBN 0-7734-9176-7
• Frank Stern. Im Anfang war Auschwitz : Antisemitismus und Philosemitismus im deutschen Nachkrieg. ISBN 3-88350-459-9
• Gertrude Himmelfarb. The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, From Cromwell to Churchill. ISBN 1-59403-570-9

Further reading

• 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

• Washington Post, January 8, 2006; page A01.
• "On Philo-Semitism", by Jacques Berlinerblau, Georgetown University's Program for Jewish Civilization via archive.org.