David Wolpe: evaluation

Transcript context

…Wow. What an answer. Different subject: your thoughts on the rise of anti-Semitism in large parts of Western Europe and college campuses and the intense feelings so many people in the world have about Israel. Many observers think that the anti-Israel expression is just a cloak for anti-Semitism. So what I would say, the quick answer to the very end of it is, not all anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism, but anti-Israel sentiment is now the respectable guise for anti-Semitism. Very few people, only the most fringy fringers, will stand up and say “I’m an anti-Semite.” But you can say “I’m anti-Israel” and be an anti-Semite and that’s respectable. . . . And I think there are lots of tests that you can apply to the way people criticize Israel and the way they criticize other places that will let you know what’s behind it. I have a lot of thoughts about why anti-Semitism . . . My father, who was a wonderful rabbi, he talked about anti-Semitism often, and I remember thinking when I became a rabbi, “I’m so glad that’s done.” So glad my rabbinate won’t have to be about that, and boy was I wrong. It’s like the return of the repressed. I think post-Holocaust, it had to go underground in a deep way for a while. But now it has erupted again, and there is some viral strain in, well, first it was in European DNA and now I’m afraid it’s very much in world — not in world DNA. There was already in Islam, again there were seeds of it, but it wasn’t the kind of paternal fight that there was in Christianity and Judaism. But now it’s taken over, lock, stock, and barrel. And the virulence on both sides, in Islam and in Europe, is truly frightening. It is truly frightening. So I say the Buddhists and Hindus, that’s where we . . . that’s these days. . . . Look, the one thing that I would say that is important to keep in mind is, it’s not 1942. Throughout Christian Europe, there are many, many, many millions, the overwhelming number of people are of good will. The leaders of Europe are overtly — and for the most part, covertly also — opponents of anti-Semitism in some very significant ways. But it’s scary, it is scary. Next question.…

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