Why Think When You Can Hate?

The generation after the Holocaust was different from any other in history. It was shaped by the undeniable fact that hatred of Jews had resulted in a catastrophic collapse of civilization and the emergence of uncontrolled barbarism. Antisemitism led to a cataclysm that engulfed the entire Western world.

After the Second World War, the Western world had a rare golden age of relative peace. There were the Cold War and the Vietnam war, but no world war and finally the birth of an era when Jews were accepted and appreciated, especially in North America.

Despite relatively good times now, societies everywhere are fracturing into clans that are characterized by the deepest contempt for others. The issue may be immigration, wealth inequality, jobs or culture wars but the result is anger, distrust, hostility and hatred. The Holocaust and its lesson are fading in the fog of history. Societies everywhere in the Western world show signs of internal collapse, prey to forces that delight in the prospect of the demise of democracy. And, of course, the true barometer of this moral collapse is the oldest hatred, antisemitism, this time in the form of belligerence to the State of Israel and playing itself out on the streets of Europe and North America.

Mark Edmunson wrote in the New York Times that hatred is omnipresent in the current culture. He quotes Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think therefore I am,” suggesting that today’s equivalent would be, “I hate, therefore I am.” We no longer trust our institutions and “corrosive skepticism” defines society. Hatred becomes a release valve: “ambiguity and nuance disappear, and you become someone, hating gives you a plan for action.”

Mark Edmunson quotes Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think therefore I am,” suggesting that today’s equivalent would be, “I hate, therefore I am.”

Why think when you can hate? Ideology or conspiracy theories instead of critical thinking, personal opinion over professional expertise, politics over facts and truth. Problems abolished and everything seems clear and simple for the hater. Social media contributes to the mass dissemination of conspiracy theories and poisonous hatred in a way unprecedented in history.

Jew hatred has taken an exceptionally disturbing turn 80 years after the Holocaust. It may be considered even worse than Holocaust denial. The English novelist Howard Jacobson writes about the world holding Jews responsible for what has been done to them. Yes, you read that right—the non-Jews will never forgive the Jews for the Holocaust. The antisemite cannot forgive the Jew for troubling his conscience. Jacobson quotes Freud who speculated that it was those countries in Europe which were the last to forgo what he called “barbarous polytheism” — the tree-worshippers of Lithuania, for example — that most eagerly embraced the Jew-hatred of the 1930s and ‘40s. They were nostalgic for their paganism.

Jacobson writes that Augustine declared that the world should see the Jews in all their misery so Christians can rejoice in what has become of them, but Jacobson concludes that “modern times require more devious strategies of calumny.” So, Jew-hatred evolves with the times.

In other words, this complex, long-standing, ever-changing form of hatred has roots so deep and so extensive that it would take a monumental and concerted effort to remove it. A new enlightenment is needed, one driven by a true moral reckoning to heal a profound and unique form of hatred. and illuminating the world’s inability to accept the idea of human dignity — a symptomatic problem that affects the entire world.

Jacobson’s fascinating insights point to the fact that antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. Jews suffer the consequences but are not the cause. Antisemitism is the hater’s problem and only he can overcome it. The perception of the all-powerful Jew who controls everything is ludicrous, as he cannot control even his own safety.

Antisemitism is the hater’s problem and only he can overcome it. The perception of the all-powerful Jew who controls everything is ludicrous, as he cannot control even his own safety.

The great irony is that it is the hater himself who is not free either. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out, to be free you must let go of hatred.  That is why Moses told the Jews not to hate the Egyptians. If they had held on to their hatred, they would have been consumed by it instead of building their own society in their own land. It is impossible to create a free society based on hatred. That is a crucial lesson for our times.

Rabbi Sacks states unequivocally that “hatred and liberty cannot coexist. A free people does not hate its former enemies; if it does, it is not yet ready for freedom…you have to break the chains of the past, rob memory of its sting, sublimate pain into constructive energy and the determination to build a different future…to be free, you have to let go of hate.”

There are two conclusions to draw. The return of barbaric antisemitism in Western countries is a harbinger of social collapse and makes the case for the sovereign state of the Jews. Anyone opposing that view is blind to history, blind to current events, and out of touch with reality. With rampant antisemitism, thinking stops and hatred rules. Only Israel has the capacity to defend its Jews. Authorities in the Diaspora have never protected their Jewish population and are not doing it now.

The return of barbaric antisemitism in Western countries is a harbinger of social collapse and makes the case for the sovereign state of the Jews. Anyone opposing that view is blind to history, blind to current events, and out of touch with reality. With rampant antisemitism, thinking stops and hatred rules.

The success of Israel as a sovereign state defending its citizens depends wholly on the country being united and determined. Israel cannot afford the kind of fracturing society we witness elsewhere. Either we pull together or we pull apart, with catastrophic results. We lost our ancestral homeland twice because of internal divisions. That was our history. It must not be our future.

The second conclusion has to do with the Western world and its own survival as a civilized society. To save itself, good people, for once, in every country, must openly, vocally, in action and deed, stand with the Jews — not for the Jews’ sake, but for their own. The hatred that consumes the Jews will consume all of society. We have seen this scenario throughout history, and it never ends well.

Some day, sanity may reign in the world. In the meantime, do not count on the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice anytime soon.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Waterloo