THE HISTORY AND BROADER IMPLICATIONS OF THE INSIDIOUS IDEOLOGY: ANTISEMITISM

Stephen Eric Bronner, A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000) ("Genuine democratic education calls upon citizens to make decisions not only about what they want but also about what they need to know. Santayana's famous truism, that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it, is probably not quite as true as many would care to believe. But the contemporary public still needs to understand what inspired the imagination of Nazism and other antisemitic movements all over the world. They deserve to see what informs the authoritarian personality. The work of the progressive critic begins with illuminating the unintended consequences of fabricated appeals to prejudice. This requires support for liberal political values rather than a knee-jerk response in favor of repression. Dealing with falsehoods is an immanent moment in arriving at truth, and coming to terms with the past means facing the evil it unleashed. There is nothing safe about freedom." Id. at 133. "The genuine struggle against antisemitism is ultimately no different than the genuine struggle against any other form of discrimination. It does not privilege the particular suffering of any group and it does not unconsciously embrace the values of its enemies. It instead places primacy upon a certain form of ethical conduct and a stance that explicitly speaks to the freedom of all minorities. Those who preach the particular without reference to the universal and who place faith about reason in political life, whatever their religion or race, remain mired in the past. Whether consciously or unconsciously, purposely or unintentionally, they are still ensnared in the grip of works like the Protocols. They indeed have learned nothing from the dire warning provided by Moses in the Old Testament: 'Accursed is he who misleads the blind.' (Deut 27:18)." Id. at 154.).