ANTISEMITISM AS AN INADMISSIBLE SOCIAL PHENOMENON Cover Image

ANTISEMITISM AS AN INADMISSIBLE SOCIAL PHENOMENON
ANTISEMITISM AS AN INADMISSIBLE SOCIAL PHENOMENON

Author(s): Nikolai Mihailov
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Jewish studies, Civil Society, Public Administration, Sociology, Jewish Thought and Philosophy, History of Judaism, History of Antisemitism
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: anti-Semitism; academic education; media.

Summary/Abstract: Antisemitism is a dangerous and destructive ideology based on incitement to hatred of the Jewish people and is associated with their persecution, discrimination, and in the variation of Nazi antisemitism - with their physical destruction and extermination. Despite the destructive and absurd ideas of this stereotype of national and racial hatred, it is very persistent and people still sometimes experience its consequences. Apart from rumors, conspiracy theories and outdated and denied notions of "world Jewry", these ideas, which are detrimental to humanism and freedom, are sometimes disseminated in the form of "science" or "journalism", "opinion", very often using the power of contemporary media. The word antisemitism always means hatred against Jews in the context of modernity. An important element of contemporary antisemitism is the identification of Jews with finance, urbanization, and especially capitalism. Different "scientific" explanations about “interiorness” of the Jews have had a strong influence on German society since the first decades of the 20th century, an influence that underlies the ideology that led to the brutal policy of the "final decision". The danger of spreading such misanthropic ideas in the form of some kind of "education" and under the guise of "scientifically-based" antisemitism has not passed today. That is why the emphasis on education of students, doctoral students, etc. is extremely important: they should learn not only about the tragic events of the Holocaust, but also to build a critical view of all those preconditions - historical, social, cultural, intellectual – that led to the emergence of racial theories, "explaining" social processes and leading to catastrophic and horrific cruelty events.

  • Issue Year: 12/2021
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 83-91
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: English