Archive for August 2004
[BRIEF NOTE] Russia, Germany, and the Jews
Lucian Kim’s fascinating article in The Moscow Times, “A Friendship Revived Is Built on a Dark Past,” begins by noting the circumstances of the extraordinary revival of German Jewry:
While working as a correspondent in Berlin, I reported several stories on the extraordinary revival of the city’s Jewish community. Replenished by Jews from the former Soviet Union, it is now largely Russian-speaking.
The last time I visited the Jewish community center, I felt as though I had stepped into an old folks’ home in Russia. On a bulletin board there were faded photographs showing the youthful faces of Red Army soldiers who had helped crush Nazi Germany. I learned that some 70 World War II veterans were living in the capital of a country that had once set out to exterminate “Bolshevik Jews.”
It seemed ironic, to say the least, that the nation that had waged a racially motivated war against the Soviet Union would end up becoming a magnet for Russian-speaking Jews.
It goes on to some interesting places.
[QUIZ] Questionnaire Time!
Courtesy of creases.
Rules:
– Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
– I’ll reply and give you five questions to answer.
– You’ll update your LJ with the five questions answered.
– You’ll include this explanation.
– You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
[BRIEF NOTE] Islam in Soviet Central Asia and France
Jonathan Edelstein has a fascinating take on the pressures of modernity that Islam faced/faces in the two areas above named in the subject field. I disagree with his conclusions, but still.
[URBAN NOTES] Two More Experiences
- This afternoon, as I took the Queen Street West streetcat east towards Osgoode, I checked my Yahoo!Mail account on my cellphone. A well-dressed and slim woman in her 40s standing next to me knelt over and began talking to my cellphone as if she was trying to leave a message. She then looked up to me, smiled, and introduced herself as Byron. She then said “Dana.” I smiled and said I’m sorry; disgusted, she meandered on to the back of the streetcar.
- Several weeks ago, on the northwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton, some corporation or other was hosting a festival of some kind. One young woman, accompanied by synthesized piano and actual violin, sang some art songs quite beautifully. Her singing voice reminded me very strongly of nire_nagaf‘s speaking voice–the phrasing of both was quite similar.
[GNXP] Post on GNXP
It’s a simple post on South African history. It’s entirely conventional, I suppose, but it definitely needed to be said, particularly there.
Again, the details matter.
[BRIEF NOTE] Anti-Semitism’s Deconstruction
Of late, I’ve noticed an interesting trend–or, at least, a movement towards a trend–regarding the usage of the word “anti-Semitism.” This trend is based on a new understanding of the second half of that world, “Semitism,” derived from “Semite.”
In the 21st century, “Semitic” is a term used to describe a sub-family of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The relationship of Semitic languages to the broader Afro-Asiatic language family, incidentally, is something like that of Germanic languages to the Indo-European language family; it’s a relatively discrete subgrouping. (Merlyn de Smit challenges the validity of this linguistic paradigm, but never mind.) Hebrew, the traditional liturgical language of the Jews, is one Semitic language; others include the major languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea (the liturgical language of Ge’ez, the living languages of Amharic and Tigrinya), a variety of relatively obscure South Arabian languages spoken in Yemen and Oman, the Aramaic spoken by some Levantine Christians (and used in The Passion). The most significant of the Semitic languages, though, is Arabic, sacred language of Islam and first language of almost a quarter-billion people.
This linguistic fact feeds itself into discussions of anti-Semitism in an interesting way. As I’ve seen it and read it, some people react to charges of being anti-Semitic–charges, I hasten to add–by denying it. In denying it, they often point to the fact that they have demonstrated sympathies for people of other ethnic groups marked by L1 fluency in Semitic languages, chief among these groups Arabs.
The meaning of words should certainly be allowed to change over time. No language can ever be static in practice, no much how much one might pretend otherwise (Académie française, stand up). This argument, though, rests upon a misunderstanding of the etymology of the word “anti-Semitism.” Devised by the conservative German writer Wilhelm Marr, the term “anti-Semitic” was used by Marr to describe his rejection of the thesis that Jews could be accepted as fellow Germans, that the Jewish and German races were fundamentally different. It’s worth keeping in mind that this is the time of belief in the existence of an Aryan race closely linked to the ancient Aryan language ancestral to all Indo-European languages; Jews, by origin a Semitic population like others in the ancient Middle East, came by analogy from the Semitic race closely linked to a proto-Semitic language.
A digression: Had the Muslims failed to conquer the Christians of Egypt and Syria in the 7th century, and the Coptic and Aramaic languages survived as modern vernaculars, I’m skeptical that speakers of Semitic languages would have been seen as foreign by speakers of Indo-European languages, at least in the same way. Had Europe had another religiously distinct diaspora of extra-European origins–Zoroastrian Parsis from modern Iran, say, or perhaps unusually coherent Armenian or Lebanese Christian minorities–foreignness and “Aryan-ness” would have mapped so conveniently. Neither happened, though.
It’s possible to argue in favour of a change in meaning, as the West has come into contact with other ethnic groups associated with Semitic languages other than Hebrew, chief among these being Arabs. It’s possible, but it doesn’t strike me as a good idea. Anti-Semitism already has a well-established meaning, describing a hatred of Jews based on the supposed innate wholly negative qualities of Jews. As Andrew Reeves wrote, it’s a distinct phenomenon from anti-Judaism, which attributes these qualities to the Jewish religion and allows for the possibility of Jews who’ve renounced their religion to be perfectly decent individuals. Phrases–“anti-Arab racism,” for instance–to describe the racist dislike of Arabs already exist. Trying to assimilate this to a term which has had a coherent definition for a fair while is not only futile but a serious mistake.
I’m also worried by the undertone that I detect in the attempts to broaden the definition of “homophobia.” Even granted that according to the current uses of language “anti-Semitism” is a misnomer, that’s hardly a critical fault. Homophobia, after all, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with fear of homosexuals and non-heterosexuals generally–hatred is the root cause. And I can’t help but feel worried at the motives of people who attack the use of the term “homophobia” on etymological grounds, claiming that they don’t hate homosexuals at all, no, of course not! they only feel disgust, or pity …
As always, paying attention to the little details matters.
A Bit More Detail 