Confronting Antisemitism in Modern Media, the Legal and Political Worlds: Introduction (original) (raw)

Today'sever-increasingantisemitism confronts politicians, legislators, and other decision makers with unique challenges. The ADL Global 100 survey,w hich began in 2014,h as shown thata round twenty-six percent of the inhabitants of all surveyed countries harbor antisemitic attitudes in avariety of forms, from politicallyi nfluenced anti-Israel sentimentst oopenlyexpressed Jew-hatred. It has also documented thata ntisemitic sentiments are on the rise in all countries of the world in which surveys have been conducted between 2014 and 2019.This means that at otal of more thano ne billionp eople around the globe from any side of the political spectrum foster negative attitudes against Jews as individuals, Jews as ac ommunity,t he State of Israel, or Zionist movements.¹ This increased number of antisemitic views and antisemitic behavior that manifests itself in hate speech and hate crimes directed against Jews all over the world cannot be ignored. Jews and non-Jews alike are faced with new formsofantisemitism thatd emand the attention of all human beingsm ore thane ver. To understand the transformation of antisemitism and its various manifestations in the modernw orld, one needst od eal with as et of questions. We need to ask ourselves: What are the reasons for the shockingand seemingly surprising explosion of Jew-hatred?I nw hich parts of our societies do we encounter antisemitism today? Whatrole do the internet and modern media play? How can antisemitism be combatted effectively,b oth on an ational and international scale? Are there countries,c ultures,a nd religions that are particularlyp rone to Jew-hatred? If so, how and whyd ot heir views regarding Jews and Judaism differ from those of other communities?H ow can Jews, Jewish communities,a nd Jewish institutions be protected?The answers to these and otherquestions will help to address what can onlyb ed escribed as one of the humanitarian crises of our times. With the exceptions of the State of Israel as well as Jewishorganizations and communities outside of Israel, decisions makers worldwide wereoften and largely reluctant to properlyacknowledge the explosion of Jew-hatred. Formore than ad ecade, little to nothing has been done to address,d iscuss, and counter it. Onlyinrecent years did some transnationalorganizations and statesbegin to address the issue of rising antisemitic beliefs and manifestations. Others still ignore it,are ambivalent to Jew-hatred, openlysupport antisemitism, or employ antise- Cf. ADL Global 100,a ccessed July 13,2 020, https://global100.adl.org/.