Self-hating Jew

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Self-hating Jew (or self-loathing Jew) is an epithet used about Jews, which suggests a hatred of one's Jewish identity or ancestry. Some Jewish writers and activists who are critical of Israel or Zionism have reported the phrase being used against them solely because of their political views.^[1] It may also be used for Jews who are not devout or faithful to their religion, or who don't "act Jewish", regardless of whether they hate their Jewish faith.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Usage 2 Similar terms 3 Proposed psychological basis 4 Historical origins of the term 5 Controversy over the definition and use of the label "self-hatred" 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] Usage

In the United States and United Kingdom, the term "self-hating Jew" sometimes is used to accuse a Jew of hiding, being ashamed of, or failing to understand his or her religion or heritage. As an example of such behavior, in the early 20th century it was not uncommon for Jewish immigrants in those countries to change their family names in an effort to assimilate better with the dominant culture and hide any easily identifiable signs of Jewish identity.^[2]

The phrase sometimes is used against a Jew who is considered to be actively working against the interests of the Jewish people, as those interests are perceived by the person using the term. It has been used in this manner against Jewish reformers and anti- or non-Zionist Jews. This usage is hotly disputed by those so labeled.^[3]

Dr. Mick Finlay of the Psychology Department at the University of Surrey writes that "an accusation that an individual is distancing themselves from the group can be a rhetorical attempt to silence dissent, to cast some possible members as inauthentic, and to represent particular political positions as somehow essential to the categorical identity."^[4] He also notes that "the concept of the 'self-hating Jew' illustrates the importance of recognizing that psychological concepts often develop in particular political contexts and are used by people to give those projects a supposed legitimacy outside of the political."^[4]

[edit] Similar terms

"Self-loathing Jew" is used synonymously with "self-hating Jew". "Self-hating Jew" has also been compared to the term "Uncle Tom" as used in the African-American community.^[5][6]

[edit] Proposed psychological basis

Professor Sander L. Gilman of the University of Chicago defines self-hatred as:

...the internalization of the negative stereotypes about who you are--the identification with the reference group's image of you as 'the other' in society. The person who is labeled as different wants to find out why he or she fits the stereotype, or to prove that he/she does not. But the more one attempts to identify with societal definitions in order to fit in, the more one accepts the attitudes of the determining group, the farther away from true acceptability one seems to be." Obviously this statement could be applied to any group which is the subject of bigotry.^[7]

Many psychologists^[Who?] have attempted to explain this phenomenon. According to some theorists^[Who?], Jewish self-hatred may result from feelings of inferiority brought upon by anti-Semitism they have suffered in the past. This can lead to attempts to distance themselves from their Jewish identity by avoiding activities and styles of dress and appearance currently or traditionally associated with Jewish people.^{[citation needed]} They may also attempt to adopt the behavior patterns and characteristics more predominantly associated with Gentiles. In some cases a Jew will not only distance themselves from other Jews but actually engage in discrimination against other Jews. A famous instance of this phenomenon was the case of Dan Burros, who concealed his Jewish background and joined the Ku Klux Klan, eventually rising to Grand Dragon status; Burros committed suicide after The New York Times reported that he was Jewish.^[8] The film The Believer was loosely based on his life. This phenomenon may also contribute to what has been dubbed the Silent Holocaust of modern assimilated Jews in free societies. Based on his widely publicized anti-Semitic statements, Bobby Fischer could be considered another example.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Historical origins of the term

According to Professor Gilman, the term "self-hating Jew" comes from a disagreement over the validity of the Jewish reform movement between neo-Orthodox Jews of the Breslau seminary in Germany and Reform Jews in the 19th century. Some neo-Orthodox Jews viewed Reform Jews as "inauthentic Jews" because they felt that the Reformers identified more closely with German Protestantism and German nationalism than with Judaism. In response, some Reform Jews labeled the neo-Orthodox Jews "self-hating Jews". Today there is still a rift between Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism, but the rhetoric has softened; most Orthodox and Reform Jews do not refer to each other as self-hating Jews.

One of the difficulties with defining Jewish self-hatred is defining what it means to be a Jew and thus what it means for a Jew to hate himself or herself. Some Zionists^[Who?] describe a Jew who supports most forms of anti-Zionism as self-hating.

The term self-hating has been used by a large segment of the Jewish community^[Who?] against a number of Jewish authors who have written material that the Jewish community^[Who?] considers anti-Semitic. The Anti-Defamation League's report on The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics states:

In distorting the normative meanings of rabbinic texts, anti-Talmud writers frequently remove passages from their textual and historical contexts.... They are thus able to ignore Judaism’s long history of social progress and paint it instead as a primitive and parochial religion.... Are the polemicists anti-Semites? This is a charged term that should not be used lightly, but the answer, by and large, is yes. Now and then a polemicist of this type may himself have been born Jewish, but their systematic distortions of the ancient texts, always in the direction of portraying Judaism negatively, their lack of interest in good-faith efforts to understand contemporary Judaism from contemporary Jews, and their dismissal of any voices opposing their own, suggests that their goal in reading ancient rabbinic literature is to produce the Frankenstein version of Judaism that they invariably claim to have uncovered.^[9]

[edit] Controversy over the definition and use of the label "self-hatred"

The definition and appropriate use, if any, of the label "self hating Jew" is extremely controversial.^{[citation needed]} Leftist Jews such as Rabbi Michael Lerner and the critic Noam Chomsky have stated that some pro-Israel advocates define and apply the label in a manner designed to silence or discredit any Jew who disagrees with their politics regarding Israel. On being described as "self-hating", retired Hebrew University professor Israel Shahak replied "That is a Nazi expression. The Nazis called Germans who defended Jewish rights self-hating Germans."^[10]

Professor Gilman rejects the notion that all or most Jewish critics of Israel are self-hating. In his view, if a Jew actively opposes the Jewish state out of the belief that Jews, as a group, are unworthy of national self-determination then it would likely be applicable. On the other hand, if a Jew opposes only specific policies and not the existence of Israel per se, that would not necessarily be self-hatred so long as that person could change his or her position as Israeli and Palestinian policies and actions change. If his or her point of view were fixed, Gilman says that it might be reasonable to apply the label "self-hating."

[edit] See also

• Antisemitism
• The Operated Jew (1893 book)
• Self-hatred
• Post-Zionism
• The Believer (2001 film)

[edit] References

1. ^ W. M. L. Finlay, "Pathologizing Dissent: Identity Politics, Zionism and the 'Self-Hating Jew'", British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 44 No. 2, June 2005, pp. 201-222. Online summary.
2. ^ Jerry Klinger, "The Meaning of American Jewish History", The Jewish Magazine, July 2005.
3. ^ Ethan Ard, "For Ourselves Alone", March 1998.
4. ^ ^{a b} Finlay, "Pathologizing Dissent", p. 218.
5. ^ Eugene Kane, "A phrase whose time has come and gone", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 10, 2002.
6. ^ Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, BLACKS & JEWS: Facilitator Guide, 1998.
7. ^ Sander L. Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, Johns Hopkins University Press, reprint edition 1990.
8. ^ A. M. Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb, One More Victim: The Life and Death of an American-Jewish Nazi , New American Library, 1967.
9. ^ The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics, Anti-Defamation League, February 2003.
10. ^ Richard H. Curtiss, "Personality: Dr. Israel Shahak", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1989.

[edit] Further reading

• Henry Bean, The Believer: Confronting Jewish Self-Hatred, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002. ISBN 1-56025-372-X.
• David Biale, "The Stars & Stripes of David", The Nation, May 4, 1998.
• John Murray Cuddihy, Ordeal of Civility: Freud, Marx, Levi-Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle With Modernity, Beacon Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8070-3609-9.
• Kurt Lewin, "Self-Hatred Among Jews", Contemporary Jewish Record, June 1941. Reprinted in Kurt Lewin, Resolving Social Conflicts: Selected Papers on Group Dynamics, Harper & Row, 1948.
• Sander L. Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8018-4063-5.
• David Mamet, The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews, Schocken Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8052-4207-4.

[edit] External links

• Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, "Love, Hate, and Jewish Identity", First Things, November 1977.
• Jonathan Freedland, "An enemy of the people", The Guardian, July 14, 2000.
• Daniel Levitas, "Hate and Hypocrisy: What is behind the rare-but-recurring phenomenon of Jewish anti-Semites?", Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Winter 2002.
• Rabbi Michael Lerner, "Israel's Jewish Critics Aren't 'Self-Hating'", Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2002. Reprinted at Common Dreams NewsCenter.
• Robert Fisk, "A strange kind of freedom", The Independent, July 9, 2002.
• Bradford R. Pilcher, "Rabbi Lerner's just war – And why we should join it", Jewsweek, February 25, 2003.
• Bruce Jackson, "Jews Like Us", CounterPunch, April 18, 2003.
• Cathy Young, "When Jews wax anti-Semitic", The Boston Globe, February 7, 2005.
• Steven Plaut, "Counterpunch's Self-Hating Jews", FrontPage Magazine, June 21, 2005.
• Rabbi Levi Brackman, "Confronting the self hating Jew", Ynetnews, September 1, 2006.
• Jacqueline Rose, "The myth of self-hatred, The Guardian, February 8, 2007.