What is anti-Semitism?

Anti-Semitism targets people who belong or are assumed to belong to the Jewish community. The targets are many: a last name or first name, traditions or religious practices, life styles, a physical appearance, a trade or any other sign viewed as specific. Anti-Semitism develops prejudices and  defamatory interpretations, hateful attitudes and verbal or physical aggressions. Anti-Semitism is forbidden by law in all democratic countries.

Anti-Semitism has left its mark on the history of European countries several times, as in 1895 in France, with the Dreyfus Affair. It can become a political doctrine and draw inspiration from laws such as the 1940 Vichy laws on the status of Jews. It was one of the foundations of the Nazi regime and, starting with the Wannsee Conference (January 20^th 1942), led to the programming of the “final solution” that led 6 million Jews to deportation and the Shoah. After the Liberation, the Nuremberg Tribunal passed judgement on all Nazi crimes, inspired notably by anti-Semitism.

In France, for many Jewish people, 1967 marked a turning point. With the Six-Day War breaking out in the Near East, General De Gaulle referred to “the Jews, a people sure of itself and dominating”. Those words trace “the line of time now fractured, split in two”, wrote novelist Nathalie Azoulai in Les Spectateurs (POL, 2018)‬.

Today, anti-Semitism “is back”, according to historian Robert Hirsch, author of Sont-ils toujours des Juifs allemands? La gauche radicale et les Juifs depuis 1968 (Arbre bleu éditions). And indeed, anti-Semitism is expressed through the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues, refusal of services, insults or defamatory and offensive comments to be found in flyers, graffiti, posters, comic strips, websites as well as objects displaying Nazi ideology.

Anti-Semitic reactions and feelings sometimes accompany international events, and notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but criticism of State policy or reactions to external events should in no way be confused with expressions of racism and anti-Semitism, which attack individuals.

Anti-Semitism continues to be promoted by groups and personalities on the extreme right. It can also come from Islamist groups or circles, and lastly it can be expressed in a variety of ways, between personal beliefs, an old anti-Semitic tradition inherited from the 19th century, conspiracy theory from another era, a tendency towards Holocaust denial, etc.

After the attacks on the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris in October 1980, then the Rue des Rosiers on August 9^th 1982, after the desecration of Jewish tombs at the Carpentras cemetery in May 1990, anti-Semitism killed again in the 2000s,: the death of Ilan Halimi (2006), crimes committed by Mohamed Merah at a Jewish school in Toulouse (March 2012), deaths at the kosher supermarket in Vincennes (January 2015), murder of Sarah Halimi (2017), murder of Mireille Knoll (2018). This climate and these murders are not just a cause for concern, they also generate anxiety within a community – and beyond – on seeing the return of a hatred they thought had disappeared. Should we fear what André Markowicz wrote in one of his Facebook posts: “anti-Semitism always resurfaces alongside global fears”?

According to the French Interministerial Delegation to Combat Racism, Anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT Hatred (DILCRAH), in 2019, 687 incidents of an anti-Semitic nature were observed, compared to 541 in 2018, a 27% increase.  Anti-Semitic incidents are broken down into 151 “actions” (a category that groups together attacks on people and property: damage, theft, physical violence…) and 536 “threats” (threatening comments or gestures, graffiti, flyers, letters…). The increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 can only be explained by the increase in threats, since these reached 50% compared to 2018, while actions dropped by 15%. The most serious incidents, attacks on individuals, even dropped sharply, by 44%. In 2020, the lockdown year, 339 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded and in 2021, the 523 anti-Semitic actions recorded represent a 15% drop compared to 2019.

In its annual report, the “Security service for the Jewish community” (SPCJ) notes what it describes as a “new and worrying” phenomenon: a quarter of incidents occurred inside or close to the victims’ homes, usually perpetrated by a neighbour (in "the private sphere"). One third of anti-Semitic actions are said to have been motivated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another “motive” put forward, specific to the Covid pandemic: Jews were accused of profiting from, or even instigating, the health crisis. Lastly, anti-Semitic speech is said to have been “liberated” on the Internet.

The weight of imagery and representations, measured by surveys and a variety of polls, is another element that helps us evaluate, if we can’t exactly measure, anti-Semitism in France. Hence, in October 2017, the Ipsos research firm showed, among other things, that 64% of French people think that Jews have very powerful lobbies, 52% that they have a lot of power, 51% that they are wealthier than the average, 38% that they have too high a media profile, and 38% think that “there’s too much talk about the memory of the Shoah”.

Could this multi-faceted situation, between violent acts, the influence of words and images, explain another phenomenon, the departures by Jews from France for Israel or other destinations? These went up in number from 900 a year prior to 2000 to 7,800 after the 2015 terrorist attacks to reach 5,000 in 2016.

In 2020, according to an Ifop study for Fondapol and the American Jewish Committee published by Le Parisien, 34% of French people of the Jewish faith or culture claim to regularly feel threatened as a result of their religious affiliation. The figure reaches 43% among the under-35s.

7 out of 10 Jews claim to have been victims of an anti-Semitic act, 64% claim to have been subjected to a verbal assault (mockery or insults) and 23% to a physical assault. For 54% of people subjected to a verbal assault, it occurred in an academic establishment or during after-school activities, and for 46% in a work setting.

Actual threats and the feeling of being threatened have led, today, to many Jews in France adopting – as a means to protect themselves, avoid being assaulted ¬– what the study calls “invisibility strategies”: avoiding certain streets or neighbourhoods (43%), no longer displaying symbols of religious affiliation, such as the mezuzah (37%), or no longer wearing symbols on their clothing, such as the kippah (33%).

Mustapha Harzoune, 2022