From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: On Polish Anti-semitism
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 20:50:08 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.082427.25227@walter.cray.com> aleks@cray.com (Aleksander Mazur) writes:

>In article <yT30RB1w165w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> waldo@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (Todd J. Dicker) writes:
>>pawel@tethys.ph.albany.edu writes:

>>>   To make my point clear: I have no doubts that "Protocols ..."
>>> are anti-Semitic, but selling, buying the book and reading it doesn't
>>> make me anti-Semitic.  Whow otherwise would I know what what
>>> is inside ?  How do you know ?  I do not think that to prohibit
>>> people from expressing their views is the best way to fight
>>> ideas.

>>You miss the point here.  The Protocols are not simply the work of an 
>>author whose viewpoints are antisemitic.  If this were the case, I would 
>>be supporting the right of the author to express his point of view 
>>vehemently.

>>The Protocols are a lie, a forgery, and an attempt to stir up violent 
>>hatred of Jews.  They are not literary expression, they are a political 
>>tool used to promote the agenda of antisemitism.

>>If you sell, distribute, promote, or display them for any reason other 
>>than to expose them for what they are and to educate people about them, 
>>then you are engaging in a political act of antisemitism.

>What would you say about so rich literature that now even reaches Poland
>apparently from circulation among Jewish community in America that
>so clearly is a lie falsifying Polish history? Would you be willing

Could you give a few examples?  Are any of these books written as
deliberate falsifications?  Do they deliberately invent things that
Poles are alleged to have said, for the purpose of inciting worldwide
hatred of Poles in general?  Substitute "Jews" for "Poles" and you
have the _Protocols_.  I know of no book like the Protocols; before
you attempt to make such an analogy, I suggest you read the work
under discussion.

>to cry the same way as about Protocols ? Did you cry or were you
>at least embarassed with so popular "Polish death camps " ? What

Ah.  One vague statement in a newspaper, one misplaced adjective, 
and you consider that equivalent to the _Protocols_?  Please explain.

>kind of agenda does it all promote, you think ? And what kind
>of education comes from such a literature for Jewish community ?

Well, perhaps we could once more see the context in which that 
term was used -- was the text in quation really claiming that the
Poles ran Chelmno or something?

>Did you at least think about it ? Or are you simply concentrating only
>on single issue and do not care what happens in your own community ?

Some of us don't like to get distracted from the issue at hand by
endless comparisons, most of which miss the mark by a wide margin.

>Did you notice what kind of hatred people around late Rabbi Kahane 
>represented ? Do you think it is good example for other communities ?

What has this to do with anything?   Was anyone here *supporting*
Kahane?  Do you insist that any Jew who argues with you first
recite a communal Litany of Transgressions for his community?  

The issue is very simple: a virulently anti-Semitic text is being sold
by a church, and so far as we know, nobody in the church hierarchy has
addressed this problem.

Rabbi Kahane, inaccurate texts elsewhere, and all the rest have *nothing* to
do with this issue.  That the _Protocols_ are sold with the blessings 
of a church is a *very* serious indictment of that church, and calls
for further investigation.

It is not an indictment of the whole Catholic Church, or of Polish
dioceses, or of Poles in general.  But it is highly troubling.

Roger

Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish