Anti-Semitism…On-line.

Michael Kadish

With the advent of the Internet, everybody now has the ability to write, and the writing can be shown to the whole world. Among the literally billions of Web sites, there are over twenty-two thousand hate sites, most of those being white supremacist groups. Statistically, that may not be so much, but it does offer a vast amount of places to insult minorities, and among them, if not the group that has the most hate sites directed towards them is the Jews.

There are easily a thousand pages that are nothing more than ad hominum attacks on Jews. Basically, the attacks they use can be broken into different categories.

1. Racial Stereotypes-- All Jews are money grubbing ,long nosed, etc. These are generally the least effective. The other techniques go on to offer more than just generalization.
2. Attacks on individuals-- It is drawn that ALL Jews are Communists because of the Rosenbergs, Trotsky, Lillian Hellman (?), and Lenin were Jewish. All Jews are unAmerican, because much of the blacklist was Jewish, the Chicago Seven was mostly Jewish, and of course, Johnathon Pollard.


Depiction of a Jewish plot-- They are quick to point out 42% of Clinton’s cabinet is Jewish, 60% of Hollywood, all of the major newspapers, all of the networks, and movie studios are either owned by Jews or have Jewish top brass.

3. Attacks on Israel-- These are not merely against politics, but claim that the State of Israel is trying to slaughter Palestinians, and is nothing more than criminals trying to take over the world. The points range from and exceed Der Yassin (with an actual WWW.Deryassin.org), to the Mossad, to the shady nuclear reactor, to Dr. Goldstein.
4. “Proof” that Israel, or Jews, are bullying counties-- USA’s large support, The Vatican’s admittance to the Holocaust, Stalin’s making anti-Semitism a federal crime, German reperations, France’s assistance in the nuclear reactor, Swiss payments, etc.
5. Denial of events\revisionalism – The Holocaust never happened, The Jews were behind the revolutions in Russia in 1917, France in 1789, and the US in 1776
6. Describing such acts as Deserved – The Jews killed 100,000,00 Russians, so the Holocaust was anticlimactic.
7. Pro Hominem arguments—Either quoting true antisemites (Luther, Lindbergh,) apocryphal quotes (Benjamin Franklin,) or quotes taken out of context (Churchill)
8. Exaggeration of Jewish arguments\Jewish quotes out of context – taking the non-religious acceptance of homosexuality to show that the religion denies its own laws. Showing the illegitimacy of the state of Israel by saying “many religious Jews don’t believe in it.” Also includes apocryphal or forged quotes, i.e. Elders of Zion, or Israel Cohen.
9. The final is the adaptation from religious sources. This can be quotes from their bibles telling them how bad Jews are, taken from the New Testament or the Koran, but they also take lines from the Torah, or the Talmud to show that Jews are Evil.

That is not to say that their mentioning, or their quotings of the Talmud are evenly balanced. The hate sites are out for blood. Using selected quotes, or sometimes just references, all generally from the Soncino English translation edition (generally—sometimes the source isn’t given) of the Talmud, the cited Talmudic references are to indicate, from what I can tell, one of 10 points, as proofs for their Antisemitic beliefs.

1. Absurdity-- They point out various unusual Talmudic statements, i.e. trying to indicate that Judaism is not a real religion of faith. Quite often Kabalic references are used.
2. Immorality— Citing various points to indicate that what the Rabbis preach goes against common morality or decency. This is in the vein that we are an evil people.
3. Superiority—Citing some of the many places in the Talmud where Gentiles are to be treated differently than Jews. This further fuels the fires of an international Jewish conspiracy, not the least of which being the plot “brought to light” in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. There is even a very large, well designed hate page, WWW.holywar.org who’s homepage’s background consists of anti-swastika signs, and demands that the readers fight the international Jewish racism. This is not anti-antisemitism, it is saying that the Jewish beliefs are racist and should be stopped.
4. Lies—Items are pointed to in the Talmud which are, or have shown to be false. At the very least, these are cited to show that the beliefs are out of date. Generally, it is to demonstrate Jews as liars or are by being misled by liars.
5. Wickedness—Using comments of the Rabbis, the Jews are shown to be the wicked people that they have been portrayed as.
6. Anti-denial—These are a rather creative twist. To stop a counter point from Jewish groups, the quotes relating to dealing with heretics, and claim that the Jews are commanded to lie about, in order to defend the writings if they come under attack.
7. Holocaust denial—As further proof that the Holocaust never occurred, the Talmud is cited.
8. Slave trade—The Jewish slave trade is one of the more recent arguments of antisemites. Not only, they contend, were the Jews responsible for bringing over the African slaves to the New World, but Jews continue to this day with an international slave trade.
9. Anti-Arab – I have actually seen one quote that has been used, but it is quoted and requoted often. The line from Kedushin 72a, which has been translated as “Arabs are demons of the privy.”
10. Antichrist— Certainly the most true of them all are the antichrist points made. Jews are portrayed as the Antichrists because the Jewish people simply, and accurately, are and were, anti-Christ.

Checking and inspecting every one of these claims of the Talmud, by going back to the Aramaic or the Hebrew would be an interesting task. Some of the statements are true, certainly the anti-Jesus ones. It does say in Gitten 57a, as they point out in the Facts section on WWW.Stormfront.org, that Jesus is being burned in hot excrement in hell. The story in Masechet Kalla, on 51a, where Rabbi Akiva tricks a woman, whom most commeuntators agree is Mary, into admitting that her obnoxious child was the product of an affair during her Nida period is cited by the Wiswell page. I had learned the same story in Yeshiva. Christians have a right to be offended at these quotes, but in the same vein, the New Testament (as pointed out by many sites, including the Wiswell I just referred to) insults the Jews a great deal. These led to fights during the Middle Ages, but since then, the Judeo-Christian community has for the most part tried to learn to get along with each other.

Finding hatred between the two beliefs is not that big an issue, nor a surprise. Depending on which side of the fence on one is on, the Christians broke off from the Jews who were the original line, or the Jews broke off from the Christians, who were the vast majority in number. (This is ignoring the belief of many of the sites that the Jews of today are of really of Kazarian descent, which I find flawed.) Either way, resentment of the other in writing, especially near the time of the split, should not come as a surprise.

The others points are more powerful. The effort to prove absurdity is rather strong, with the rhetorical questions, “What kind of religion is this?” or “This is supposed to be a legitimate religion?” showing up frequently. On WWW.Stormfront.org, there’s this piece called “One Woman’s Diary,” which are the supposedly true gripes of this female bigot, and the problems of being a bigot in today’s society. In one entry, she complains how her boycott of with a mark of kashrut has gotten more difficult si, “I found out that the Jews sometimes mark their food with a ‘U’ instead of a ‘K.’ What kind of religion would do that?”

Often, their arguments are better than the previous, and the Gemorah does offer a share of strange answers. Wiswell and Stormfront both mock Massechet Gitten, p.69a, where it describes the healing powers of dog stool. That is what the Gemora says; commentators have at times tried to explain a deeper level to the instructions, that it isn’t literale. Some, though few however, Kabbalistic authorities to this day have been known to take this type explanation literally.

Generally however, their claims to absurdity are by taking stories. Told in Avoda Zora 17a is one of my favorite stories in the Gemora, where it describes Rabbi Elezar had slept with every prostitute but one, and then right when he is about to sleep with the last one. “Goes Ba’alei Tshuva” is the story that has always told me that there isn’t a line of no return; anybody acan be reformed no matter how much they had done. Wiswell covers it with “Aboda Zarah [sic] 17a. States that there is not a whore in the world who Rabbi Eleazar has not slept with.” Most of the anti-Talmud pages have a =list of pages and the quotes that they find interesting to them.

The midrash in Yivamot 63a that indicates that teaches the female body to be perfectly assembled by God after Adam in vain tried all the other animals first is noted as, “Yebamoth 63a. States that Adam had sexual intercourse. With all the animals in the Garden of Eden.” Expressed in such a manner, it comes across as the opposite meaning—it seems that the Rabbis allowed beastiality.

But, Judaism is not treated here as just an absurd religion to be laughed at. A Jew is immoral, which can supposedly be proved by the Talmud. WWW.Creator.org/facts!/ in their “Why have the Jews persecuted for their religion?” section, talks about Kol Nidre as “Nedarim. 23b. ‘He who desires that none of his vows made during the year be valid, let him stand at the beginning of the year and declare, ‘Every vow which I may make in the future Shall be null.” His vows are then invalid.”

Obviously, the clarification of ben adam l’makom as opposed to ben adam l’chavero is ignored. The point is to convince the world that the Jews are an immoral people. In the same vein, Jews have serious pedofilic problems by the Wiswell account. They rattle off their list; “Sanhedrin 55b. A Jew may marry a three year old girl (specifically, three years ‘and a day.’)\ Sanhedrin 54b. A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine years old. \ Kethuboth 11b. ‘When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl, it means nothing.’”

In general, the Jews come off as perverts. The next reference after the pedofile list is, “Yebamoth 59b. A woman who had intercourse with a beast is eligible to marry a Jewish priest. A woman who has sex with a demon is also eligible to marry a Jewish priest.” Again no clarification is given.