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Anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent is a phrase widely used in discussion of aspects of the New Anti-Semitism, including discussions of Divestment from Israel, Israel and the apartheid analogy and the Israel Lobby.

The phrase is sometimes rendered "Anti-Semitic in effect if not intent."

History

The phrase was popularized during a divestment campaign at Harvard University in 2002 during which Harvard President Larry Summers called divestment from Israel "anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent."[1]

According to Ron Rosenbaum Summers was reacting not merely to the Harvard divestment campaign, but to a new and larger phenomenon in which left-wing rhetoric in the United States and particularly on American university campuses features "anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and sometimes anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery.[2] According to Summers, "(P)rofoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities. Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in effect if not intent."[3]

The phrase had been used by others before Summers, particularly in literary criticism, including discussion of the poetry of Ezra Pound[4] and other writers employing anti-Semitic stereotypes. [5]

Other uses

Since Summers remarks, the phrase has been used in a wide variety of contexts.

James Taranto of the The Wall Street Journal states that "Walt and Mearsheimer's method of analysis presumes Israel's guilt. Every past or present Israeli transgression is evidence of its wickedness, whereas Arab ones, if they are acknowledged at all, are 'understandable.' This approach paints a highly misleading picture. It is anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent."[6]

Commenting on the vote of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from Israel, Alan Dershowitz stated that "The actions of the Presbyterian Church are utterly immoral and anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent."[7]

The phrase has been used to criticize Harvard University for its "role in legitimizing the Nazi regime" in the 1930's.[8]

The phrase has been applied to a wide range of situations in which individuals pursuing other goals employ anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery. Examples have included contemporary productions of Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.[9] and Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ. [10]

References

  1. ^ Harvard’s First Jewish President, Michelle Crulli, Harvard Crimson, March 8, 2006, [1]
  2. ^ Those who forget the past: the question of anti-Semitism, Ron Rosenbaum, editor, Random House, Inc., 2004, p. 1, [2]
  3. ^ Those who forget the past: the question of anti-Semitism, Ron Rosenbaum, editor, Random House, Inc., 2004, p. 1, [3]
  4. ^ A preface to Ezra Pound, Peter Wilson, Longman, 1997, p. 114.
  5. ^ Ethnic passages: literary immigrants in twentieth-century America, Thomas J. Ferraro, University of Chicago Press, 1993, p. 54.
  6. ^ [4], The Wall Street Journal, Editorial Page, March 20, 2006
  7. ^ Q&A with Alan Dershowitz, Concordia has lost its status as a real university by its bigoted and cowardly actions, Oct. 25, 2005, Jerusalem Post [5]
  8. ^ An Apology Seventy Years Late, November 23, 2004, Michael Gould-Wartofsky, Harvard Crimson, [6]
  9. ^ The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups,Ron Rosenbaum, Random House, Inc., 2008, p. 293 [7]
  10. ^ At cross purposes on the Passion. April 9, 2004, The Age,, Australia [8]







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