Anti-Semitism: The "socialism of fools" and the banality of evil

 

Photo: Algemeiner

From the Marin Independent Journal:

Petition calls for action against anti-Semitism in Marin schools

By Keri Brenner

September 29, 2020

Almost 5,500 people have signed a new petition calling for Marin school and law enforcement officials to take quick steps against those involved in recent anti-Semitic postings on social media targeting Marin Jewish students.

“Immediate action is required to prevent the verbal and physiological abuse from progressing into a physical,” said petition co-organizer Samantha Glickman in a note on change.org where the petition was posted. “I don’t want to be a statistic in a national news story headline about a district that failed to take preventative measures.”

Last month, several Instagram accounts linked to the Tam district’s Redwood High School in Larkspur called out names of various Marin students they said were Jewish. The accounts, which have since been taken down, asked followers to identify more names, because they said they were “compiling a Google doc” that listed all the Jews.

The latter is a particularly chilling evocation for many Jewish people of the lists made in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust of Jews who were set to be rounded up and killed.

“We are frightened because our names could be on that list,” said Glickman and petition co-organizer Lindsay Felder, a fellow Redwood senior. “The list of Jewish students paired with the image of the swastika and the bullet produces an uncanny resemblance to the use of lists during the Nazi Regime. The idea of going back to school with a student whose beliefs align with those of Nazis is inconceivable.”

The petition notes that Marin school officials have quickly addressed other recent protests over racism or bigotry involving non-Jewish ethic groups — such as the controversy over changing the name of Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo because of Drake’s alleged ties to the slave trade.

But no action has been taken yet to stop the Redwood anti-Semitic Instagram postings — even though some school students say they brought it to school officials’ attention in March...

Rob's comment:

I graduated from Redwood High School way back in 1960. I don't remember any anti-Semitism in my youth, except being baffled when I witnessed a Catholic kid in grade school harass a Jewish kid. 

I had no idea what that was about, since neither of my parents took any interest in religion of any kind, which, in retrospect I appreciate. That was at least one layer of bullshit I never had to struggle with. 

I only learned about historical anti-Semitism as a young man when I read Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

Arendt's banality of evil concept is still valid and helpful in understanding Donald Trump and his followers.

Marin, however, was clearly a racist county, since all black people then lived in Marin City, which is probably still more or less true. This was evident to everyone, even us children, but I never heard anyone talk about it.

See Racism is of “immediate local importance.”