Anti-Semitism: esse est percipi
According to a report by British Parliamentarians (Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism, September 2006), an anti-Semitic incident is one in which a person’s actions are “perceived” to be anti-Semitic by the “Jewish community.” In other words, it does not matter whether somebody’s speech or actions are anti-Semitic, it only matters whether they are perceived to be anti-Semitic by Jews. So like Berkeley’s world, to be is to be perceived.
This reminds me of a scene from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” After a tennis match Allen asks his partner:
“Did you hear what that guy we were playing against said to me?”
“No, what.”
“I asked him if he ate yet and he said: `No. D’you? Did Jew eat? Jew?’ “How could he say that?”
Norman Finkelstein offers a fuller analysis of the Report.
Michael, can we get you to come on The Narrow Mind audio broadcast to discuss presuppositional apologetics.
Monday, September 18 Kim Riddlebarger
Tuesday, September 19 - Marcia Montenegro
Monday, September 25 - Paul Copan
Wednesday, September 27 - Greg Stafford
Tuesday, September 26 - R. K. Mcgregor Wright
Thursday, September 28 - Jill Martin-Rische
Friday, September 29 - Tim Morris
Monday, October 2 - John Frame
Tuesday, October 3 - Melvin Jones
Also Jay Adams, Sam Harris and others.
Look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ,
Comment by Jeff Downs — September 15, 2006 @ 1:25 pm
Speaking of Norman Finkelstein, Alan Dershowitz is leading a campaign to stop him from receiving tenure at DePaul University. Finkelstein’s scholarly sin is that he exposed Dershowitz’s plagiarism and that he is a trenchant critic of Israel’s racist policies and what he calls “the Holocaust Industry.” See here to get caught up on the case.
Comment by MRB — April 20, 2007 @ 9:57 am
DePaul University denied tenure to Finkelstein. Anyone in academia who asks the wrong questions about Judaics risks ending their career — even Judaic scholars. See here.
Comment by MRB — June 18, 2007 @ 2:26 pm