Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Great Regulars: In these few lines, all the classic tropes

of anti-Semitism are brought together. Jews deliberately murder non-Jewish children; they "feed" lies to unwitting Gentiles, presumably through their control of the media; they mock their dupes as "dumb goys"; they are as bad as Nazis. Yet when the obvious anti-Semitism of this poem was pointed out, Paulin--a highly respected figure in the British literary world--responded with another indignant poem called "On Being Dealt the Anti-Semite Card," in which he protested his innocence while once again comparing Jews to Nazis ("the usual cynical Goebbels stuff").

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: Albion's Shame

~~~~~~~~~~~

No comments :