The Globalization... of Anti-Semitism

Polling data this week from The Anti-Defamation League found that many stereotypes about Jews are widely believed to be true. The Survey polled over 100 countries, many of whom have no direct relationship with Israel, to find that the main concentration is found in Middle Eastern Countries, which is not surprising, but also that prejudice beliefs are found in all countries surveyed. I would like to speculate that this is a product of globalization. In a globalized economy where the wealthy are owning stock in, or outright owning, textile production in the sweat shops of South-East Asia, or unsafe mining operations in Africa, or minimum wage offering businesses in the United States, laborers will more often look to the wealthy as the cause of their discontent. The chances of pointing to a Jewish person when doing that are fairly high. The Survey tries to make sense of a nation like South Korea, which has an estimated 100 permanent Jewish residents (It said that in the article, I doubt its true), having a higher than average level of anti-Semitic tendencies. They determined that Anti-Semitism is no product of proximity to Israel or of a large Jewish demographic. In a post for the Clash of Civilizations reading someone questioned why Jews were not one of the seven major cultures. This is because Jews has been transient -- meaning that they have been able to establish themselves in every country they have migrated into (or helped establish). There is no block of Jewish Culture bordering with other cultures, and because of this there is a higher probability of doing business dealings with Jewish people. Globalization has increased communication between all cultures, and therefore also increased the communication with Jews. There is little to dispute the fact that Jews are well represented among the elite, 1% class (if you will) when compared to their representation in the population. Many of those who, since 2008, have looked to Jews specifically as the root cause of the recession are extremists attempting to provoke political populism, but the same can be said of Occupy Wall Street, only that it anti-Semitism is veiled in greater goals such as egalitarianism. The Holocaust, and greater Western anti-Semitism at the time, could to an extent be attributed to the Depression -- people wanted a scapegoat. I wonder if this data points to the same type of thing, only now on a Global level. The Survey also found that The Holocaust, as a historical event from which to learn lessons, is meaning less and less as the generations the lived through it are dying. Its scary to think that such a powerful, moving tragedy could be diminished to the extent that it has in less than a century. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304655304579551974194329920 Mitch Wood