12 Friday, November 6, 19131 THE DETROIT JEWISH MEWS Bias in Lightly-Disguised Garb The New Anti-Semitism: A Threat to Jewry and Western Society By SIMON GRIVER World Zionist Press Service JERUSALEM — Deadly diseases have a habit of re- visiting mankind in in- creasingly virulent strains. Historically Jews were per- secuted for their religion, while in modern times they have been slaughtered for being, a race. And today we are witnessing the emergence of anti-Zionism, which only a generation after six million Jews died in the Holocaust negates the very existence of a Jewish people and denies their right to self determi- nation in the state of Israel. The World Zionist Organ- ization, in its capacity as leader of world Zionism, has now established a task force to spearhead the fight against anti-Zionism. Chairman of the Depart- ment of Information, Eli Eyal,.told a recent gather- ing of the General Zionist Council in Jerusalem that UN resolution 3379, equat- ing Zionism with Racism, was a libel as weighty as the Damascus blood libel and the Dreyfus Affair. "This libel," he asserted, "reeks of the Final Solution. - But anti-Zionism is a plague that is cunningly re- sistant to many of the medicines traditionally used to cure anti-Semitism. As Eyal warns, "Identifica- tion of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is possible and even appropriate but at other times it is harmful." The main thrust of anti-Zionism unques- tionably comes from the unholy alliance between the Soviet Union and the Arab world, linked to neo-Nazi groups in the West. But while anti- Semitism has always fo- cused on groundless lies, anti-Zionism is built around distortions and half-truths of Zionism as a legitimate liberation movement. Anti-Zionism uses classical anti- Semitism, while at the same time generating a new anti-Semitism. The game is the same but the rules are different. Well-intentioned and in- telligent people can be eas- ily tricked if they hear only one side of the story. As Father James McWhirter, a Free Church minister now living in Jerusalem, told Is- rael Scene Magazine, "I was an anti-Zionist," he re- called. "I had visited the West Bank as a journalist when the territory was in Jordanian hands. I was taken round the refugee camps and was outraged by what I saw. "I saw only human tragedy, not the politics that caused these wretched people to be used as a whip- ping post against Israel. And I said 'Damn these Jews for causing such prob- lems.' - Such sentiments reflect how anti-Zionism in the West can either be combat- ted through persuasion Or lead to anti-Semitism. The main aim of the WZO will be to increase aware- ness of the nature of the problem and to give Jews and non-Jews alike an understanding of whom the battle is against. Too few Jews, let alone non-Jews, possess the knowledge to counter fatuous anti- Zionism arguments, which are often put forward by Jews themselves. Many young Jews on NnvrvArp TAI university campuses feel a valid point has been made when Arabs tell 514Y DONT YOU :HMG: 7..7? them that they cannot be anti-Semitic because they too are Semitic. They are not aware enough to counter that the logic of this is that Hitler would not harm Europeans because he too was European. In the face of slick and well-paid Palestinian prop- aganda, Zionists cannot and should not morally try to avoid difficult issues like the Arab refugee problem. This cartoon appeared in London's Sunday Observer on Nov. 16, 1975. This does not mean that the Israeli cause is one for Shimon Peres in praising right to exist is promoted Zionist deeds. At women's appologists. Chaim Weiz- this new effort pointed out rights conferences the red then the logical conclu- mann's theory that the es- that "only through initia- herring of the suppression sion can only be another tablishment of Israel fol- tive, resolve and publicity of Palestinian women's holocaust. lowed the line of the least can we convince world pub- rights has replaced real is- injustice should be ex- The situation that the lic opinion of the justice of sues. pounded. Most importantly, WZO task force hopes to our cause." the cynical role that the counter is a dire one. The This phenomenon is re- Arab states have played in Western media is riddled flected in the title of an To be sure, anti - Zionism aggravating the Palesti- with support for a Palesti- embodies the deepest clan, essay by Prof. Irc-ing Louis nian problem should be ex- nian state of the PLO which gers. It paves the way for a Horowitt entitled "From posed. As the French would deprive Jews of the new anti-Semitism, paint- Pariah People to Pariah Na- philosopher Bernard . tion." He also calls anti- right to self-determination ing anti-Semitic Henri-Levi stated on a re- and lead to a conflict far stereotypes in all fields of Zionism the nationalism of cent visit to Israel, "The bloodier than Lebanon, fools and a chauvinistic society. It undermines the Arab bourgeoisie, which which Yasir Arafat upholds legitimacy of Israel itself movement uniting right prevented the establish- as the desired secular demo- and by suggesting that its and left. ment of an independent cratic blueprint for his moral foundation is rotten Palestinian state in 1948, Indeed, in some senses state. On university cam- questions the need for its used the Palestinians as the situation is worse puses Israel's supporters existence. And most impor- cannon fodder." than it seems. Many gov- are intimidated and some- tantly it is a tool of the Just as the Jews were ernments, most notably times banned as "racists Soviet Union and its Third scapegoats for the problems in Latin America, that are and fascists." World allies in their-strug- of their host nations, so Is- among Israel's most ar- The WZO task force will gle against the Western rael is to blame for the prob- dent supporters, practice democracies. In this sense coordinate with Israel's lems of the world. Arab gov- abhorrent anti-Semitism Foreign Ministry and major anti-Zionism fulfills the ernments use the "Zionist on their own population. Jewish bodies throughout same role as anti-Semitism threat" to paper over inter- A revolution, as in Iran, the world to fight on an on- in Germany during the nal divisions. In Iran and or shifting international 1930s. going basis a struggle which even in Poland, where few alliances, as ini3lack Af- is global in scope and fateful Jews remain, the Zionists rica, can bring popular Taking up this sinister in importance. Reactions are said to be the cause of anti-Semitism to the fore from Israel's political lead- challenge is of vital impor- domestic problems. The and see Israel diplomati- tance for Jewish people ers has been enthusiastic. United Nations is pre- cally stabbed in the back. Prime Minister Menahem everywhere but it also has vented from executing its Not that criticism of Is- fundamental implications Begin has expressed ) ap- everyday work by Spurious rael means anti-Semitism proval, while Labor leader for all Western societies. motions co _pdemning . but once the denial of its Work of Artist Tormented by Nazis Is Republished the Academy and her resis- Kathe Kollwitz is an un- gains new significance. The noteworthy attention tance. They are: forgettable name in the ranks of the great German given to the revived interest • 1934-1937Works on artists who did not yield to in the Kollwitz art also is "Death," a series of eight Nazi pressures. emphasized in a foreword by lithographs. Five are shown She was an unyielding Lucy R. Lippard, the in the November exhibit of the Berlin Academy. She pacifist and her great art novelist and art critic. The essays are in transla- discourages the attempt on works emphasized her fear- lessness that was marked tion from the German by the part of some friends to have her reinstated in the Rita and Tobert Kimber. by courage. Her great record as an ar- Kathe Kollwitz as a Academy. She prefers to tist as well as a peace advo - pacificist is a major em - remain among the "Cen- cate is in evidence in a most phasis in the analyses of her sured" and be an example impressive collection of her life and works. for them. • 1936 = Unofficial ban The reader will be in- life's labors. Kollwitz: trigued by her resistance to on the exhibition of her "Kathe Graphics, Posters, Draw- the oppressive Nazi- work. Her original plaster ings" (Pantheon Books) is inspired practices of the for the figure of the mother the newest of the immense Prussian Academy of Art. in "The Parents" as well as her "Bronze Relief for a works by the great artist. It She resisted it fearlessly. A lengthy chronology of Family Grave" are removed contains 132 reproductions. Edited by Renate Hinz, the her life (1867-1945) con- from the Academy - exhibit German art historian who tains several entries which "Berlin Sculptors from lives in West Berlin, the life depict the manner of her Schluter to the Present." Interrogated by the Ges- story of Kathe Kollwitz having been persecuted by KATHE KOLLWITZ some in color, the life story of a courageous woman who defied the Nazi terror and associated with Jewish not- ables — this book is a classic of the arts and a tribute to a woman of skill and valor. "This is the first biog- raphy in English of the remarkable' German ar- tist. For more than 60 years Kollwitz expressed through her work the ideas that obsessed -her: the plight of the op- pressed, the causes of peace and social justice, the joys and sorrows of motherhood, and the mystery of death. "Married in her youth to a doctor, she bore him two sons, one of whom was kil- led in World War I. "Her earliest major suc- cess — a series of prints called 'Weavers,' based on a revolt of Silesian weavers as dramatized in a play by Gerhart Hauptmann — caused her to become known as the socialist artist.' tapo because of an interview she gave the Soviet news- paper Izvestia. • 1938 — The National Socialists have her statue "Tower of the Mothers" re- moved from the exhibit in the studio building on Klos- terstrasse. In 1975, Schocken Books issued "Kathe Kollwitz: Life in Art" and The Jewish News review (Oct. 17, 1975) "She continued all her life contains these comments on in her social concerns, and the book: in World War I produced "The 110 illustrations, some of her most powerful works to express her anti- war feelings. "Nevertheless, her outward life was not un- typical of an ordinary housewife, and it is from her experience as a mother that much of her most expressive work is formed. "Her last years were spent in the nightmare of Hitler's Germany where she was forbidden to teach and where her work was labeled 'degenerate.' "In this book the authors have brought together her life and art, showing through reproductions of her drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, and sculpture how each contrib- utes toward an understand- ing of this complex woman, one of our century's most moving artists." The new Pantheon edi- tion of the Kollwitz works enriches the record, memorializes the noted ar- tist. It is a marked tribute to an artist whose works will surely live as a tribute to a pacificist who resisted tyranny.