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28

February 12 • 2015

MSU law/religion professor and author
Frank Ravitz during one of his many
trips to Japan.

Louis Finkelman
Special to the Jewish News

24o-494-0225

www.tutoringcenter.com

Japan
And The
Jews

MSU law
professor
keeps an eye
on Japanese
views on Jews.

k

ci

world

S

o few Jewish people live in
Japan that most Japanese
probably have never met any
Jews, so they generally have no opinions
about them. However, the beginning of
a disturbing trend has one experienced
observer concerned about the future
image of Jews in that country.
The topic matters to Frank Ravitch, a
professor at Michigan State University
Law School, who holds the Walter H.
Stowers Chair in Law and Religion.
Ravitch also directs the MSU College of
Law's summer study abroad program
at Doshisha University in Kyoto. He fre-
quently visits Japan and has learned to
speak Japanese.
He says some Japanese, interestingly,
believe they are descendants of one of the
lost tribes or of later Jewish immigrants,
but Ravitz says "DNA evidence doesn't
bear it out.'
Other Japanese feel real admiration for
Jews, stemming from encounters with
Japanese self-help books advising readers
how to succeed as well as Jews do. These
books borrow a European image of all
Jews as well-educated, creative in busi-
ness and financially successful.
Ravitz recalls that a stranger in a
Japanese bar, upon learning that Ravitch
is Jewish, casually asked, "Tell me how
you Jews get to be so successful?"
After a moment's hesitation, he replied,
"Not all Jews are successful."
The stranger said, "Really? I did not
know:'
However, another set of books presents
ugly stereotypes about Jews. Ravitch says
some mainstream Japanese publishers
put out some "really terrible, anti-Semitic
books," drawing on ideas from European
sources. They are less popular than the
positive books, but still can be found in
mainstream bookstores.
The anti-Semitic tracts made quite an
appearance in Japan in the late 1980s, but
their influence has since waned, Ravitz

said. When a major newspaper, Sankai
Shinbun, recently carried an advertise-
ment for one such book, Jewish organiza-
tions protested and the paper printed an
apology.
A new trend has Ravitch concerned:
Faculty members trained in Europe who
come or return to Japan are preaching
the kind of anti-Semitism disguised as
political anti-Zionism that has become
popular in Europe. Ravitch identifies
Yuzoi Itagaki, who taught at "the Harvard
of Japan, Tokyo University" as "probably
the best example of an anti-Semite in the
guise of an anti-Israelist in mainstream
Japanese academia."
Fortunately, a few scholars of Middle
East studies in Japan have responded to
this academic attack on Israel and Jews
with balanced and excellent scholarship.
Ravitch is heartened that, even at the
schools where fashionable anti-Semites
teach, their political views have generally
not trickled down to students, according
to recent surveys. In fact, some students
seem to develop a more positive view of
Jews in response to one-sided professorial
preaching against Israel.
European anti-Israel canards remain
worrisome, though. In Europe as well,
it took years before academic prejudice
against Israel influenced students and the
general public.
Despite his worries about the future,
Ravitch maintains that a traveler is much
more likely to encounter anti-Semitic
ideas in the United States, Europe or
Australia than in Japan.
In addition to his academic writing,
Ravitch's first volume of a projected series
of historical novels recounting the tale of
a Jewish family in Japan is available.
The Accidental Samurai tells the story
of a Jewish warrior, trained in China,
who moves to Japan in the 10th century.
The novel has yet to appear in Japanese;
when it does, the author hopes it will
have a positive effect on the image of
Jews in the minds of the Japanese. Most
of all, though, he feels pleased that it "is
just a good story"

❑

