Threat of anti-Semitism growing in Kalamazoo (?)

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Threat of anti-Semitism growing in Kalamazoo, Yale expert says
(Of all places???   :shock:  )
By Simon Thalmann
September 19, 2009, 8:56AM

KALAMAZOO -- Anti-Semitism exists globally and at a level prevalent enough to lead to a potential Jewish genocide, according to a leading Jewish scholar and anti-Semitism expert.

Charles Asher Small, founder and director of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, spoke Sunday on the issue of contemporary anti-Semitism as the featured guest of the Jewish Federation of Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan's 2009 Campaign Kickoff.

The kickoff highlighted the efforts of the Jewish Federation and United Jewish Communities -- the Federation's umbrella organization -- to raise money for Jewish communities worldwide.

Small said that aid is needed at what he called an "auspicious moment" in the Jewish community, given notable threats he said are posed to Israel from both Iran and radical Islam, the latter which he said is becoming genocidal.
On the Web

The Jewish Federation of Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan: http://www.jewishkalamazoo.org

Temple B'nai Israel of Kalamazoo: http://www.templebnaiisrael.com

Congregation of Moses of Kalamazoo: http://www.congregationofmoses.org

"The anti-Semitism of radical Islam -- not Islam and not Muslims but political, radical Islam -- anti-Semitism, the destruction and annihilation of the state of Israel and the killing of Jewish people, is at its core," Small told a group of about 50 people gathered at a home in Kalamazoo.

"And we in the West -- human rights activists, leading scholars, leading political figures -- have basically remained silent and have acquiesced, in my opinion, to this threat. And by acquiescing, we actually aid and abet."

Question of land

The Yale center Small heads is dedicated to the "scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with anti-Semitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, including racism, as it relates to policy," the center's Web site says. One of the origins of Islamic anti-Semitism, Small said, is land.

"In Islam, it's important for Muslims to have self-determination over Islamic land, and the Jews, through the state of Israel, are the only non-Muslims in the Muslim world or the Islamic world that have self-determination over land," Small said.

"And this sort of flies in the face of the theological world view of radical Islam, so it's not compatible that Jews have self-determination over Islamic land."

Israel is fighting a war against reactionaries that is complicated by the reactionaries' pursuit of nuclear weapons, Small said.

Small said he attended a meeting about nine months ago organized by an anti-nuclear-proliferation organization that included representatives from China, Russia, the European Union, Canada, the United States and Israel, at which all present agreed Iran was working to build a nuclear weapon. The only questions were how long it would take and whether Iran would actually use it.

"The issue is to stop Iran from getting the bomb," Small said.

Not just the Jews

He said the impulse behind anti-Semitism usually targets other marginalized groups.

"Once you start unleashing this disease and virus of anti-Semitism, other marginal groups become the next victim, and then eventually the society turns on itself, and violence is unleashed," he said.

"So to stop this, I think Obama and the American government needs to understand what's happening, and I would urge you within your community really to start to learn immediately the language of genocidal anti-Semitism, because the threat is literally now."

Not a problem here

Judy Davis, a retired financial manager from Kalamazoo and a member of Kalamazoo's Congregation of Moses, said she agrees with most of what Small said in his speech. She said that while she has not experienced anti-Semitism in Kalamazoo, she has does have friends with relatives in other countries who are afraid for their safety.

"There are Jews in France who have been physically assaulted," Davis said. "You have Jews in Argentina who have been bombed. There are places in the world where it is less safe to be a Jew."

Stephen Grode, a chemist from Portage, also of the Congregation of Moses, said he hasn't experienced anti-Semitism as an adult and was surprised to hear of its extent on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum.

"I would've thought that anti-Semitism was something that was really of history," Grode said. "But it's really not; it's a current thing."

Anne Fischell, a former Stanford University professor and member of Kalamazoo's Congregation of Moses, hosted the kickoff event at her home. She said Small's talk helped open her eyes to radical trends in contemporary anti-Semitism.

"It really worried me," Fischell said of the speech. "I guess I'm way too complacent about anti-Semitism in the world, and it was very scary what he spoke about. It's not that I agree with it, but I'm worried about it. I'm glad that he brought it to our attention."  (IDIOT!!!)

http://www.mlive.com/living/kalamazoo/i ... owing.html