This lesson plan is based on an Op-Ed article by Abraham Foxman that originally appeared in the New York Jewish Week on March 15, 2002, and is excerpted from a speech given to the Anti-Defamation League’s National Executive Committee in Palm Beach, FL, on February 8, 2002. The intent of this lesson is help students become aware of and understand current anti-Semitic incidents around the world.

Goals:

• To help participants become aware of contemporary expressions of anti-Semitism.
• To help participants reflect on issues relating to anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
• To encourage participants to take an active role in combatting anti-Semitism.

Age:
High School and up

Lesson

1. Set Induction:
   Before reading the article, engage the participants in the following activities and discussions:
   1. In March 2002, Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University in Al-Dammama, Saudi Arabia, published two articles in the official government newspaper, Al-Riyadh, claiming that Jews used the blood of a Moslem child to prepare hamentachen for Purim. Later, the editor of the newspaper said the anti-Semitic articles should not have been published and that the articles are not based on any historical or scientific fact, but are against every religious ritual in the world. He has also said that the newspaper will no longer publish articles by Dr. Al-Jalahma.
      • Do you know any stories of other “blood libels” that have been made at other times in history? If not, please do some research to learn about this topic.
      • How does this new “blood libel” make you feel?
      • What do you think about the newspaper editor’s statement?
      • Why do you think that the editor printed this article in the first place?
      • If such an article was published by a college professor in the U.S., what do you think the reaction would be?
   2. Following is a list of five “-ism”s. Please define each in your own words. You may use a dictionary to help you.
      • Racism
      • Anti-Semitism
      • Nationalism
      • Judaism
      • Zionism
   3. In 1975, the United Nations adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism. Many Jews and non-Jews demon- strated against this resolution until it was finally rescinded in 1991.
      • Why do you think that the U.N. adopted this resolution in 1975?
      • Would you have taken part in demonstrations against the U.N.? Why or why not?
2. Tell the participants the following:
   The article you are about to read was written by a Holocaust survivor. The writer, Abraham Foxman, is a prominent national Jewish leader. He heads the Anti-Defamation League, which dedicates itself to fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.
3. Have the participants read the article in sections and discuss the questions following each section.

This is an assessment of the world scene as it relates to the Jewish people, which I believed would never have to be pronounced after the Shoah. Because of the baggage I carry, I had always hoped and believed that the world had learned something from the horror of the Holocaust.

My greatest nightmare has always been that one day I would wake up and something terrible would happen in America and we, Jews and Israel, would be blamed. It happened, on September 11.

The world may be different, but history has taught us that in times of great stress, instability and unpredictability, there is one thing that is predictable – anti-Semitism. When Europe was being decimated by the Plague, Jews were blamed and Jews were killed.

Fast-forward a couple of hundred years to Malaysia’s economic crisis. Millions of Malaysians were told by their leader that they were suffering because the Jews, who control the world’s finances, decided to punish them because they support Palestinians. After a devastating earthquake, Mexicans were told the Jews were responsible for the hundreds of deaths because Jews controlled the building trade and were more interested in money than lives of the poor.

When the charge was made that Jews, Israel, and the Mossad were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, some of us chuckled. But it didn’t take long to realize it was not a joking matter. Today, in the Arab world, Asia, and Europe, newspapers, radio and TV carry the big lie that has become a “truth” – Jews are to blame. How classically anti-Semitic!

I am convinced we are facing a threat as great, if not greater, to the safety and security of the Jewish people than we faced in the thirties. Greater, because forty percent of the Jewish people are centered in one tiny geographic location.

Today we live in a global village in the midst of a great technological revolution that provides knowledge, information, education, and enlightenment, while also being a superhighway for hate. A sermon in Cairo travels across the globe within minutes, through the networks, the Internet, e-mail, and Al Jazeera. Globalization facilitates the incitement and hate that makes the message of anti-Semitism more potent and gives it strength and a power of seduction that it never before had in history.

Consider also the delicate line between anti-Israel and anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism. We have had to define for ourselves when anti-Israel and anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. For me, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Remember the UN resolution declaring Zionism is racism? What it said was that what it is permissible, laudatory, and universally accepted for all peoples in the world — self-expression, self-determination, independence, sovereignty — is not permitted to Jews. It didn’t say Irish nationalism is racist, or Rwandan nationalism or French or Palestinian nationalism. It said Jewish nationalism is racist. That is anti-Semitism. And it is still with us.

Take Durban and the UN World Conference Against Racism (September 2001). The lesson of Durban makes what is happening throughout the world today much more dangerous and sinister. At the turn of this millennium and century, the nations of the world decided that, since the world has paid such a heavy price for racism, the community of nations would unite to set standards for dealing with racism. Yet the necessary need for the world to set standards of behavior was never realized. Just one subject united them all — the Jewish people and their Jewish “racism.”

We should not have been surprised. The moment a planning meeting was held in Teheran, we should have known the direction Durban would take. What was frightening was that, aside from the U.S. and some belated statements from a very few countries, the world permitted the highjacking of the conference to delegitimize the Jewish people. Good people found it impossible to raise voice, to vote against it, or to walk out.

Since the events of Sept. 11, we are being told that the world has changed. The fact that the UN continues to vote against Israel the way that it does is another significant lesson that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

What if there is another calamity? What if there will be a greater price to be paid and will have to be paid? Who will stand with us, by us, for us? When the finger will again be U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel?

In France, synagogues are being burned and Jewish children are being attacked. We are being told these events are the result of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but we know it to be anti-Semitism. It is politically expedient for French leaders to remain silent as elections loom with several million Arab votes at stake. They avoid calling the actions anti-Semitism, putting them under the guise of the Middle East conflict or simply crimes. The burning of a synagogue in France, or anywhere, has nothing to do with the Middle East. It is an act of anti-Semitism.

We can no longer tolerate such euphemisms because they are very dangerous. So what must we do? We must tell the truth and credibly expose those who condone anti-Semitism. We challenge leadership to stand up and say this is anti-Semitism and it is unacceptable. We must motivate good people, increase our efforts, and raise our voices. We must develop more creative response mechanisms, because the crisis is here now, and the danger is real.

We do not have the luxury of erring on the side of caution because the signs are there to be read. What we do have is the will not to permit history to repeat itself.

Abraham H. Foxman is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. Foxman is a Holocaust survivor.