Philo-Semitism

Orde Wingate, a notable Christian Zionist and hero of the Yishuv, loved by leaders who trained under him such as Zvi Brenner and Moshe Dayan who claimed that Wingate "taught us everything we know"

Philo-Semitism (also spelled philosemitism) or Judeophilia is an interest in, respect for, and appreciation of the Jewish people, their historical significance, and the positive impacts of Judaism on the world, particularly on the part of a gentile. It is distinct from but embodied in Christian Zionism.

Within the Jewish community philo-Semitism includes the significance of Jewish culture and the love of everything Jewish.

Overview

The concept of philo-Semitism is not new, avowed by such thinkers as 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who described himself as a "anti-anti-Semite".^[1] Enjoying a recent surge, it is characterized by an interest in Jewish culture and history and manifested in increasing university enrollment by non-Jews in courses such as Judaism, Hebrew, and Jewish languages.^{[citation needed]}

Philo-Semitism has been met by a mixed response from the Jewish community. Some warmly welcome it and argue that it must lead Jews to reconsider their identity.^[2] Others, citing the special status that it implicitly gives to Jews even as its apparent opposite anti-Semitism does, reject it as running contrary to the Zionist goal of making Jewry "a nation among nations."

Philo-Semitism is an expression of the larger phenomenon of Allophilia, admiration of foreign cultures as embodied in the more widely known Anglophilia and Francophilia. The rise of philo-Semitism has also prompted some to reconsider Jewish history, and they argue that while anti-Semitism must be acknowledged, it is wrong to reduce the history of the Jewish people to one merely of suffering (as has been fostered by well-meaning gentile philo-Semites).

Even though a non-Jew is not required to convert to Judaism or may even be advised against doing so, Halakha (Jewish religious law) does require all non-Jews to abide by certain commandments. These are the Seven Laws of Noah, and gentiles who accepts the Seven Laws in their traditional interpretation identify as Noahides.

From history, one notable example of philo-Semitism is that of the Polish king Casimir III the Great. While the Jewish emancipation wouldn't begin in other countries until toward the end of the 1700s, in Poland Jews had been granted the freedom of worship, trade and travel in 1264 by Bolesław the Pious. In 1334 Jews persecuted across Europe were invited to Poland by Casimir the Great, who, in particular, vowed to protect them as "people of the king".^[3] Eventually more than half of world Jewry was living in Poland, which kept its status as the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.^[4]

Wojciech Gerson, Casimir the Great and the Jews

Very few Jews live in Eastern Asia, but are viewed there in especially positive light. In countries such as Korea^[5] and China^[6] Jews are positively stereotyped as intelligent, business savvy and committed to family values and responsibility, while in the West the first of the two aforementioned stereotypes have the negatively-interpreted equivalents of guile and greed. In South Korean primary schools the Talmud is mandatory reading.^[5] In World War II Japan put efforts into helping Jews escape demise by the Nazis, even though Japan was a member of the Axis alliance. The Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives; in 1985 was honored by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.

The Italian-American singer Madonna once called herself an "ambassador for Judaism"—during a meeting with Prime Minister of Israel Shimon Peres, where they exchanged gifts, Madonna giving him a volume of the Zohar inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna".^[7] Even though she does not practice Judaism, she has studied Kabbalah, given her son a bar mitzva celebration and taken a Hebrew name: Esther (אסתר).

Definition controversy

The commonsense definition of a "philosemite" as "a non-Jew who expresses support or admiration for the Jewish people, is not accepted by all scholars. Some academics raise questions regarding the problem of the "idealisation" of the Jewish people as expressed by Christian Zionists. Others pose the dilemma of anti-Semitism in the form of Philosemitism, in which well-meaning members of other faiths seek to convert Jews by professing a love for their culture. The term philosemitism arose as a pejorative in Germany to describe positive prejudice towards Jews, in other words a philosemite is a "Jew-lover" or "Jew-friend". ^[8]

See also

• Christian Hebraist
• Concerning the Jews
• Anglican Friends of Israel
• International Christian Embassy
• Judeo-Christian
• Ger toshav
• Righteous Among the Nations
• Righteous gentile
• Noahidism

References

Sources

• Alan Edelstein. An Unacknowledged Harmony: Philo-Semitism and the Survival of European Jewry. (Contributions in Ethnic Studies). ISBN 0-313-22754-3
• David S. Katz. Philo-Semitism and the Readmission of the Jews to England, 1603-1655. ISBN 0-19-821885-0
• Hilary L. Rubinstein & William D. Rubinstein. Philosemitism: Admiration and Support in the English-Speaking World for Jews, 1840-1939. (Studies in Modern History). ISBN 0-312-22205-X
• Frank Stern. The Whitewashing of the Yellow Badge: Antisemitism and Philosemitism in Postwar Germany. (Studies in Antisemitism) ISBN 0-08-040653-X
• Marion Mushkat. Philo-Semitic and Anti-Jewish Attitudes in Post-Holocaust Poland. (Symposium Series, Vol 33). ISBN 0-7734-9176-7
• Frank Stern. Im Anfang war Auschwitz : Antisemitismus und Philosemitismus im deutschen Nachkrieg. ISBN 3-88350-459-9
• Gertrude Himmelfarb. The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, From Cromwell to Churchill. ISBN 1-59403-570-9

External links

• Washington Post, January 8, 2006; page A01.
• "On Philo-Semitism", by Jacques Berlinerblau, Georgetown University's Program for Jewish Civilization.