Sabrina Sandoval

Professor Jay

Philosophy 327

16 May 2012

Question #1

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is a lawless order. Since all aspects of the world are

experienced in relation to the Jewish people, all forms of day-to-day encounters

begin to break down. Sartre says that anti-Semitism is the struggle of the citizen

against the authority (31). Which means that the anti-Semite refuses to adhere to

any social, or governmental laws where Jews are held as equals or afforded any

input whatsoever. If there is someone of Jewish decent in government office than

such authority holds no meaning and it is the anti-Semitic duty to disregard such

propaganda. If there is a professor, instructor or principal of Jewish decent, then all

academic notions set forth by the Jewish individual hold no real value and must be

publicly opposed. It is the order of the anti-Semites to disregard such authorities on

the basis that the Jews are impure and rob their perfect world of its perfection. Such

disregard for public authorities is the lawlessness of anti-Semites. The collective

reasoning to adhere to such lawlessness is the order of anti-Semitism.

According the Sartre, anti-Semitism is a type of personality, not simply a

personality trait. Someone would be categorized as an anti-Semite in the same way

they would be categorized as either outgoing or shy. This does not mean that being

anti-Semitic is as simple or non-threatening as being outgoing or shy. Instead, it

demonstrates how an adjective such as outgoing is often used to describe the

totality of a person’s nature. In both of these cases the adjectives themselves are

singular characteristics, but when used to describe a person, make up the whole of

their personality. He disagrees with the thought that anti-Semites are just people

who have anti-Semitic views and such views make up only a portion of their

personality. This is most clearly demonstrated when he discussed the case of the

fishmonger. The fishmonger, bothered by competing against Jews, publicly

denounced them (Sarte, 21). Yet, others described him as an otherwise decent man.

By Sartre’s definition, this cannot be. Just as a person cannot simultaneously be both

outgoing and shy, neither can he or she be both anti-Semitic and a decent person.

Anti-Semitism is an all-encompassing way of life, as described by Jean-Paul. A

person either is an anti-Semite or is not. There is no such thing as someone with

simple anti-Semitic notions. Instead, anti-Semitism defines all experiences had by

the anti-Semite. This is due to the fact that the anti-Semite chooses to be this way.

He or she chooses to experience the world in relation to the Jews. Instead of

understanding that all people are human, their experiences are constrained to

seeing people as either Jewish or non-Jewish. With these constraints, all societal

problems are attributed to the existence of the Jewish people. Anti-Semitists will

always blame the Jews for their problems and thus, feel no responsibility for their

actions since they consider the Jews at fault for such imbalances in the world.

Sandoval, 2