For centuries, the 91传媒 people have served as history’s earliest warning system. Long before persecution engulfs entire societies, it almost invariably begins with Jews. The pattern is so consistent that one might expect humanity to have learned from it. Instead, each generation persuades itself that this time is different.
It never is.
I am frequently asked to explain antisemitism. The question is usually framed as though it were a political problem, a cultural anomaly or a social pathology awaiting the proper remedy.
History suggests otherwise.
Most people do not want the history. They do not want the origins. They certainly do not want 2,000 years of expulsions, blood libels, pogroms, ghettos, quotas, concentration camps and today’s resurgence of open antisemitism across Europe and North America.
They want the executive summary.
During a recent television interview, the host interrupted.
“Give it to me in a couple of sentences.”
A couple of sentences.
Two thousand years of history 鈥� compressed into a sound bite.
It cannot be done. Nor should it be.
Antisemitism is more than hatred directed at Jews. It is one manifestation of a far older and more dangerous reality: evil.
Evil is repeatedly misunderstood because civilized societies instinctively judge others through the lens of their own moral framework. They assume that adversaries share a common moral vocabulary, that reason will ultimately prevail and that coexistence is the natural destination of human affairs. History repeatedly demonstrates that such assumptions are seldom warranted. When one side remains bound by ethical restraint while the other rejects those same restraints, judgment yields to wishful thinking rather than evidence.
The danger lies not only in the existence of evil, but in humanity’s recurring tendency to misjudge its nature, its intentions and its willingness to act.
Evil does not negotiate. It does not compromise. It does not discover a conscience. Left unopposed, it advances. History has demonstrated this with relentless consistency.
Judaism teaches the sanctity of life, and the dignity of every human being created B’Tselem Elohim 鈥� in the image of God. It also teaches that moral restraint is not synonymous with passivity. Ethical societies have both the right and the obligation to defend themselves against those who reject every moral restraint.
For 2,000 years, Jews have repeatedly been assured that accommodation would bring acceptance, that assimilation would produce safety, and that reason would ultimately prevail over hatred. Expulsions, blood libels, pogroms, ghettos, quotas, concentration camps and today’s resurgence of open antisemitism across Europe and North America testify otherwise.
History’s verdict is unmistakable.
Last summer, a first cousin walking along Drottninggatan, Stockholm’s busiest pedestrian street, witnessed a young Hasidic Jew running for his life while three men pursued him, screaming antisemitic slurs and hurling bricks at his head. My cousin demanded that a nearby police officer intervene. According to my cousin, the officer replied, “Why? It’s just a Jew.”
Civilized societies rarely collapse overnight. They erode incrementally. They first normalize language once considered unacceptable. Then conduct once considered unthinkable. Eventually, they learn to look away.
That progression should sound familiar.
The lesson extends well beyond the 91传媒 experience. Evil rarely arrives wearing a uniform or carrying a flag. More often, it appears disguised as grievance, indifference, rationalization or fashionable moral confusion. It advances each time decent people persuade themselves that someone else will confront it.
History does not lack evidence. It lacks those willing to learn from it.
The 20th century demonstrated what happens when evil is underestimated. The 21st century is testing whether we remember.
History has already rendered its judgment.
Evil does not negotiate.
It does not compromise.
Left unopposed, it advances.
Steven J. Manning is an author, publisher, speaker, broadcaster, business leader and son of Holocaust survivors whose work explores leadership, business, politics, technology, history, and the moral, cultural, and intellectual currents that shape civilizations 鈥� and, at times, imperil them.
