Jewish Déjà Vu - We Are Back in Europe of 1933

A well-known Jewish joke goes like this:

Jakob is walking through a Berlin park on a Sabbath afternoon in 1933 when he spots his friend Samuel sitting on a bench, deeply engrossed in Der Stürmer, the Nazis’ notorious propaganda paper. Horrified, Jakob cries out: “Samuel, what on earth are you doing reading Der Stürmer? Have you become a masochist?”

Samuel replies calmly: “Quite the opposite. When I read the Jewish newspapers, it’s nothing but misery, poverty in Jewish communities, pogroms, persecution everywhere. But in Der Stürmer, I read that we control the banks, dominate the art market, and are about to take over the world. Frankly, it cheers me up.”

In that sense, we seem to have returned to 1933.

Menorah

When I read Jewish newspapers and magazines today, the outlook is relentlessly bleak: warnings about the decline of European Jewish life, reports of Jews being verbally and physically attacked, even murdered in cold blood in places like Sydney. Universities openly tolerate antisemitism and publicly honor its advocates. Synagogues are set ablaze. Antisemitism, long dormant after the Shoah, has reawakened with alarming force and confidence.

A Jewish “Triumph”

Yet when I follow the mainstream news on Belgian television, the picture could not be more different. What a triumphal march it all appears to be.

Flemish parliamentarian Michael Freilich is portrayed as almost omnipotent, supposedly able, with the snap of a finger, to mobilise President Trump himself, who in turn dispatches Ambassador Bill White to stir controversy over Jewish circumcision practices in Belgium.

Then there is Gwendolyn Rutten, casually invoking rhetoric on De Afspraak that echoes classic conspiracy theories: Jewish money behind Eurovision, an all-powerful Jewish lobby manipulating events behind the scenes. One wonders: how much further can political discourse drift from reality?

And then there is the almost theatrical figure of “Rabbi” Moshe Friedman, dismissed by most of the Jewish community as a publicity-seeker, yet eagerly embraced by television producers and talk shows. Friedman, known for his friendship with former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and for attending Tehran’s Holocaust denial conference, somehow becomes a media darling. See, they imply, how one Jew can launch high-profile lawsuits across Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Proof, supposedly, of vast Jewish influence.

Those Jews - never underestimate them.

Childhood Memories in Borgerhout

I often think back with nostalgia to my childhood in the Amelinckx apartment complex in Borgerhout, Antwerp.

On Sunday mornings, I would look out the window and watch our friendly Catholic neighbours quietly walking to Mass at the church near Koxplein. I remember the priest from the fourth floor asking whether he might join us one evening during Passover and sit at our Seder table.

It was a society shaped by shared values and mutual respect, not today’s hyper-mediated culture obsessed with social media outrage and scoring points through public humiliation.

Woke Contradictions

Sometimes the contradictions of contemporary thinking become almost absurd.

If one follows today’s fashionable logic to its conclusion, perhaps television personalities like Goedele Liekens should propose legislation banning children from attending school altogether. After all, knowledge can now be accessed through AI and ChatGPT. Teachers would be spared verbal and physical abuse. Think of the reduction in CO₂ emissions: fewer school buses, fewer cars, fewer heated buildings.

And while we are at it, perhaps children should only be asked at the age of sixteen whether they even wish to attend school at all.

By what right, after all, does society deny children absolute freedom over every aspect of identity and time management?

The irony speaks for itself.

Circumcision, Eurovision, and Satire

But there is good news, at least for critics of Israel and Jewish traditions.

Rumour has it that a new Eurovision format may be in the works, one in which Israel is excluded entirely. Iran, meanwhile, would be represented by “Rabbi” Moshe Friedman performing his latest schlager, Suck It Up!, a song about Jewish circumcision. During the performance, he would dramatically pour bottles of Moroccan oil across the stage in a choreography designed for maximum symbolism.

The professional jury? None other than Belgian media royalty: Rudi Vranckx, Björn Soenens, Inge Vrancken, and Robin Ramaekers.

Only one complication remains: the chairman of the jury would be Ambassador Bill White.

Well, what can you expect from that supposedly all-powerful Jewish lobby?

Silvain Salamon is an author and publicist based in Antwerp. In late 2021, his short story collection The Mantle was published by Houtekiet.

Image Credits: Allison Saeng via Unsplash