JW:Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a Latvian-born philosopher at the Hebrew University, was probably first to suggest that the Holocaust has become the new Jewish religion. The Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir also pointed out91 that far from being merely a historical narrative, ‘The Holocaust’ contains numerous essential religious elements. It has priests (e.g. Simon Wiesenthal, Elie Wiesel, Deborah Lipstadt) and prophets (Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu, those who warn of the Iranian Judeocide to come). It has commandments and dogmas (e.g. ‘Never Again’) and rituals (memorial days, pilgrimage to Auschwitz, etc). It has an established, esoteric symbolic order (e.g. kapos , gas chambers, chimneys, dust, shoes, the figure of the Musselmann , etc). It also has a temple, Yad Vashem, and shrines – Holocaust museums – in capital cities worldwide. The Holocaust religion is also maintained by a massive global financial network, what Norman Finkelstein terms the ‘Holocaust industry’, as well as such institutions as the Holocaust Education Trust. This new religion is coherent enough to define its ‘antichrists’ (Holocaust deniers), and powerful enough to persecute them (through Holocaust-denial hate-speech laws).
A recurring but unintended theme in Atzmon's book is that if you just substitute "Christian" or "Muslim" for Jewish his bad arguments get exponentially better (but they are still bad arguments). Here he hits the gold that he imagines is around every Jew's neck (except his own). None of the items he describes above are in the Jewish religion. Almost all are in Christianity and Islam. He has unwittingly discovered a major difference between Judaism and Christianity/Islam. Christianity/Islam have been world wide ritualistic coordinated organizations that persecute?, they can do far worse than that, have murdered those that criticize them. Judaism is not/has not.
The Holocaust is as historical a narrative as it gets. Again, compare with Christianity which is based on the fiction of a Jesus suffering for a few hours compared to the real history of 6 million Jews being tortured and murdered over a 6 year period. And the contrasts of the fictional accounts of Jesus healing verses the historical Jewish doctor healing more in one week than Jesus did in a career.It took me many years to understand that the Holocaust, the core belief of the contemporary Jewish faith, was not an historical narrative, for historical narratives do not need the protection of the law and politicians.
By the way Atzmon's charge of Jewish Holocaust blasphemy laws is especially comical. The Muslims currently have a rather well deserved reputation for blasphemy laws in general (and last I heard most Palestinians are Muslim). Generally Jews do not have blasphemy laws specifically for the Holocaust or for anything in general. I think even Atzmon knows we have a quite a reputation for free speech and this is a reaction to the blasphemy laws of Christianity/Islam. The Holocaust blasphemy laws are in Germany. I guess they feel guilty for some reason even though Atzmon is trying really hard to explain to them that they are not.
Another opposite and again favoring fiction, Jewish persecution of others in contrast to the real history of Christian/Muslim atrocities against the Jews. Holocaust remembrance is defensive. The emphasis is on the victims. Sympathy for the victims and not hate for the perpetrators (here Christian Germany). This is the right way to do it as opposed to organizations that spread hate in reaction to their just cause like Black Lives Matters or Linda Sarsour. Once you criticize another group you are just justifying group criticism which is not a good thing to do for any group whose primary platform is defending their group. Palestinians/Palestinian supporters, are you listening? Another good example of the right way to do it is the ADL. Be on the defensive and stick to specific people and specific speech and action. Avoid general criticism, especially against groups.The Holocaust religion is, obviously, Judeo-centric to the bone. It defines the Jewish raison d’être . For Zionist Jews, it signifies a total fatigue of the Diaspora, and regards the goy as a potential irrational murderer. This new Jewish religion preaches revenge. It could well be the most sinister religion known to man, for in the name of Jewish suffering, it issues licences to kill, to flatten, to nuke, to annihilate, to loot, to ethnically cleanse. It has made vengeance into an acceptable Western value.
Needless to say. Again, I want to see his face while he says this.Needless to say, a body of ideas that stimulates the conscious mind (ideology) and steers the unconscious (spirit) makes a very good recipe for a winning religion. This structural bond of ideology and spirit is fundamental to the Judaic tradition. The bond between the legal clarity of the halakha (religious law, i.e. ideology) and the mysterious nature of Jehovah as well as the teachings of the Kabbalah (i.e. spirit) make Judaism into a totality, a universe in itself. Bolshevism – the mass movement, rather than the political theory – is built upon the very same structure, in this case the lucidity of pseudo-scientific materialism together with the fear of capitalist appetite. Neoconservative ideology is also in accordance with the same fundamental structure, locking the subject in the chasm between the alleged forensic lucidity of WMDs and the inexpressible fright of the ‘terror to come’.
Oh great, Atzmon's tried to steal the moral high ground from us, now he's going to steal Spielberg's time machine.From this point onward, I shall maintain that the Holocaust religion was well established a long time before the Final Solution (1942), well before Kristallnacht (1938), the Nuremberg Laws (1936) and even before Hitler was born (1889). The Holocaust religion is probably as old as the Jews themselves.
Right, Christianity/Islam have never done that, portrayed themselves as the innocent victims. That in fact is the history of these religions, the Christian/Islamic fiction is fearing The Jews, the history is Jewish suffering. Actually the primary emotion of The Jews in the last two thousand years is Hope, not fear. Hence Hatikvah.The dialectic of fear has dominated the Jewish existence and mindset far longer than we are ready to admit. For, while Jewish ethnic leaders have exploited it politically since the early days of emancipation, it is much older than modern Jewish history. In fact, it is the heritage of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), there to induce in Jews a pre-traumatic state. The Jewish Old Testament sets out binary frameworks: innocence/suffering and persecution/empowerment. The fear of Judeocide is entangled with Jewish spirit and culture.
How has Jewish-ness done in Israel verses Germany, Spain, Russia and every surrounding Arab country?the fact that Jewish-ness flourishes in exile, but loses its impetus once it becomes a domestic adventure.
Judaism now has a country that protects Jews and that was the purpose of Zionism. Syria, Iran and even Russia are now afraid to attack Jews. Why is that?
Joseph
http://thenewporphyry.blogspot.com/]The New Porphyry