‘The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness’: Philosemitism in the Contemporary World, 1945 to the Present

The nature and importance of philosemitism changed fundamentally after the Second World War, such that only with difficulty can a direct link always be seen with the manifestations of philosemitism from the century after 1840 which are discussed in this book. To state the matter briefly, since 1945, largely because of the Holocaust, the Western world has been transformed from a place where antisemitism was apparently the norm and philosemitism the exception to one in which philosemitism is the norm and antisemitism the exception. Indeed, antisemitism in the mainstream has declined to such an extent that it has virtually disappeared, or may well be seen as on the way to disappearance within a generation or two. Alongside this decline in antisemitism has come another, probably related, change: an obvious increase in the power and ability of the Jewish people to influence relevant events, a change most centrally illustrated by the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Indeed, many observers have seen the formation of the Jewish state as ‘the Jewish emergence from powerlessness’, as Yehuda Bauer put it. 1 In the Diaspora, direct and apparently successful attempts by a fully legitimate ‘Jewish lobby’ to influence governments in order to secure Jewish interests, especially the security of Israel, have become ubiquitous in all countries with a significant Jewish population, the United States in particular. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.