For those who always have their anti-Semitism radar powered on, the past week must have caused system overload.
In the span of a few days, we heard Glenn Beck compare Reform Judaism to “radicalized Islam” (he later apologized). Then, renowned fashion designer John Galliano was caught on tape spewing an astonishingly hateful rant against Jews and in praise of Hitler (he later apologized).
Actor Charlie Sheen, in full train wreck mode, went on a rant of his own, blasting Chuck Lorre, the producer of “Two and a Half Men,” calling him a “contaminated little maggot” and contemptuously referring to Lorre by his Hebrew name, Chaim Levine (Sheen later apologized).
If that wasn’t enough, this week WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused British journalists of a “Jewish conspiracy” against him (apology to be determined).
Finally, we received word that the popular Japanese rock band Kishidan appeared on MTV Japan earlier this week decked out in Nazi SS uniforms. The band later apologized.
They always apologize. Their publicists, if not their consciences, demand it. But the vicious trash talk and bad behavior never seems to stop.
What’s going on here? Why do these ignorant celebrities, like Mel Gibson before them, so easily give voice to simmering Jew hatred? Why is it that the virus of anti-Semitism continues to proliferate, despite all the many lessons of history?
Of course we don’t have answers to those questions. If we did, we might not need an Anti-Defamation League. But no one fully understands the lifecycle of this virus, and thus we do need an ADL and other similar groups to cry out when incidents occur.
Here in the United States, we Jews have the luxury to dismiss such incidents, counting on the haters to make utter fools of themselves. In the West, thankfully, anti-Semitism is no longer acceptable, at least not publicly.
Yet in other regions, especially in parts of the Muslim world, anti-Semitism has mutated into something much more lethal, as we have learned all too well over many decades of terror.
The drunken, hateful ravings of a John Galliano are not so terribly removed from a call to murder Jews issued from some Cairo mosque. They differ not in kind but in degree.
Galliano probably committed career suicide with his diatribe, and Sheen only added to his litany of woes with his “Chaim Levine” outburst. So Jews have nothing to fear from their clownish behavior.
But the virus lives on. Thus the Jewish people stand ever vigilant, ready to respond whenever it strikes.