English

For starters, see if you can find yourself in the forward to Fiamma Nirenstein’s new book, “Jewish Lives Matter – Human Rights and Antisemitism,” published online today by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

“More than it is a book, this is an open letter that expresses my utter bewilderment,” she writes. “I was angry and taken aback while pouring out these words, surrounded by a heap of scattered papers and books written by myself and others, who like myself have dealt with antisemitism throughout the years. Years in which antisemitism should have disappeared, but has instead increased and now is a huge phenomenon. We have failed!


“My anger is fueled by pain: I have already explained extensively how antisemitism has turned into hatred of Israel, but this is the first time I see my own friends falling prey – slowly and without realizing it, because they are decent people – to an alien antisemitic spirit. A spirit that has worked its way into their mindset precisely in the name of the good things in which they believe, that is, human rights.


“I never thought that those whom I deemed friends could have been gripped by such an instinctive repulsion for the most important manifestation of the Jewish people, Israel. Instead, this hostility is strong and completely shameless, which is also a new phenomenon. Therefore, I sat down and wrote in order not only to respond to the accusations, but also to accuse.” [...]