c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The late Rev. Edward Flannery, appointed in 1967 as the U.S. Bishops’ first director of Catholic-Jewish relations, wrote that anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews and Judaism, was history’s “oldest pathology.”

Anti-Semitism, he said, must be constantly exposed and vigorously opposed lest it become a global peril that threatens not only the Jewish people but also many other ethnic, racial and religious groups.

Flannery’s grim analysis was a sobering corrective to the widespread belief that the destruction of Nazi Germany and the horrific revelations of the Holocaust had permanently immunized the world against the scourge of anti-Semitism.

Were he still alive _ he died in 1998 _ Flannery would not have been surprised by the findings contained in “Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism,” a comprehensive report issued this month by the U.S. State Department.

The report documents an “upsurge” of anti-Semitism in many countries. Its most striking conclusion is that “today, more than 60 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is not just a fact of history, it is a current event.”

An entire chapter is devoted to the United Nations’ obscene double standard that is often applied to Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. Between 2001 and 2007, the report notes that Israel was singled out for condemnation by various U.N. commissions and committees nearly 170 times. Burma was a distant runner-up with 12 official criticisms, followed by North Korea and Sudan.

The one-sided spectacle of many U.N. member states repeatedly hammering Israel is just one example of how “anti-Semitism has proven to be an adaptive phenomenon,” according to the report.

Anti-Semites use Zionism, the historic Jewish national movement that was the driving force in establishing Israel 60 years ago, as a convenient target. The report identifies anti-Zionism as a major part of the “new” anti-Jewish hatred that is not solely limited to the Middle East. Several years ago, the Vatican labeled anti-Zionism a convenient “screen” for anti-Semitism.

Indeed, demonizing and delegitimizing Israel for alleged Nazilike human rights violations _ not to mention natural and man-made disasters including AIDS, the 2004 tsunami and the 9/11 terrorist attacks _ is part of a systematic campaign the State Department calls the “new” anti-Semitism.

This modern cancer still draws upon the ancient canards: the “Christ-killer” charge and the odious blood libel that Jews require the blood of a Christian child in preparing matzah for Passover. Flannery had no time for such religious bigotry. “The anti-Semite, not the Jew,” he said, “is the real Christ-killer.”

Added to today’s poisonous brew are charges of a Jewish “world conspiracy” that supposedly controls the media, banking and various governments, including the United States. Holocaust denial is another integral part of today’s global anti-Semitism. In 2006, Iran, that impeccable model of religious and human rights, convened an international conference to “prove” the mass murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust never took place.

The new report is full of specific dates, names, publications, photos, cartoons, examples of violence and intimidation against Jews, desecration of cemeteries and other anti-Semitic activities and policies across the world. And ominously, the report describes how the Internet, the source for many positive things, is being harnessed by today’s anti-Semites to spread their pathology.

The report does more than simply document or describe the “upsurge” in anti-Semitism. It also provides a series of ways to combat and contain this poison, including strict new laws and increased use of interfaith educational campaigns.

The State Department is often criticized for many things, but it is to be praised for the extraordinary report on anti-Semitism. It’s a document that is essential reading for public officials, academics, students, community leaders, clergy, lay people, and members of the media.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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