Late last month, the Daily News published this article: Harry Potter part of Zionist conspiracy, Iranian film claims. The ridiculousness of the video speaks for itself, and so, except for a couple of points that I think bear making, I am loathe to spend too much time responding to the analyses and accusations the Iranian so-called experts make:
- Note the subtle (and not so subtle) conflation of Jews with Zionists throughout.
- Note as well the reference to the idea of Jewish racial supremacy, which the film attributes to the Zionists in a way that–at least as I read the translation–could be read to suggest that the Jews (and not just the members of the purported global Zionist conspiracy) do indeed believe in our own racial superiority.
- Note the portrayal of Judaism as a religion of witchcraft and wizardry, a trope that has a long history in European antisemitism.
- Note the mention of Christian Zionists, which I confess I almost missed. It’s interesting to think about the significance of that mention in light of the discussion of Christian Zionism in part one my antisemtism series on my blog.
There are, I am sure, other things worth pointing out. Please have at it.
Cross-posted on It’s All Connected.
So Christians are really Jews? That’s the logical implication. Zionists=Jews. Therefore Christian Zionists=Jews. Cool. There’s more of us Jews than I’d thought. Thanks for that bit of info, Iranian video dudes.
I liked the “purity of blood and race” bit. Missing the point much?
The thing that I find most frightening about this is that I know from personal experience how eminently believable at least some ordinary Iranians, people who normally doubt just about everything their government says, would find this.
Note as well the reference to the idea of Jewish racial supremacy, which the film attributes to the Zionists in a way that–at least as I read the translation–could be read to suggest that the Jews (and not just the members of the purported global Zionist conspiracy) do indeed believe in our own racial superiority.
Pardon the possibly offensive question, but aren’t the Jews known as “the chosen people”? That term certainly implies a belief in the collective superiority of the group. At least, it sounds to me like it would* and I would expect that it might sound so to the average Iranian. So isn’t a belief in the superiority or at least specialness of the Jewish people** one of the tenants of Judaism? (Not, of course, that all people who are ethnically Jewish are believers or that all believers take the bit about being chosen literally.)
*Though bearing in mind that 99% of peoples call themselves something on the order of “the people” or “the real people” or “the chosen people” and so the idea of the superiority of one’s own group is probably thoroughly innate to humans.
**I suppose one could teach it as “we were just the group that was lucky enough to be chosen by g_d. Nothing special about us except the randomly bestowed blessing.”
Dianne, I think your first footnote pretty much answers your question. (It certainly isn’t as if the Iranians hold themselves in high regard. Heavens, no.)
But no, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Jewish superiority is a tenant of Judaism. At least, that’s not how I was taught. I was taught that “chosen people” means that the Jews were chosen to follow the commandments. That’s how the Jews are supposed to relate to God. Other people have other ways of relating to God. And there are two different stories about how this came to be. One is that God shopped the commandments around and no one else was interested. The other is that God picked up a mountain and held it over the Israelites and said he would drop it on them if they didn’t accept the commandments. So they accepted them.
None of which is to say there is no such thing as a Jewish chauvinist. We’re not “better” than other people in this regard.
Maybe someone with a better or different kind of Jewish education than I had can give you a more complete answer, but that’s how I understand it.
Dianne:
Iran is actually a far more educated and cosmopolitan society than seem to recognize here.
Also:
It seems like you’re suggesting that all “Jewishness” is inherently religious, and it isn’t. And, sure, the idea of the “Chosen People” comes from Abraham, but it doesn’t justify playing up to antisemitic essentialisms about Jewish conspiratorial motives to control the “lower races.” Not to mention that every major theistic religion sees itself as “special” in some sense. This doesn’t mean that it’s reasonable for “average Iranians” to hold views about Jews as enforcers of some kind of “racial hierarchy.” Or that this it isn’t disturbing that this was shown on the Iranian state television channel.
In any case… Your statement sort of sounded equivalent to something like: “Well, isn’t it reasonable to think that all Christians are pro-slavery racists? I mean, there are passages of the Bible that seem to endorse slavery…” or
“Wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that all Muslims are Arab nationalists because, I mean, the Qur’an says something about the importance of the Scriptures being delivered in the Arabic language…?”
It’s unfounded and sounds ignorant–and reads like a justification of the beliefs that the author is writing about. Sorry.
Or, well, chingona said this far better than me. Not to mention, not everyone is religious in *exactly* the same way, and… Yeah.
A lot of Christians believe that anyone who isn’t their particular kind of Christian is going to hell. From the outside, that sure seems like a claim to superiority.
chingona: I think you’re right: Pretty much every tribe or society since the genus Homo differentiated from the Pan line has declared itself in some way to be “the people”, as opposed to those outside the tribe who are “the others” (or some variant thereof.) I’d never heard the story about how the Jewish people became the chosen of Ywh, but I’m afraid my knowledge of the Torah and the Christian Bible is woefully lacking. (I’m neither Christian nor Jewish but any person with any sort of pretension to cultural literacy should know books of that significance better than I do.) Anyway, I love the idea of a diety wandering around looking for followers…The two stories aren’t necessarily mutually contradictory. Maybe god shopped the commandments around for a while, then got frustrated and threatened to drop a mountain on one group that wasn’t acting sufficiently interested yet…
Iran is actually a far more educated and cosmopolitan society than seem to recognize here.
Given the stories people have told on other threads, including people who apparently believe that Jewish people have horns–not to mention the anti-Islamic comments I’ve encountered from various people in the US and elsewhere–I have no real faith in any society being educated and cosmopolitan when it comes to dealing with minority groups. Particularly historically distrusted minority groups against whom the country’s leaders are trying to generate hatred. Many US-Americans believe that all Muslims are part of a conspiracy to destroy democracy and “western society”. Why should I assume that Iranians are so much more sophisticated than US-Americans?
Your statement sort of sounded equivalent to something like: “Well, isn’t it reasonable to think that all Christians are pro-slavery racists? I mean, there are passages of the Bible that seem to endorse slavery…
I don’t think that this is the best possible example for you to use. Slave owners used the Bible to justify slavery for years. Still do for all I know.
Those stories aren’t in the Bible. They’re midrashim, stories or interpretations that were developed later, the story behind the story, so to speak. The first story is more favorable to the Israelites, in that it casts them as voluntarily taking on the commandments, but in that story they choose themselves, rather than being chosen by God. For whatever reason, I’m partial to the second story.
I actually think this is a very good example. Slave owners used the Bible to justify slavery even as abolitionist Christians used the Bible to fight against it. Religion is a lot more than what’s in the book. It’s the use people make of what’s in the book. And it would absolutely be unfair to say that “most” Christians today support slavery or act as if supporting slavery were a key tenant of Christianity because some Christians in the past used the Bible to justify it.
chingona: Exactly. This was my point.
Oh, I dunno, ’cause maybe you sound like someone who has no awareness of the fact that you’re speaking about a culture on which Western countries have long had imperial designs, and well… Playing into racist “primitive” stereotypes all over the place. I mean, I dunno… And, because, also, you’re excusing this kind of video or at least making an effort to explain the “reasonable” nature of the context. It both stereotypes Iranians as stupid/under-educated and also relieves the people who made this video of moral culpability for participating in it. Just off the top of my head.
Why should I assume that Iranians are so much more sophisticated than US-Americans?
And because, frankly, most of the world population in general is far, far more well-educated about world events and politics than Americans are. Including Iranians. Would you make this kind of comment about another Western country, or is it just those non-Western countries whose populations couldn’t possibly be anymore sophisticated than ours?
Given the resurgence of anti-Semitism under the guise of protesting Israel that has been observed in lots of “sophisticated” Western countries (see, e.g., British academics union’s boycott of their Israeli counterpart), I could imagine something like this video being plausible among those Westerners as well. It’s not a function of how “sophisticated” a country is; it’s a function of how ready and willing you are to believe the worst of Jews and/or Zionists and/or Israelis.
Dianne,
Anyway, I love the idea of a diety wandering around looking for followers…The two stories aren’t necessarily mutually contradictory. Maybe god shopped the commandments around for a while, then got frustrated and threatened to drop a mountain on one group that wasn’t acting sufficiently interested yet…
You really, really need to read Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods if you haven’t yet.
Just to throw in my two cents, my understanding of the “chosen people” issue (coming from a very secular Jewish upbringing coupled with a liberal Reconstructionist synagogue) is pretty much in line with what chingona said. The Hebrew tribe was chosen to enter a covenant with God. Racial superiority does not factor into it.
Covenant meaning a sort of contractual agreement:
I’ll do x for you, if you’ll do y for me.
Villeinage: And your point is?