In this collection of essays about antisemitism - then and now - Delphine Horvilleur is exploring the usual topics related to the everyday hate and discrimination against Jews, but also is adding some specific Feminist touch.
Antisemitismus is a reality that does not have anything to do with a specific historical, geographical or other situation. The Jews are either too much - thus, they may possess something the other, the majority, do not such as money and wealth and priviledge - or too less - case in which they are portrayed as ´parasites´. They are accused of being different or being apart - as in the story of Purim - or being mixed with the majority in order to subvert it. The list is endless and has a stubborn persistence.
What Horvilleur adds is the assumption that the lack of proper democratic development and particularly a male-dominating society may create the conditions for further spread of antisemitism. A society more open and tolerant towards recognizing women´s right may rather counter such manifestations as per definition more tolerant and inclusive.
Although such an idea expands the repertory of topics related to antisemitism, it does not make fully justice to the topic in my opinion. Women are equally perpetrators and agents of antisemitism and the book does not include a proper qualitative evaluation of the extent of such an approach, for instance any statistics if there is a radical split of a gender-related antisemitism. In lack of such premises, I rather take it as a wishful thinking, but I keep being skeptical about it because my everyday experience with antisemitism did not show any relevant gender-based difference in terms of negative opinions about Jews. It´s good to keep this in mind for further consideration though.
Horvilleur is the France´s third female rabbi and is an active journalist and opinion maker, associated with the reform movement within the Judaism.
I´ve read the book in the recent German-language translation from the original French.
Rating: 3 stars
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