Christine Maxwell, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemtism and Policy

As I witnessed the horror of October 7 – unfolding via the graphic news coverage on Television and online, I felt then – and I still feel now, that another Holocaust is close to unfolding before our eyes. We are continuing to witness not just the silence of bystanders, but the louder and louder shouting of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. This genocidal chant has indeed become the drum beat of the ‘unthinking herd’!  

The horror of October 7, 2023, was the wake-up call that shook me to ask myself the question: “How can those of us who know about the unique horrors of the Holocaust, remain silent?” My years of research are focused on finding a new positive approach to breaking the ‘stranglehold’ of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’s continuous racist allure based on a conspiracy theory, to attract hatred and violence against the Jews. I am finding new ways to combat the huge seduction of its propagandist-laden message. I realize that what I am continuing to hear across the Internet, is not just a cry for freedom from evil: nor is it a cry for freedom of free speech, or religion. The cry is for freedom from the evil: the Jew!  The Protocols has taken on a mythical/metaphysical aspect. I am hearing not just another diatribe against the Jews, but the wide popularity of a chant that shores up an explanation, a ‘first principle’ at work in the world. And, because it’s a first principle, Jew hatred legitimizes the hatred of anything – and anyone alien: the stranger. Antisemitism is hatred of the other human being. So therefore, what begins with the Jews won’t end with the Jews. I see it now in what's been happening on college campuses for the last year, since the aftermath of 10/7. What is so profoundly worrying is that what happens on college campuses bleeds into society - legitimizing antisemitic behavior. 

The ancients (according to Barbara Baert) had a word for the joy and the sorrow of an opportunity that suddenly presents itself but is just as suddenly gone: Kairos. In her exploration of Kairos as “the in-between space”, a space where decision-making happens, Baert points to a particular moment where links in information come together and present an opportune time for new understanding and action to occur. Kairos helps explain why paradigm shifts happen and what it takes (in terms of profound change in an individual’s thinking) to move to action.  

My campus is a world campus – the shock waves emanating out of all the people standing around thousands of ‘virtual water coolers’ as the horrific actions by Hamas were laid bare to the world, provided me with that rare moment: a kairotic space to realize what I am committed to doing: fighting to turn the tsunami tide of antisemitism – where not all Jews are viewed as evil, but all evil is viewed as Jewish! The significance of 10/7 brought the linkage between that horrific moment and the message of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into a focused collision for me! The latter (10/7) legitimized the former (the message of the Protocols), that of giving permission to all to use the message of the Protocols to continue to spread hatred and violent assault against all Jews everywhere

It was fortunate that my kairotic moment coincided with the publication of Following PROTOCOL… or NOT?!  (ISGAP 2024), a ‘primer’ on contemporary antisemitism that has presented me with a pathway for realizing my professional and personal passions. Like my mother who took up the baton of Holocaust education late in life, to try to make a difference, I am compelled since 10/7 to do everything in my power to help ordinary people understand what’s happening in the world today; by explaining the conspiracy myth against the Jews that’s been going on for thousands of years. And now, with social media, this myth is being exponentially pushed, resulting in more and more unwarranted violence. At this perilous moment for the whole world, I am pushing, with the help of others ‘in the right place’ knowing that working together, we can tip the balance, stemming the tsunami tide of hatred by driving away the hatred and fear of ‘the Other’.

References

1. BA Group of Concerned Upstanders. Following PROTOCOL… or NOT?! ISGAP, The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, 2024.

2. Baert, Barbara M.T.P. Kairos: “The Right Moment of Occasion”. Institute for Advanced Study, 2020. Accessed 19 January 2021, https://www.ias.edu/ideas/baert-kairos.