80 Years After the Holocaust: The Text That Already Explained What We Refuse to Understand About Antisemitism | Meir Uziel

Meir Uziel quotes Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote in 1944 that antisemitism is not an opinion but a powerful emotion, a free choice of the hater that grants him certainty. Uziel links this to anti-Zionism and contemporary disputes, and notes that he is curating a literary performance of works by Sartre and de Beauvoir to be held at Tzavta Tel Aviv on August 24.

In an opinion piece in Maariv, Meir Uziel quotes Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote in 1944 that antisemitism is not an opinion born from examining facts, but a powerful emotion and a free choice of the individual. Sartre argued that the antisemite chooses hatred because it grants him certainty, and that no external matter instilled antisemitism in him. Uziel cites examples from Sartre's book, including a story about a coworker who claimed a Jew was accepted for a master's degree in his place. He notes that these words were written in 1944 and the book was published in 1946, and that Sartre and de Beauvoir saw more clearly than others. Uziel recounts that in recent weeks he has been delving into their writings ahead of a literary performance to be held at Tzavta Tel Aviv on Monday, August 24, and that he is interested in their visit to Israel in 1967 and the pamphlet 'The Israeli-Arab Conflict'. He concludes that we must read Sartre's words to understand what we refuse to understand: to fight something, we must understand what it is.