Sabrina Sandoval

Professor Jay
Philosophy 327
16 May 2012
Question #1
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is a lawless order. Since all aspects of the world
are experienced in relation to the Jewish people, all forms of day-to-day
encounters begin to break down. Sartre says that anti-Semitism is the
struggle of the citizen against the authority (31). Which means that the
anti-Semite refuses to adhere to any social, or governmental laws
where Jews are held as equals or afforded any input whatsoever. If
there is someone of Jewish decent in government office than such
authority holds no meaning and it is the anti-Semitic duty to disregard
such propaganda. If there is a professor, instructor or principal of
Jewish decent, then all academic notions set forth by the Jewish
individual hold no real value and must be publicly opposed. It is the
order of the anti-Semites to disregard such authorities on the basis that
the Jews are impure and rob their perfect world of its perfection. Such
disregard for public authorities is the lawlessness of anti-Semites. The
collective reasoning to adhere to such lawlessness is the order of antiSemitism.
According the Sartre, anti-Semitism is a type of personality, not
simply a personality trait. Someone would be categorized as an anti-

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Semite in the same way they would be categorized as either outgoing
or shy. This does not mean that being anti-Semitic is as simple or nonthreatening as being outgoing or shy. Instead, it demonstrates how an
adjective such as outgoing is often used to describe the totality of a
persons nature. In both of these cases the adjectives themselves are
singular characteristics, but when used to describe a person, make up
the whole of their personality. He disagrees with the thought that antiSemites are just people who have anti-Semitic views and such views
make up only a portion of their personality. This is most clearly
demonstrated when he discussed the case of the fishmonger. The
fishmonger, bothered by competing against Jews, publicly denounced
them (Sarte, 21). Yet, others described him as an otherwise decent
man. By Sartres definition, this cannot be. Just as a person cannot
simultaneously be both outgoing and shy, neither can he or she be
both anti-Semitic and a decent person.
Anti-Semitism is an all-encompassing way of life, as described by
Jean-Paul. A person either is an anti-Semite or is not. There is no such
thing as someone with simple anti-Semitic notions. Instead, antiSemitism defines all experiences had by the anti-Semite. This is due to
the fact that the anti-Semite chooses to be this way. He or she chooses
to experience the world in relation to the Jews. Instead of
understanding that all people are human, their experiences are
constrained to seeing people as either Jewish or non-Jewish. With

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these constraints, all societal problems are attributed to the existence
of the Jewish people. Anti-Semitists will always blame the Jews for their
problems and thus, feel no responsibility for their actions since they
consider the Jews at fault for such imbalances in the world.