This thread is one of the most interesting I've read on LBO in a very long time. I'll try and keep a lot of it and go back over it.
The dustup between Andy and Chris was silly, and somewhat depressing, but it managed to bring to light so much else in its wake.
I have nothing to add, except a personal experience which may or maybe to usefull. I am posting it because I want to know if what I am about to describe accuratelty characterizes what I see as a difference between US and European antisemiticism...
I was made aware of many different forms of bigotry, very early on (under 10yrs) as the consequence of living in very mixed neighborhoods and going to very mixed or integrated schools.
I've two Europeans and know them reasonably well as aquainences. One was from Sweden and the other from France. These were not places I ever associated with deep seated anitisemeticism, until I got to know these two guys.
Most the antisemeticism that I am familiar with is of the US variety and it always struck me as competely link to something in the bigots childhood or sort of barrowed, but something as deeply rooted as say an accent, or manner of walking.
Not so for Claus or Patrice. When I saw their antisemeticism it was not only more obvious and blunt, it was much darker and seemed built in something like a very bad habit. I never argued with them about it or called them on it, because I knew it would do no good in advance, and they already knew those kinds of attitudes were not tolerated here. So they kept their antisemeticism well hidden. They were also completely convinced of the correctness of their opinions, attitudes, and actions. These acts were things like not joining a conversation that I might be having with somebody who was Jewish, for example, even if they knew the person. I also notice neither of these guys ever talked to a Jew unless it was necessary (on the job for example).
And in the converse, since I knew my Jewish friends in these contexts well, I also noticed that they never said anything about antisemeticism in these contexts. What they said was merely that they didn't like Patrice much and thought he was a loud mouth and blow hard. In Claus's case, he was a work related friend and had a lot of contact with customers. Several of these customers were Jewish and I also knew them well enough to expect some comment about his antisemeticism, but I never heard one. Again it was more of a sense that they didn't particularly like to deal with the `front office'.
I found both this kind of antisemeticism and the reaction it evoked very, very odd stuff. It was foriegn to me. When I try to explain it to myself I can't. The only thing I can think of is that I've never been to Europe. What I suspect is that there really is a deep difference between antisemeticism here and there.
I got interested in this whole topic because of Strauss, and because of my own youthful or naive assumption that most American Jews were liberals, or left, since many of my early political friends were Jewish and they were uniformly left of course. But also several of my literary friends were quite radical (and Jews) even if they didnn't participate much. So, it fascinated me that Strauss was so conservative that he was in effect a reactionary.
CG