First, there is no question but that anti-Semitism exists at least here in Upper Bavaria. Curiously, it is an inchoate anti-Semitism which does not go where one might expect. For example, virtually no one here who would routinely accuse Jews of having too much influence in the world have any idea who George Soros is.
Moreover, their anti-Semitism is not part of what one might conceive of as a Nazi mindset. In other words, there is a relative absence of dislike of African-Americans. This is perhaps as a result of ingesting American television in which African-Americans are invariably depicted in a positive light but Jews are not so obviously particularized in the sitcoms which appear here.
A Final observation which is just as subjective as the foregoing:
"Some 104,000 members of the Jewish community live in Germany. Yet all of this raises the question of how German society deals with the Jewish people living in its midst. Does it view Jewish traditions, customs and achievements as an asset? Or do many people have difficultly suppressing their anti-Semitism and muffled hatred of otherness?"
We in America have been indoctrinated to believe without questioning that "diversity is our strength" and this is accepted as axiomatic as part of the American culture. I reject this assumption and say that it is the homogeneity in Germany which produces the strength of this extraordinary culture.
One can examine the unit cohesion of the German army in two world wars which far exceeded anything any of its enemies could muster. One could examine the economic powerhouse that Germany is and marvel at its extraordinary ability to produce goods for export. One can examine its crime rate and agree with Germans who shake their head about the crime rate in America. One can examine the school system and training system which produces high employment, efficiency, high GDP, and goods for export. One can examine and admire the care with which the Germans maintain their environment.
On examination, all of these attributes can be related to a culture that values homogeneity. It does not necessarily identify strength in diversity. Before we conclude that it rejects diversity of opinion, let us stipulate that diversity of opinion in the American university system simply is not tolerated if it presumes to trespass on political correctness. And political correctness dictates that diversity as a positive value must be assumed in matters of race but not necessarily in matters of politics.
It is not just in universities but in the press room, the television newsroom, the Hollywood soundstage, the publishing houses, and Madison Avenue, in the salons of Georgetown and Manhattan that there clearly exists a "muffled hatred of otherness" which this author accuses the Germans of harboring.
In the United States we are confronting a disintegrating civil society and much of that disintegration falls along racial lines. How much strength has that diversity recently yielded up?
This is not offered up by way of defense of anti-Semitism which is pointless and self-defeating but it is offered in support of an American culture which is rapidly succumbing to its own destruction because it swallows whole a left-wing bromide which might not be true and certainly is the product of a desire to destroy the entity of the nationstate, especially the nation which stands athwart the onrush of socialism.
