What happened to Richard Zimler?

    A few weeks ago a friend lent me a copy of the 'The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon' by the Portugal-based Jewish-American author Richard Zimler. Historical murder mysteries are not my literary cup of tea but it was hard not to be affected by the backdrop: the harrowing descriptions of the Lisbon massacre of 'New Christians' in 1506 and the vivid portraits of these forced Jewish converts to Christianity who continued to practice their Judaism in secret under mortal risk.  On its final page, the kabbalist hero Berakiah Zarco, having finally escaped to Istanbul, warns his Jewish brethren in prophetic mode: "Cast out Christian Europe from your heart and never look back!" The book was a bestseller in 1998 and won numerous awards.

Strangely enough I came across Zimler's name again only a few days ago in a news item. Zimler claims that, while promoting his new book "The Gospel According to Lazarus", his publicist, 'John', told him that he had been turned down by two,"cultural organizations that had previously shown enthusiasm for holding an event with me." "They asked me if you were Jewish," 'John' told Zimler, "and the moment I said you were, they lost all interest. They even stopped replying to my emails and returning my phone messages." In later conversations with the event organizers, 'John' was convinced that they were not personally antisemitic, "but they feared a backlash - protests by their members and others - if they extended an invitation to a Jewish writer."

In an article in the Guardian, Zimler wrote, unsurprisingly, that he was: "deeply shocked and upset... It made Britain seem like a place I didn't know and maybe never knew...The situation seemed particularly ironic because I have long endeavoured in my novels to give voice to people who have been systematically silenced by prejudice and bigotry."

Several questions regarding this story remain open. To protect those concerned, Zimler refuses to divulge either the identities of the cultural organizations who allegedly rejected him or the real name of his publicist friend 'John'.  And if Zimler is right  and the present political climate in the UK (at least in literary circles)  has indeed created a "chilling effect" on event organizers when it comes to inviting Jewish authors, then from where was the "backlash" going to come? Militant Labourite anti-Zionists? BDS activists? Palestinians? Not clear. And how come it hasn't yet had an effect on the Jewish authors who (my London contacts assure me) are still still regularly appearing before audiences across the country.

At the same time, it seems far-fetched that Zimler would fabricate the story. He was at pains to point out that he has no connection to Israel whatsoever. He doesn't seem the type to launch a witch hunt against anti-semites and the Observer gave his new book a glowing review; so it's hard to point to an ulterior motive. And perhaps we should also take him at his word when he says that he "never knew" Britain.

In the Britain I knew, throughout  my youth and student years, anti-semitism seemed to be ubiquitous. There was no official discrimination but anti-semitism was still woven into the culture. I was subjected at one point or another to the whole gamut,  from jokes and insinuations through scorn and ostracization to actual physical assault.  Equally upsetting was the experience of meeting a new person and agonizing over when (if at all) to 'admit' my Jewishness. Would he/she still find me worthy or would his/her face twist in an effort to avoid disgust?

Most non Jews were not anti-semitic and I had many non Jewish friends but the thought of having to regularly contend with boorish anti-semitism for the rest of my life was sufficient to convince me to move to Israel.  At the time, "making aliya"  was considered by many British Jews to be an act of almost heroic proportions, but I always thought that the real Jewish heros were those who stayed on to face the anti-semites.

Fast forward almost 50 years. Surely my past experiences have long been superceded by a new, more tolerant reality. People have evolved, we're all surely aware by now of the need to embrace "the other". Actual outcome:  in 2018 there was a record breaking number of antisemitic incidents in the UK for the third consecutive year. Over 100 per month.


    What a contrast then to discover that Germany was taking robust steps to tackle antisemitism, although some would argue, not the right kind of "anti-semitism" and not for the right reasons. 

In May, a no doubt well-intentioned Bundestag overwhelmingly  passed a resolution  (non-binding) titled "Resisting the BDS movement decisively - fighting anti-semitism." It states that "the argumentation patterns and methods used by the BDS movement are anti-semitic" and that its Don't Buy (from Israel) campaign was reminsicent of the Nazi era "Judenboykott".

The only party to abstain was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Obviously because being far-right they would naturally tend to be anti-semitic and therefore pro BDS, right? Wrong! The AfD had submitted their own motion calling for a total ban on BDS in Germany.  Yes, it's a topsy-turvy world out there in antisemitism politics nowadays and it makes for strange bedfellows.

Naturally, official Israel, from Netanyahu down, was quick to congratulate the Bundestag for taking, "an important step in the war against the boycott and the new anti-semitism."  But there was also a barrage of criticism from left-leaning Jewish intellectuals, 240 of whom signed a petition calling on the German government not to adopt the motion and asserting that,"boycotts are a legitimate nonviolent tool of resistance".  The controversy spread. After Peter Schafer, the respected director of Berlin's Jewish Museum, endorsed the petition, there was a public outcry and he was forced to resign.

Pitching in from Israel, Meretz Knesset member Michal Rozin wrote to German lawmakers that the legislation was, "disturbing and destructive for the possibility of peace here on the ground" The main concern, she wrote, should be the scenario of annexation , "not the campaign of the Israeli government  against the BDS movement which distracts from this grim reality."

Or, as Prof. Daniel Blatman Israeli historian and chief historian of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum put it in Haaretz , we are the midst of a "historical revolution in the undertsanding of anti-semitism: No longer do anti-semitic Germans define who is a Jew that must be ostracised from society, but rather certain Jews define who is an anti-Semite or who is a philo-Semite and the Germans adopt their view." This, he argued, was  case of, "functional anti-semitism" that defines Jews and non-Jews alike based on an array of specifications and traits that suits Israel's current nationalism."

In the Richard Zimler story, assuming it's true, the presumption of a fierce anti-semitic response to his invitation  led to a cowardly decision by non-antisemites to bow to the power of an assumed anti-semitic mob and to boycott a Jewish writer, unconnected to Israel, merely on the basis of his ethnicity. The damage to Zimler himself is slight, and the jury is still out on whether his case  represents a trend or was just some weird aberration. It must nevertheless add another wrinkle of concern to British Jews, already appalled by the inability of the Labour Party to deal with antisemitism within its ranks and wondering what the future might hold.

In Germany, a cocktail of residual Holocaust guilt mixed with Israeli diplomatic pressure, produced a resolution that places restrictions on freedom of speech and places the definition of who is an anti-semite solely in the hands of Israel's government and its allies. What is certain is that in the international antisemitism games, Israeli political interests play a key role.

In return for the support of populist leaders in Hungary and Poland who drive a useful wedge into the EU's positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu is prepared to turn a blind eye to what some are calling the "distortion of antisemitism" in those countries. Similarly, the Bundestag resolution has much more more to do with the future of "Judea and Samaria" than the fight against anti-semitism in Germany. In that sense it is hardly less depressing than what happened to Richard Zimler.