Confronting Anti-Semitism: Essays by Kofi A. Annan, Elie Wiesel, et al [Paperback]

Elie Wiesel (Author), Kofi A. Annan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2006

In this book, the reader can share their thoughts on intolerance, anti-Semitism and what can be done to end this longest surviving for of bigotry that has brought suffering and destruction to millions of ordinary people. Their thoughtful and passionate words explore the issue and their hopes for the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Celebrated author and Holocaust survivor Wiesel laments that Jewish people have always been and continue to be "vilified, threatened, offended, and physically marked for humiliation," and supporting evidence abounds in the photographs that accompany his and United Nations Secretary General Annan's remarks: a Denver, Colo., church sign proclaiming, "Jews killed the lord Jesus" and a flyer for a 2003 anti-Israel rally at Rutgers University reading "at Rutgers, you can't kill Jews. but you can help people who do" are startling reminders that anti-Jewish sentiment is regarded as a source of pride in some circles. Even the United Nations cannot boast an unblemished record regarding Jews; Annan acknowledges, "The General Assembly resolution of 1975, equating Zionism with racism, was an especially unfortunate decision" and praises recent efforts of the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to make anti-Semitism one of their chief concerns. Photographs of emaciated children at Auschwitz and a 15th-century woodcut depicting Jews murdering a Christian baby, though disturbing, are not surprising given their historical context, but images of swastikas spray-painted on graves in a Jewish cemetery in St. Petersburg, a Jewish school in Canada destroyed by an arsonist and "contemporary Italian" wine bottles with labels depicting Hitler and Mussolini are alarmingly recent-all are dated in 2004. The images collected make it plain that the anti-Semitic furor that has persisted throughout history still has a strong presence all over the world.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Ruder-Finn Press (March 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932646167
• ISBN-13: 978-1932646160
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,055,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strange little pamphlet, August 12, 2006

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confronting Anti-Semitism: Essays by Kofi A. Annan, Elie Wiesel, et al (Paperback)

This book is really much shorter than one would expect from 88 pages plus covers. There isn't much on those 88 pages. But what is on them is interesting.

There is a brief introduction by Shashi Tharoor. After that is a short speech by Kofi Annan. In that speech Annan does say "let us acknowledge that the United Nations' record on anti-Semitism has at times fallen short of our ideals." And he calls the 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism (since rescinded) "especially unfortunate." These are mild words from Annan, but they ought not be ignored. Slaughters of Jews were often triggered by a few words, and opposition to such slaughters may similarly be triggered by what look to us now as just a few words. Annan needs to be applauded for saying what he did, even though I think he ought to have said more.

We then see a short but excellent speech by Elie Wiesel. Wiesel does mention the extremely counterproductive Durban racism conference, and I think Annan ought to have done so as well.

The rest of the book includes some very interesting photos, many of them well-chosen examples of anti-Semitic propaganda. I do think there is an exception: the flyer about a conference at Rutgers in 2003 does not look like an example of anti-Semitism but appears to be protesting an anti-Israel hate fest. This flyer ought to have been described as such, and I'm deducting a star for including it without explaining it.