Customer Reviews

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

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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 And he calls the 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism (since rescinded) "especially unfortunate."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.