opinion
Like Freud, Are We in
Denial About the Danger
of Antisemitism?
By Phyllis Chesler
W hy didn’t Sigmund Freud leave Vienna until
it was almost too late? He knew what was
happening to his Jewish colleagues in Germany
after the Nazis took power. Nevertheless, the great
man refused to depart his beloved city of dreams —
and of his pioneering dream interpretations — even
after Nazi Germany absorbed Austria in 1938.

The signs were there for Freud to see. He knew
that his books had been burned in Germany, that
German Jews were beginning to commit suicide
and that Jewish psychoanalysts were being fired
and replaced by non-Jews.

He was not completely in denial. In a 1933 letter
to his former patient, Princess Marie Bonaparte,
he wrote, “The world is turning into an enormous
prison. Germany is the worst cell. What will happen
in the Austrian cell is quite uncertain.”
However, according to Freud’s physician Max
Schur, “It would seem that Freud, who had uncov-
ered the force of the aggressive drive in the indi-
vidual, could not believe that this force could be
unleashed in an entire nation.”
For years, Freud refused to make plans to leave.

Yet the persecution continued. Swastikas were
hung on his building. Nazi goons invaded his home
and extorted money from his wife. His books and
publishing house were seized. A man who resem-
bled Freud was beaten up near his residence. Yet
he did nothing.

Freud finally decided to leave Vienna only after
the Gestapo arrested his daughter Anna. She
was his “Antigone” — his caretaker and heir. The
Gestapo detained her all day and allowed her to
leave only late at night. Immediately thereafter,
historian Andrew Negorski noted, Freud “prepared
a list for the British Consul in Vienna of those he
wished to accompany him.”
Anna herself gave another, more obvious reason
that Freud did not want to leave: “My father was
quite sick, he was in pain a lot of the time; he was
nearing the end of his life — over 80, with cancer.

And he could not imagine any ‘new life’ elsewhere.

What he knew was that there were only a few grains
of sand left in the clock — and that would be that.”
Freud was hardly alone in his procrastination.

Jews have always been reluctant to leave their
homes in the face of danger. It is very hard to start
anew in a new place. It’s easier to believe that
things are “not that bad,” “it’s been worse” and
they’ll “soon get better.”
16 NOVEMBER 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Long ago, when we were slaves in Egypt, we
did not want to leave. And in the wilderness, we
longed to return to slavery.

We may not all be geniuses, but we must share
some of Freud’s blind spots. What can we learn
from his story about the power of denial? How
might it help us evaluate our behavior in our own
times? We have seen a quantum leap in antisemitism
and anti-Zionism in the 21st century, both in the
Islamic world and in the West. There are too many
examples to cite. However, the difference between
today and 80 years ago is that we now have a
Jewish state where we are welcome. This is a huge
and miraculous game-changer.

We must ask, however, since Israel is such an
York City. Hoarse, non-stop screaming: “Kill the
Jews,” “From the River to the Sea We Will Be Free,”
“Israel is a Nazi Apartheid State,” “U.N. Must Stop
Muslim Holocaust in Gaza,” “Israel=Ku Klux Klan.”
We know that identifiable Jews, as well as Jews of
every denomination, have been attacked and mur-
dered at prayer, right here in America — in Flatbush,
Chicago, Crown Heights, Colleyville, Jersey City,
Monsey, Pittsburgh, Poway, Williamsburg and more.

We know that Jewish centers and synagogues in
America now require the same kind of security as
Israeli consulates, embassies and synagogues once
did and still do.

We know that “anti-racism textbooks” in America
almost never include antisemitism as a form of
racism. We know that Middle East institutes and
Will it be possible 100 years from now for people
to look back and wonder why so many
American Jews chose to bash Israel?
important refuge, why do so many educated and
assimilated American Jews savagely criticize it?
Do they feel that such virtue signaling will “save”
them? Or redeem an imperfect Judaism? Is it psy-
chologically safer to target Israel than to take on
the antisemites?
Will it be possible 100 years from now for people
to look back and wonder why so many American
Jews chose to bash Israel, almost as a way of help-
ing them deny and appease the anti-Jewish and
anti-Zionist dangers that surrounded them?
Those dangers are considerable.

In 1991, I stood on a corner in Crown Heights
in Brooklyn and watched a full-throated African-
American pogrom against Orthodox Jews. It raged
on and on. The mayor and the police did not stop it
for days. I will never forget it.

In 2002, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu could not speak at Concordia University
in Montreal because of a large, pro-Palestinian
mob. Friends of mine were beaten in the chaos.

Throughout the 21st century, I have been an
eyewitness to the surging mobs, the Islamist-style
anti-Israel demonstrations on the streets of New
professors are irrationally anti-Israel and operate
in non-scholarly ways. We also know that college
campuses have become alarmingly unfriendly to
both Jewish and pro-Israel students.

As it becomes more and more dangerous to
be visibly Jewish and/or pro-Israel in America, in
the media and at international human rights and
anti-racism conferences, why do so many Jews con-
tinue to fixate on Israel’s alleged imperfections? Is
this a way to avoid contemplating a greater danger?
Are they repeating Freud’s nearly fatal mistake?
What more must happen before American Jews
decide that “enough is enough”? Before we band
together to fight the cognitive war against the Jews
here — or leave wherever “here” may be for a place
that is far friendlier to Jews, such as the Jewish
homeland? JE
Phyllis Chesler is an emerita professor of psychology
at the City University of New York and the author of 20
books, including “Women and Madness” (1972), “The
New Antisemitism” (2003) and “A Family Conspiracy:
Honor Killings” (2018). A longer version of this column
appeared at Doc Emet Productions.




2022
Winter Holiday Magazine