Philo-Semitism is achieved in German society on three levels:
On the institutional level the discussion is of inherent anti-Semitism, newly introduced through old categories such as “Jews hate” (Juden Hass). It is pre-modern, primordial and enables blaming the Muslim minorities for its mastery.
The group level marks the contingency of the movement between ‘philo-’ and anti-Semitism. I will discuss media clips in which Jews are depicted and marked, in discussions regarding possible relations with them. Specific minorities and school children, are taken to holocaust remembrance sites where they can face their demons and perform philo-Semitism.
On the individual level, the most ‘habitual’ is the performance of “not knowing”: individuals disclose embarrassment in regards to things Jewish, connecting the elusive category of the Jew, questioned commitment to deliberative democracy and the discourse on guilt after the Holocaust.
In studying philosemitism we can recognize xenophobia’s common-sensical rules and how accomplishment only strengthens this structure. Here, questions of safety, visibility and level of religiosity unite the gaze on Jews and Muslims as immanent others within the German body-politic.
