Do you know the difference between a Semite and Anti-Semite?
An Anti-Semite says, “Jews are horrible. But my neighbor Rabinowitz is a lovely person.”
And a Semite says, “Jews are great. But my neighbor Rabinowitz is horrible.”
Semite and Anti-Semite
Opinions, art, debate
Clarissa's Blog 
I was thinking it would have been more along the lines of this, “What’s a semite” 😉
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But why should Jews insist one has to have an attitude toward them? 🙂
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Having it has been Europian and Middle Eastern tradition for hundreds of years. 🙂 In Africa it may not be so, thus your wonder.
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One has got to get something out of being one of the chosen people. 🙂
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Chosen=chosen to suffer. This is also the distinct logic in shamanism. One is selected by the gods…to suffer.
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Very Christian. The idea in Christianity is that God sends the greatest suffering to those he loves the most.
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Actually I don’t think so. I thnk that in shamanism one is privileged enough to suffer…the shamanic wound gives one privileged insights, but at a cost. Prior to Christianity,then, although Christianity made a fetish out of suffering. Shamanism just draws a link.
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\\ Chosen=chosen to suffer.
Chosen = chosen to serve and be closer to God than other peoples.
It’s a priviledge.
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That is one interpretation, but if you look at the context of the old testament, the privilege seems linked to suffering, at least as history progresses. In any case, religions nearly always link privilege with suffering, hence monastic orders.
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Perhaps the anti-semite is trying to attract the evil eye to Rabinowitz by praising him so much. (At least, that is what one of my Hebrew school teachers said regarding why Jews complain about each other.)
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Some of the anti-semite’s best friends are Jews. 🙂
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This reminds me of the confusion people have about atheists . They assume that atheists are anti-god(s) when in fact they are without god. Surely if we are looking for terms that define the whole population in these terms then Semite and non-Semite are the correct choice. Possibly a subset of each are anti-Semite. In fact isn’t it possible to be Semite but not Jewish?
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Technically a Semite would be somebody who speaks a Semitic language and would thus include Arabs. But, I don’t think there actually is such a word as Semite in English. There originally were Semitic languages and the term anti-Semite was invented to give a scientific replacement to the term Judenhass based upon the philological link between between language and race. Marr invented the term, but the idea of language defining different races was also developed by Herder and especially Rodin.
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