In their talk, “Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Homeland in Germany,” Nitzan Shoshan and Sultan Doughan examine the rise of right-wing extremism in Germany to understand the relationships between heimat, or “homeland,” conceptions of race and difference, and implications of a post-Holocaust world. Shoshan discussed heimat as a central tenet to German identity that is informed by past traditions of German nationalism, and indicative of how various social groups experience and perceive difference. Doughan then analyzed how both German nationalism and a post-Holocaust understanding of anti-Semitism as the pinnacle of persecution are utilized to ignore institutional racism and inhibit the use of racial rhetoric. Ultimately, they addressed a very important question: how can the tension between the universality of rights as asserted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR) and the failure to protect said rights for non-Jewish groups in Germany be resolved? And how do nationalism, anti-Semitism, race, and racism come into play?

As an observant Jew, I was fascinated both by Doughan’s use of the word sacrosanct to describe German conceptions and treatment of anti-Semitism, and by her explanation of how racism and difference in Germany are only understood and discussed with regards to Jews. I was interested in learning more about what role legislation plays in Germany in codifying protections and rights for Jews, while rendering these same rights inaccessible for other marginalized groups such as Muslims and immigrants. To better understand this, I turned to a 2015 report on racial discrimination in Germany, compiled by Germany to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I was not surprised to see that anti-Semitism is still pervasive in Germany despite efforts to combat it, but I was shocked to see how efforts to combat anti-Semitism are prioritized legally over efforts to combat discrimination against other groups. Despite the existence and rise of both anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant incidents in Germany, their positionality and importance clearly differ in German politics and culture. The report discusses how the Jewish community is the only group in Germany requiring protection in accordance with Article 1 of the United Nation’s International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the article that outlines what constitutes “racial discrimination” (OHCHR, 16). Not only are Jewish rights explicitly codified while other groups’ rights are not, but data collection on discrimination is also skewed, with anti-Semitic attacks as the only data collected separately in the statistical recording of hate crimes (11). This report clarified that anti-Semitism is prioritized legislatively and that discrimination against Jews is taken more seriously than against other identity groups.

Given anti-Semitism’s legal priority, it makes sense that racism and discrimination toward non-Jewish populations would not be treated as seriously by the general population. If the law prioritizes Jewish rights over other rights, why would the general population have any motivation to not follow suit in their day-to-day conversations and behaviors? This question brings up the issue of the universality of rights. Though the UHDR sought to codify universal rights for all, Shoshan and Doughan remind us this is not the case in Germany today, where there is a clear discrepancy between a universal assertion of rights in theory and a discriminatory application of these rights in practice.

Doughan, in a 2013 article she wrote on similar topics, asserts that despite contrasting social and legal realities, there is an underlying shared narrative of persecution as faced by European Jewry during the Holocaust and the Muslim community in modern-day Germany and beyond; she asks us to consider “how [we can] think about the politics of memory in conjunction with a politics of citizenship” (2013). This quote prompts us to reflect on how memories situated in the past can challenge citizenship and rights work in the present and begs us to analyze the intersectionality and temporality of different forms of racisms as they emerge and relate across time and space. Perhaps, recognizing the shared narrative of persecution experienced by Jews, Muslims, and other groups, can help all groups think about if and how rights can be guaranteed for non-Jews and what obstacles are in the way. Jewish Germans must also try to recognize how the Muslim minority face an unfair reality as they are expected to both partake in Holocaust commemoration efforts and assimilate into a country that constantly meets them with racism and discrimination (Doughan, 2013). Jewish history and rights should continue to be discussed, but not at the expense of rights of numerous other groups. Germany’s post-Holocaust lens and focus on combatting anti-Semitism inhibit a normalization of racial rhetoric and logic when they could instead help make space, rather than take away, for discussions about blatant institutional and quotidian racism against non-Jewish groups.

Ultimately, rights are not universal in Germany. But there is a growing population of persecuted groups who deserve access to the same universally accepted unalienable rights as Jewish people are. Shoshan, Doughan, and the 2015 report all show us that Germany has several steps to take to better protect more non-Jewish minority groups, such as expanding Article 1 protections, collecting more separate statistical hate crime data, and promoting intergroup dialogue. And perhaps, these steps can help Germany move in the direction of equal rights and legal protections for all its citizens, while also encouraging critical reflection on the shortcomings of citizenship both as a process and a term that welcomes certain people into the country while excluding others.

Works Cited

Doughan, Sultan. 2013. “Deviation: The Present Orders.” Society for Cultural Anthropology, 18 Sept. 2013, culanth.org/fieldsights/deviation-the-present-orders.

Jones, Dr. Eddie Bruce. 2015. Parallel Report on the 19th–22nd Report Submitted by the Federal Republic of Germany to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under Article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. March 2015. Edited by Joshua Kwesi Aikins et al., UN Treaty Body Database, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/DEU/INT_CERD_NGO_DEU_19968_E.pdf.