Mick Hartley

As David T at Harry's Place publicises a forthcoming conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, on Jews and anti-semitism, it's interesting to note the odd places where you find anti-semitism cropping up nowadays. Expecting Rain, as anyone who follows Bob Dylan's career will know, is a website which provides daily links to all things Bob: concert and record reviews, articles, whatever. There is, of course, no presumption that every article they link to is something they agree with or approve of, but, as RightWingBob notes, it was nevertheless extremely odd to see them linking last Thursday to this piece, "Exhuming Bob X: Lubavitcher Bob".

The piece is a look at the way Dylan embraced Christianity back in '79. It argues that this was all part of a plan to retrieve Jesus for the Jews. He – Bob – never lost the messianic conviction that had been instilled into him at an early age: that Jews, as God's chosen people, are "destined to bring their vision of God to all the peoples of the Earth at which time they will become a nation of priests, the rulers and overseers of all others.  The Supreme People placed between God and humanity as demi-gods." This is in line with the Jewish belief that "Jews are to rule the world and all the peoples.  It is the duty of every Jew to further that work." And how was that belief instilled in little Bobby Zimmerman? "In 1954 as Bob was about to turn thirteen his father, Abraham, who obviously believed the proper religious education was lacking in Hibbing sent for a Lubavitcher Rebbe from Brooklyn to come to Hibbing specifically to indoctrinate Bob in the more recondite lore of the ultra-orthodox.  The intensity of the instruction would be virtual hypnosis.  It was at this point, I believe, that the Messianic impulse was fixed in Bob’s mind."

The rest, as they say, is history: Bob continued to work out his secret Lubavitcher plan, while White Americans remained oblivious to what was being done to them. "The preemption of the goi culture for Judaism is the astonishing achievement of little Bobby Zimmerman.  Long after the fact there are still few who get it."

Indeed.

As a result of RWB's e-mail, the editor of Expecting Rain added a later somewhat grudging note: "RightWingBob does not like Thursday's link #3, seeing it as anti-Jewish, since it uses the expression "The Jewish world organization" and a whole lot of other things. I trust that most readers will sift what they read through their own filters and see through it." Well yes, though why anti-Jewish rather than anti-semitic? And why link to it in the first place?.

A while back this kind of language would have been picked up for what it is, but now, well, as someone once observed, the times they are a-changin'.