Group rebuts anti-Semitic book

If anti-Semitism is a rogue religion, its reigning bible is "TheProtocols of the Elders of Zion."

"The Protocols," first issued in Russia a century ago, is anotoriously fraudulent manifesto. It purports to spell out a Jewishplot to control the world by secretly manipulating the financialmarkets, the media and other levers of power.

Though it was soon exposed as a paranoid hoax forged by the czar'ssecret police, "The Protocols" didn't vanish. In fact, its vitriolhas never had wider circulation than today because of the Internetand the "New Anti-Semitism" that watchdog groups are chronicling,particularly in Europe and the Muslim world.

In response, specialists from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, aJewish human-rights group, have written a book that scholars say isthe first item-by-item rebuttal of the undying "Protocols."

Titled "Dismantling the Big Lie," the new book tackles a grimtask. "The Protocols" is a dense polemic, a supposed master plotwritten by Jewish "learned elders" who regard non-Jews as "a flock ofsheep, and we are their wolves."

For instance, Protocol 7 ("A Prophecy of Worldwide War") declaresthat "we must create unrest, dissension, and mutual animositiesthroughout Europe and, with the help of her relationship, on othercontinents."

In their refutation, "Dismantling the Big Lie" authors StevenJacobs and Mark Weitzman say such a goal "is the very antithesis ofwhat both ancient Israelites and contemporary Jews regard as theideal of societal harmony . . . of attaining "shalom, peace."

Jacobs and Weitzman cite moral-ethical examples from Jewishscripture, postbiblical Jewish societies and modern Jewish thoughtabout the primacy of peace between Jews and neighbors.

By systematically challenging all 24 protocols in this way, thenew book is unique, said Frederick Schweitzer, director of theHolocaust Research Center at Manhattan College, a Catholic school inNew York, who reviewed the manuscript.

"Its point-by-point rebuttals, citing Talmudic and biblical textsand historic attitudes and examples, are without precedent,"Schweitzer said in an interview.

"Dismantling the Big Lie" (Ktav, $18.95) was developed under theauspices of the Wiesenthal Center's Snider Social Action Institute,named for Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers chairman Ed Snider, who gavethe center $5 million.

The book reprints eight "Protocols" book covers (all craven imagesof Jews) from various times and countries, and runs the complete,toxic text, translated into English.

"Three to five years ago, we would have had a serious debate aboutthe merits of running the text, but we don't have that choice now,"said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center."It's out there so much now, repackaged, online."

Though some booksellers refuse to handle "The Protocols," it isreadily available in many parts of the world and through e-commerce.

Arabic translations are published by government presses in Egyptand are best-sellers. Radioislam.org makes it available in a dozenlanguages free.

The Palestinian group Hamas cites "The Protocols" in its charteras justification for the destruction of Israel. Egyptian and SyrianTV heavily referenced it in recent anti-Semitic miniseries.

The Alexandria Library in Egypt, as part of an exhibition of holybooks of monotheistic faiths, displayed a copy of "The Protocols" inthe Judaism section, removing it only when U.N. cultural officialsraised objections. The Arab Voice newspaper in North Jersey publishedexcerpts last year, drawing condemnations from both Jewish groups andthe Council on American Islamic Relations.

"The Protocols" is "such nonsense," Islamic council spokesmanIbrahim Hooper said in an interview. "But it just keeps returning outthere."

The Wiesenthal Center plans to translate "Dismantling the Big Lie"into Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Persian, Coopersaid, and to distribute it to church and government officials at aconference that will be held in Moscow in March to mark thecentennial of "The "Protocols' emergence.