Cape Town's Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, said after the talk that demonstrations on his campus by some Muslims have taken place for five years every Jerusalem Day. Protestors chant, "Hitler didn't kill enough Jews," among other anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The professor, who has written the prize-winning The Roots of Antisemitism in South Africa, said Jews have become a scapegoat for the Muslims' lack of economic power. Both are involved in the textile industry in South Africa, but in a "worker-owner" relationship, said Mr. Shain. And despite the country's transition to black rule, race is still the basis of inequality. "The conflict is sharpened [by the fact] Jews are white and Muslims are colored," said Mr. Shain.
Much of the the anti-Semitism seen today in theUnited States has similar roots, he commented. One such group is the Nation of Islam, led by the charismatic and controversial Louis Farrakhan. He espouses that white men are devils and Jews a special kind of devil. Mr. Farrakhan, who led
last year's MiUion Man March in the U.S., has referred to Jews as the "bloodsuckers of the black community."
"Like their poor white counterparts in the 1930s in South Africa and Quebec, and their populist nativist forebears in late 19th century America, many Afiican-Americans see Jews as a symbol of the city and a cause of
Dr. Milton Shain, author of the prize-winning The Roots of Antisemitism in South Africa.
all hardships associated with the urban life," Mr. Shain said.
Jews have been regarded with suspicion in North America since newcomers from