Anti-Semitism - or - Die Juden Frage

Dreamer: Janice, 34, Jewish American

Nora, 32

Mark, this is my dream... I am on Easter Island, in a food court. I pass by an older couple (late 60's or 70's) when I hear the woman of the couple making derogatory remarks about the people who work for me in my shop. She refers to them as "Jews and kikes". I become enraged. She has very white skin and black hair which is pulled back neatly in a bun. She wears a large amount of makeup. She is obviously wealthy and of an upper-class. I grab her by her hair and slam her face on the ground. Her bright red lipstick is indistinguishable from her blood on the cement floor. I am literally mopping the floor with her face. I am screaming at her that I have worked very hard to create that shop, and to create an environment where people are happy and comfortable and I am furious that she is so conceited and arrogant that she cannot see that. I run, quickly, to the shop, where I plan to grab a few things so I can escape to mainland Chile before the authorities find out about my violent crime.

My store is a candy store and I am glad that it is so colorful and pretty. I am scared at being discovered and about what people will think of me after my act, but it turns out that I have become a hero of the lower classes for defending their honor.

I just sent off my dream to you and not one minute later I came across the part of your website that mentioned hate crimes and Holocaust survivors. I was floored and got that goose-bumpy sensation people get when they are supposed to see a ghost. What a bizarre coincidence. What are your dream-related thoughts on synchronicity and pre-cognition?

Mr. Hagen's Reply: Anti-Semitism - or - Arbeit Macht Frei

I am sure that anti-Semitism is pervasive and alive and well in the United States and other places of the world. Also in Canada, where members of the Bloc Quebecois (a political party in the province of Quebec) openly targeted and blamed the Jews among others for Quebec not separating from Canada. Anti-Semitism (as well as all other prejudices) circulates in the social unconscious (i.e. dreams) of communities and nations.

Rhetorical violence (name calling/verbal abuse/hate) as a form of derogation (i.e. put down/oppression) between the races, classes, sexes etc. has probably existed since the beginnings of civilization. I think that your dream represents the ideas of a race and class struggle as opposed to some sort of pre-cognition. Although I do not discount pre-cognition totally. As a child of a Holocaust survivor myself, it is quite easy to identify with you (although my story is somewhat more complicated). Arnie Bernstein has created The Shoah Dream Project which provides a testament to the psychological effects of the Holocaust on the dreams and dreaming of those that survived.

Since the violence that you experience is mental violence (i.e. in your thoughts), your having thoughts of criminal action does not constitute a crime, it's your behavior that counts. Your dream seems to address current and ongoing global events in and surrounding the Middle East conflict which continues to flare up, war may become inevitable... the rhetoric violence on all sides literally, as well as metaphorically, heats up to explosive apocalyptic proportions.

Die Juden Frage (The Jewish Question) -or- The Final Solution

The Jews and the Juden Frage has been debated since the Biblical times. They were murdered and/or thrown out of Judea in the first century AD by the Romans causing them to flee to the four corners of the earth. Jews living in Masada choose suicide over being killed or sold into slavery by the Romans. This is basically how the Jewish diaspora came into being. The question continued to be debated in different forms into the 19th century by the likes of Karl Marx On the Jewish Question. At the end of the 19th century the Dreyfus Affair caused a political scandal in France. The French writer Emile Zola, wrote an open letter addressed to the President of France which was published by a Parisian daily newspaper. In J'accuse (I accuse) Zola accused the government of anti-Semitism and wrongful imprisonment of Dreyfus. Fidler on the Roof (see film trailer) is a film that provides us with a tale of the life and persecution of Jews in Tzarist Russia. The Fidler on the Roof song Anatevka provides a vision of life and pogroms orchestrated against Jews. 

The "Kristallnacht" in 1938 Germany and Austria signalled the beginning of the pogrom plan to eradicate Jews from the European continent. Adolf Hitler's search for a "Final Solution" led to the creation of death factories ending in the Holocaust of the Jews. From a popular culture perspective, the film Schindler's List (see video trailer) provides a cinematic background for understanding the reality of the anti-Semitism of the Nazis. Another film that might provided a point of Jewish identification is, The Diary of Anne Frank (see video clip). The HBO movie Conspiracy (view film trailer) features Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci who do star turns as they portray the key meeting outlining Hitler's "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". The interpretation posted Note to Children of Holocaust Survivors provides insight into the long term consequences of the Holocaust, especially on those that survived.

The film The Protocols of Zion (see video clip) provides a background for anti-Semitism in America and around the world.

Thank you for your submission.

For a good read see Hannah Arendt, "Anti-Semitism: Part One of the Origins of Totalitarianism".

Hope these thoughts are of help and provide some insight,
Mark H.

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.