And brankat, go to the Teimour Radjabov site, or that of other Azerbaijani and Armenian players, and you will see some good old fashioned anti-other feelings, and historical grievances, aired out as well.

Did anybody go around accusing Slavs of ritual murder (as the letter spassky signed, apparently did)? were Mexicans, Japanese, English, etc. accused of killing Christ and secretly controlling the world?

This is probably the same stuff they teach all of you Eastern Europeans, at home, in primary school, in church, whatever...because I've met very few people from your part of the world that didn't hold some vehement and deep seated feeling against Jews.

To answer your question, the real reason why anti-Jewishness is mentioned on this site, is because the haters bring it up first, with their insinuations and comments...As they always do.

And some of us are tired of ignoring it, tired of writing it off to ignorance and stupidity, tired of 'grinning and bearing it'.

1. <..and don't like Jews. We all know it (and many of your comments prove it..)>

-- Who is this "we all"? In all my 57 years nobody has ever accused me of anti-semitism, or of anti-anything.

-- I have always have a number o fclose friends of Jewish ancestry. Since this is still a Chess site, amongst my favourite masters are:

Steinitz, Dr.Lasker, Nimzovitsch, Rubinstein, Tartakower, Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Flohr, Bronstein, Smyslov, Fischer, and there are others. All of Jewish descent.

-- My above post was a question, not an anti-semitic statement.

-- Which "many more comments"?

-- A month ago I replied to a question on Smyslov's page about his ancestry, and stated "..I couldn't care less about anyone's religion", since I'm not religious. Is it anti-Jewish?

- 3 weeks ago I asked <Lamont> to elaborate/explain a Jewish tradition where Jewish ethnicity is continued on a maternal side, simply because I knew little about it.

And that's it. Nothing anti-Jewish anywhere there.

2. <instead of pretending it's the same as any other racial dislike?>

I don't have to pretend.

I view every national/ethnic, religious, racial intolerance, and hatred, as equally unacceptable, immoral and ultimately dangerous.

There is no such thing as a "better/more acceptable" national/religiuos hatred, and a "worse/less acceptable" national/religious hatred.

3. <This is probably the same stuff they teach all of you Eastern Europeans, at home, in primary school, in church, whatever...>

You probably know this is simply not true.

Historically, for centuries, the Jewish people in Europe, were persecuted the most, in France, Spain, England, Austria, later Germany. Namely, Western Europe. That is why most of them settled in Poland, Russia, Ukraine.

This is not something they reveal right away...usually it takes a little conversation, some scratching beneath the surface. The fact that I personally don't 'look' Jewish has encouraged them to open up to me in ways they may not to anybody else.

I know it is hardly a scientific survey...just observations from my own personal experiences.

Sorry if I offended anyone, but I personally get offended when someone signs a letter accusing Jews of ritual murder, and then other people ask "what are you Jews getting so upset about?"..."Why do you keep making an issue out of anti-Jewishness?"

The fact that people still believe this crap in the year 2008 is what I really find interesting.

But I didn't like it when you referred to me as 'you people' (referring to Americans), so it is clear that I had no right to do the same. Sorry about that.

It is depressing that a man as urbane and educated as Spassky would sign this letter... And that it would be signed by other educated, cultural figures...writers, etc.

I expect to hear accusations like that from uneducated folk, not men like that. And the fact that I looked up to Spassky made me even more angry.

Even the ones who make a show out of condemning letters like this (out of political correctness), will reveal their own anti-Jewish feelings privately, in my experience.

Perhaps I should repeat some of them so 'objective' observers could make their own evaluations as to your intent...I'd rather not, though.

Not really sure what the date has to do with it, but this part is certainly true:

<I personally get offended when someone signs a letter accusing Jews of ritual murder, and then other people ask "what are you Jews getting so upset about?"..."Why do you keep making an issue out of anti-Jewishness?">

I had a non-chessplaying friend in 2004 who walked away with the impression that most chessplayers were screwballs and racists, when she learned that Fischer (the only chessplayer she'd heard of) was a virulent anti-Semite who wanted thousands of Jews rounded up and executed a la <Seven Days in May>, and the majority opinion on the Usenet group I was reading at the time was basically "So, what's the big deal? He's still a great chessplayer, and that's what really matters."

Interestingly, the few people who openly <agreed> with Fischer were not as big a deal for her. They were easy to dismiss as Neo Nazis and the like, and so not really representative of the whole crowd. It was the larger group that said "Who cares?" that really did the damage.

Spassky used to be fairly high on my list until he signed this letter. I still appreciate that he's quite the gentleman (he apologized for being divisive but not for content), but I can't really admire him any more. He's apparently as big a racist as Fischer, but just doesn't broadcast it as much, or have the accompanying delusional baggage.

I agree with that, Alexmagnus. Growing up in NYC I have met many Arabs, and have befriended many of them, and we have had some frank discussions.

I find that many of them are anti-Zionist and anti-Israel, which given their experience, I could sympathize with...But I also discovered that almost all of them were not anti-Jewish. I'm glad someone else has observed the same thing.

As far as europeans are concerned, I hate to say it but somebody must be teaching them things at a very young age...because like I said before, I don't look Jewish, so a lot of them felt free to vent their anti-Jewish feelings with me in the room...and mind you, these were often people who were educated, 'liberal', and would publicly decry anti-semitism.