The call by 1,000 writers to boycott Israeli cultural institutions is a moment to mark just how far the arts have fallen. The glee with which the wordsmiths have wheeled on the Jewish state may surface something rotten in the republic of letters. It cannot come, though, as a surprise. Even great minds — and mediocre ones — have been drawn to blaming the Jews. Just ask Martin Heidegger, Ezra Pound, or Ta-Nehisi Coates.