Dating back millennia, antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred." Thought to be vanquished after the horrors of the Holocaust, in recent decades it has once again become a disturbing presence in many parts of the world. Resurgent Antisemitism presents original research that elucidates the social, intellectual, and ideological roots of the "new" antisemitism and the place it has come to occupy in the public sphere. By exploring the sources, goals, and consequences of today's antisemitism and its relationship to the past, the book contributes to an understanding of this phenomenon that may help diminish its appeal and mitigate its more harmful effects.
Gracefully written and monumental in scope, this important volume offers readers the first comprehensive history of antisemitism in the United States, from colonial times to the present. Written by one of the foremost experts on ethnic history, it traces American antisemitism from its roots in the dawn of the Christian era and the arrival of the first European settlers, through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to its peak during World War II, and its present day permutations, with separate chapters on antisemitism and Jewish anxieties in the South and African American attitudes from the 1830s to the 1990s. Author Leonard Dinnerstein argues convincingly that Christian viewpoints underly all American antisemitism. No matter what other factors or forces may have been in play at any given time, he insists, the basis for prejudice towards Jews in the United States, and in the colonial era before it, must be Christian teachings and Christianity's portrayal of Jews. Dinnerstein maintains that while the first settlers from Europe carried antisemitism as part of their intellectual and cultural baggage, antisemitism in America would never grow to be as strong and vitriolic in America as it was in Europe. Once separated from England, the United States never had an official church and the federal government never sanctioned antisemitic policies. Policies of legal equality, individual liberty and civil rights for white men, religious freedom for white men and women, and all of these ultimately for African-Americans, Native Americans, and Asians as well, developed. Unfortunately, however, the ancestral European Christian obsessions with Jews and their alleged attributes have also become an irrevocable art of the American heritage and periodically Jews have been accused of stubbornly refusing to embrace Jesus, plotting to undermine the American
Is research on antisemitism even necessary in countries with a relatively small Jewish population? Absolutely, as this volume shows. Compared to other countries, research on antisemitism in the Nordic countries (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is marginalized at an institutional and staffing level, especially as far as antisemitism beyond German fascism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust is concerned. Furthermore, compared to scholarship on other prejudices and minority groups, issues concerning Jews and anti-Jewish stereotypes remain relatively underresearched in Scandinavia – even though antisemitic stereotypes have been present and flourishing in the North ever since the arrival of Christianity, and long before the arrival of the first Jewish communities.This volume aims to help bring the study of antisemitism to the fore, from the medieval period to the present day. Contributors from all the Nordic countries describe the status of as well as the challenges and desiderata for the study of antisemitism in their respective countries.
Frontmatter --Contents --Acknowledgements --Introduction /Campbell, Jonathan G. / Klaff, Lesley D. --Part One. DEFINING ANTISEMITISM --CHAPTER 1. Contemporary Struggles over Defining Antisemitism /Hirsh, David --CHAPTER 2. Is Criticism of Israel Antisemitic? What do British and French Jews Think about the Link between Antisemitic and Anti-Israel Attitudes among Non-Jews? /Staetsky, L. Daniel --CHAPTER 3. Why Present-Day "Anti- Zionism" is Antisemitic /Harrison, Bernard --Part One. RESPONDING TO ANTISEMITISM --CHAPTER 4. Using Section 26 Equality Act to Combat Institutional Antisemitism: A Critical Race Perspective on Fraser v University and College Union /Klaff, Lesley D. --CHAPTER 5. Evading Terror: The European Union's Response to Lethal Antisemitism /Elman, R. Amy --CHAPTER 6. Denial: Norman Finkelstein and the New Antisemitism /Johnson, Alan --Part Three. ANTISEMITISM AND EXTREMISM --CHAPTER 7. Walking a Mile in Asghar Bukhari's Shoe: Conspiracy Theories, Antisemitism, and Extremism /Rich, Dave --CHAPTER 8. Antisemitism and Anti- Zionism in the British Pakistani Muslim Community /Jaspal, Rusi --Part Four. THE ROLE OF THE INTELLECTUALS --CHAPTER 9. The British Left's Attitudes toward Antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim World /Küntzel, Matthias --CHAPTER 10. Disavowal, Distinction, and Repetition: Alain Badiou and the Radical Tradition of Antisemitism /Seymour, David --CHAPTER 11. On the Contemporary Relevance of Arendt's "Jewish Writings" /Fine, Robert --Contributors --Index
Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART I. Defining and Assessing Antisemitism -- 1. Antisemitism and Islamophobia: The Inversion of the Debt -- 2. The Ideology of the New Antisemitism -- 3. A Framework for Assessing Antisemitism: Three Case Studies (Dieudonné, Erdoğan, and Hamas) -- 4. Virtuous Antisemitism -- PART II. Intellectual and Ideological Contexts -- 5. Historicizing the Transhistorical: Apostasy and the Dialectic of Jew Hatred -- 6. Literary Theory and the Delegitimization of Israel -- 7. Good News from France: "There Is No New Antisemitism" -- 8. Anti-Zionism and the Anarchist Tradition -- 9. Antisemitism and the Radical Catholic Traditionalist Movement -- PART III. Holocaust Denial, Evasion, Minimization -- 10. The Uniqueness Debate Revisited -- 11. Denial, Evasion, and Antihistorical Antisemitism: The Continuing Assault on Memory -- 12. Generational Changes in the Holocaust Denial Movement in the United States -- PART IV. Regional Manifestations -- 13. From Occupation to Occupy: Antisemitism and the Contemporary Left in the United States -- 14. The EU's Responses to Contemporary Antisemitism: A Shell Game? -- 15. Anti-Israeli Boycotts: European and International Human Rights Law Perspectives -- 16. Delegitimizing Israel in Germany and Austria: Past Politics, the Iranian Threat, and Post-national Anti-Zionism -- 17. Antisemitism and Antiurbanism, Past and Present: Empirical and Theoretical Approaches -- 18. Tehran's Efforts to Mobilize Antisemitism: The Global Impact -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.
"Is it possible to talk about antisemitism in the Middle Ages before the appearance of scientific concepts of "race"? In this work, François Soyer examines the nature of medieval anti-Jewish sentiment and violence. Analysing developments in Europe between 1100 and 1500, he points to the tensions in medieval anti-Jewish thought amongst thinkers who hoped to convert Jews and blamed Talmudic scholarship for their obduracy and yet who also, conversely, often essentialized Judaism to the point that it transformed into the functional equivalent of the modern concept of race. In a nuanced manner, he argues that, just as many historians now refer to "racisms" in the plural, we should not consider antisemitism as a monolithic concept but accept the existence of independent historical meanings and thus of antisemitisms (plural), including "medieval antisemitism" as distinct from anti-Judaism."--Back cover
Frontmatter --Table of Contents --Acknowledgments --Introduction: The Continuity and Change of Antisemitism /Shainkman, Mikael --Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in Contemporary Europe, with a Special Focus on Sweden /Dencik, Lars / Marosi, Karl --Holocaust Memory and Holocaust Revisionism in Poland and Moldova: A Comparison /Sineaeva-Pankowska, Natalia --Honoring the Collaborators: The Ukrainian Case /Cantorovich, Irena --The Rise of the Radical Right in Europe and the Jews /Whine, Michael --The Worrisome Defiance of the Golden Dawn /Navoth, Michal --The Struggle over the International Working Definition of Antisemitism /Porat, Dina --Discrimination against Muslims and Antisemitic Views among Young Muslims in Europe /Jikeli, Günther --Debates on Islamized Antisemitism in Austria in the Wake of the Israel-Gaza Conflict, 2014 /Edthofer, Julia --Antisemitism and the Struggle for the "Good" Society: Ambivalent Responses to Antisemitic Attitudes and Ideas in the 2014 Swedish Electoral Race /Wagrell, Kristin --Mohamed Omar and the Selective Detection of Non-Nazi Antisemitism /Ravid, Mathan --After the Charlie Hebdo Attack: The Line between Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech /Oboler, Andre --Online Antisemitic Propaganda and Negationism in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Ahmadinejad and His Enduring Legacy /Hendelman-Baavur, Liora --The Nisman Case: Its Impact on the Jewish Community and on National Politics in Argentina /Gruszniewski, Adrian / Lerner, Lidia --Venezuela's 2012 Presidential Elections: Introducing Antisemitism into Venezuelan Political Discourse /Lerner, Lidia --About the Authors --Bibliography --Index
In this book, Baum carefully guides the reader through the social mind and explains how the formation of social beliefs can be used as a narrative to determine reality. He offers a new perspective regarding how antisemitic legends and folk beliefs form the basis of our ongoing social narrative
AbstractThe IHRA definition is one of the most contentious documents in the history of efforts to combat antisemitism. Although it first became well known in the UK as a result of disputes within the Labour Party, the definition reaches well beyond that context, and has been adopted by universities, city councils, and governments. With its intensive focus on the critique of Israel as a marker of antisemitism, the IHRA definition has been heavily implicated in the suppression of Israel‐critical speech in recent years. This article is among the first to adopt a global perspective on the definition—both its history and its content—clarifying the political stakes of this definition and broader paratextual apparatus for a general audience, and provides an explanation of why it should be rejected rather than used to censor Israel‐critical speech.