Addendum to Antisemitism in North America

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2017

This impressive book, offering essays by 19 authors on the topic of the recent upsurge in virulent anti-Jewish hostility, is daunting, not by sheer size, which is considerable, but by the very fact of its existence, the very fact of what must be its focus the worldwide rise of a pernicious, persistent anti-Semitism. The topic of course must be explored, and is explored with painstaking scholarship, intensive scrutiny of the subject itself, commitment, eloquence, and passion. The book is the outgrowth of a four-day conference involving 45 scholars from 10 countries at Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) in April 2014. The 19 authors represented in the book live in, and/or are affiliated with colleges and universities in Austria, England, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, and the United States. It is important, and impressive, that the contributors to the book are international, because anti-Semitism is a burgeoning international problem. The book is organized into four parts, (I) Defining and Assessing Antisemitism, (II) Intellectual and Ideological Contexts, (III) Holocaust Denial, Evasion, Minimization, and (IV) Regional Manifestations. The second chapter, ''The Ideology of the New Antisemitism,'' by Kenneth Marcus, is useful in identifying some key psychoanalytic issues. He sets the stage by underscoring that antisemitism is an ideology, quoting Sartre, who described antisemitism as a ''conception of the world'' (p. 21), giving us a broad, inclusive perspective to consider. He identifies the irrationality of otherwise educated, knowledgeable people who accept an ideology that includes the infamous blood libel, that Jews murder Christian babies to use their blood in making Passover matzoh. He continues by citing Holocaust-denial statements that Jews invented stories about a Holocaust that never happened, and by citing the belief that the antisemitic forgery, ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' is true. He anchors his discourse in an acknowledgment of Freudian thought, that ''the ideology of hatred is a symptom of repressed desire'' (p. 25). Marcus discusses trauma as underlying antisemitic ideology, citing projection and displacement as essential to further understanding how people deal with the conflicts generated by repressed desire, in an attempt to rid themselves of forbidden desires. He delineates various ways in which Jews are blamed for everything, quoting a 19th century CE (Common Era) tract that traces everything evil to Jews, and contemporary Islamic thought that attributes every ''catastrophe'' to Jews (p. 37).

Confronting Antisemitism from Perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences, 2021

The fundamentalsofcontemporary antisemitism areexplored in this paperthrough the use of quantitative data sourcesand techniques.Wereview the basic content of subject matter; main sourcesand methods of data analysis;antisemitism definitions and typologies;world population distributions of Jews and antisemites;t he position of antisemitism within the complex of Jewish identification; actual Jewish perceptions and experiences of antisemitism; ideological matrices of antisemitism and inner-outerp erceptional consistency; responses to antisemitism; and some implications for future research. Data illustrative of these challengesand dilemmas arepresented from recent research mostlyinthe European Union but also the United States and Latin America-emphasizing cognitive,b ehavioral, and affective aspects.

Israelophobia and the West: The Hijacking of Civil Discourse on Israel and How to Rescue It, 2020

The status and security of Jews in America are under attack, and as a result, the alliance between American Jews and Israel is also besieged. Anti-Semitic hate crimes are on the rise, with some perpetrators belonging to the far-Right, while the Left has mainstreamed anti-Semitic tropes. As a result, as their ancestors did in Europe, American Jews find themselves to be the ultimate “other” once again: to the Right, they are not sufficiently American; to the Left, they are not sufficiently a minority. Many American Jews feel discomfort with Zionist particularism, and identify instead with universalist progressives. They fear being ostracized for supporting Israel. American Jews have trouble seeing criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic because of the way they perceive their own American nationalism and the separation of national identity from religious identity, though the anti-Israel barrage is fundamentally antiSemitic in its denial of Israel’s existence.

Martinus Nijhoff Publishers eBooks, 2013

At the Hoover Institution, I found a space where academic freedom, debate, and discussion is not only permitted but truly encouraged. This is crucial during these times, especially in relation to the study of contemporary antisemitism. I am also thankful to Raphael Fischler, Doron Ben-Atar, Shalem Coulibaly, Jeffrey Herf, and Olufemi Vaughan. I am especially grateful to all the scholars who attended the conference. Most of them did so at their own expense and traveled considerable distances to be there. The conference, on which this series is based, was the largest academic gathering ever on the study of antisemitism. More than one hundred speakers from approximately twenty academic fields and more then twenty countries attended the event. It was truly a remarkable gathering at an important historical moment. Due to the high level of scholarship, the conference produced many key insights and has given rise to many important research projects. Finally, I would like to thank Daniel Stephens for copy-editing and reviewing the contributions for this project. I am most grateful for his professionalism, patience, and assistance, often beyond the call of duty. Without his efforts these volumes would not have been possible. I am thankful to Alan Stephens for his much-valued advice and for making this publication possible in the first place. I am also most grateful to Lauren Clark and would like to thank

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 2019

INSS, 2021

Over the course of 370 years of Jewish life in America, antisemitism has fluctuated, punctuated at times by intermittent outbursts of violent acts against Jews or Jewish property. Sometimes non-Jews in America may harbor negative opinions about Jews, and it happens that they might verbalize or otherwise act upon those opinions. Those ideas, words, or deeds, however, have not assumed the form of publicly sanctioned and legalized discrimination or violence that other American groups, primarily Native Americans and African Americans, have suffered. Still, the history of Jewish life in America is replete with evidence that anti-Jewish sentiments and behavior are embraced by some of the non-Jewish

An End to Antisemititsm! vol. 4, 2021

The present,fourth volume of An End to Antisemitism! combines articles that address the studyofa ntisemitism from perspectiveso ft he social sciences,i ncluding psychology, philosophy, and pedagogy. The contributions to this final volume of the proceedings series essentiallym irror the general approach to combating antisemitism that is suggested by the whole five-volume series An End to Antisemitism! One of the series' main arguments is that successful strategies to fight antisemitism must be based on at horough scholarlya nd scientific analysis of Jew-hatred. Such an analysis begins with the assessment not onlyo ft he level of antisemitism in ag iven population and time but alsob yi dentifying which forms of Jew-hatred wereo ra re more prominent thano thers. Thisa ssessment is followed by an interdisciplinary theoretical reflection of antisemitisma nd by an analysis of the assessed data. Such theoretical reflection must be the basis for the development of successful strategies to combat antisemitism. This first part is followed by articles dedicatedtothe theoretical reflection of antisemitism on philosophical, sociological, and psychological levels. Historical and religious perspectiveshavebeen discussed in previous volumes.¹ The results of these theoretical contributions point the wayt ot heir implementation in the form of pedagogical studies and as examples of best practices. Assessmento fA ntisemitism Assessment of the level of antisemitism has been established as one of the key prerequisites to successfullyf ight it-bothi nv olume 1o ft he present series as well as in the respective official catalogue of measures for combatingantisemitism.² Onlyanin-depth understanding of the level and nature of antisemitism in

Antisemitism in the North

This article deals with antisemitism in Europe and post-Holocaust Sweden and Denmark specifically. The idea that it is always "the sameold antisemitism" that pops up and "shows its ugly face" does not find support in this study. Instead, we distinguish between three different kindso fc ontemporary antisemitisms: Classic antisemitism, Aufklärungsantisemitismus,a nd Israel-derived antisemitism. Our findingssuggest that each of these antisemitisms is inspired by different underlying "philosophies," and thatt hey are carriedb yd ifferent social groups and manifested in different ways. In the Scandinavian countries today, we find that there is less classic antisemitism, much more Aufklärungsantisemitismus,a nd ar elatively strongerp resence of Israel-deriveda ntisemitism. In our analysis this specificallyS candinavian pattern of antisemitisms is closelyr elated to the highlydevelopedp rocesses of modernization in the Scandinavian countries on the one hand and the relatively large numbers of recentlya rrivedi mmigrantsf rom the Middle East on the other. This appears to implyt hat antisemitism based on racial prejudices is losing ground, as is antisemitism basedonreligious convictions. However,according to the European Union Agency ForF undamental Rights (FRA)i nAntisemitism: Overview of Data Available in the European Union2007-2017 (Luxembourg: LuxembourgP ublications Office of the European Union, 2018), the incidence of violent antisemitic attacks seems to be on the rise. These typically emanate from small pockets of individuals in the population who share an image of all Jews being accomplices to whatever the State of Israel does. Considering how the processes of modernization operate it is assumedt hat other countries in Europe will follow as imilar trajectory.R ationalization, secularization, and individuation will also come to penetrate these societies and weaken notions of "race" and "religion" as springboards for antisemitism. Thus, tendencies towards Aufklärungsantisemitismus will be strengthened. If integrating and getting rid of the marginalization and condescending treatment of its newlyarrived Muslim inhabitants does not succeed, Israel-derivedantisemitism can be expectedtothrive.The pattern of antisemitismsinDenmarkand Sweden might be ap review of what antisemitisms in twenty-first-century Europe could come to look like.