Expanded Reading for Module 6: Israel, Anti-Zionism, and Antisemitism
Books and Book Chapters
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Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel by ISBN: 9780803296718Publication Date: 2016-12-01Although early Zionist thinkers perhaps naively believed that anti-Jewish persecution would end with sovereignty, anti-Zionism has become one form of the "new" antisemitism following World War II. Because antisemitism has not been effectively addressed, anti-Jewish rhetoric, activism, and deadly violence have flourished around the world. In Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel editor Robert S. Wistrich and an array of notable academics, journalists, and political scientists analyze multiple aspects of the current surge in anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric and violence. -
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism in Historical Perspective: Convergency and Divergence by Call Number: DS145 .A623 2007ISBN: 9780415400695Publication Date: 2007Previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Israeli History, this book presents the reflections of historians from Israel, Europe, Canada and the United States concerning the similarities and differences between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism primarily in Europe and the Middle East. Spanning the past century, the essays explore the continuum of critique from early challenges to Zionism and they offer criteria to ascertain when criticism with particular policies has and has not coalesced into an "ism" of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Including studies of England, France, Germany, Poland, the United States, Iran and Israel, the volume also examines the elements of continuity and break in European traditions of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism when they diffused to the Arab and Islamic. Essential course reading for students of religious history. -
Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization by ISBN: 9780253038722Publication Date: 2019How and why have anti-Zionism and antisemitism become so radical and widespread? This timely and important volume argues convincingly that today's inflamed rhetoric exceeds the boundaries of legitimate criticism of the policies and actions of the state of Israel and conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The contributors give the dynamics of this process full theoretical, political, legal, and educational treatment and demonstrate how these forces operate in formal and informal political spheres as well as domestic and transnational spaces. They offer significant historical and global perspectives of the problem, including how Holocaust memory and meaning have been reconfigured and how a singular and distinct project of delegitimization of the Jewish state and its people has solidified. -
Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS by Call Number: DS149.5.U6 A58 2018ISBN: 9780253034076Publication Date: 2018Many scholars have endured the struggle against rising anti-Israel sentiments on college and university campuses worldwide. This volume of personal essays documents and analyzes the deleterious impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the most cherished Western institutions. These essays illustrate how anti-Israelism corrodes the academy and its treasured ideals of free speech, civility, respectful discourse, and open research. Nearly every chapter attests to the blurred distinction between anti-Israelism and antisemitism, as well as to hostile learning climates where many Jewish students, staff, and faculty feel increasingly unwelcome and unsafe. Anti-Zionism on Campus provides a testament to the specific ways anti-Israelism manifests on campuses and considers how this chilling and disturbing trend can be combatted. -
Essays on Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism, and the Left by Call Number: DS145 .A36 2021ISBN: 9780253058751Publication Date: 2021In April 1945, Jean Améry was liberated from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. A Jewish and political prisoner, he had been brutally tortured by the Nazis, and had also survived both Auschwitz and other infamous camps. His experiences during the Holocaust were made famous by his book At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor of Auschwitz and Its Realities. Essays on Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism, and the Left features a collection of essays by Améry translated into English for the first time. Although written between 1966 and 1978, Améry's insights remain fresh and contemporary, and showcase the power of his thought. Originally written when leftwing antisemitism was first on the rise, Améry's searing prose interrogates the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism and challenges the international left to confront its failure to think critically and reflectively. -
Global Antisemitism: a Crisis of Modernity by ISBN: 9789004265561Publication Date: 2013This volume contains a selection of essays based on papers presented at a conference organized at Yale University and hosted by the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA) and the International Association for the Study of Antisemitism (IASA), entitled "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity." The essays are written by scholars from a wide array of disciplines, intellectual backgrounds, and perspectives, and address the conference's two inter-related areas of focus: global antisemitism and the crisis of modernity currently affecting the core elements of Western society and civilization. -
Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives by Call Number: DS145 .R47 2013ISBN: 9780253008787Publication Date: 2013Dating 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.
Journal Articles
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Bronner, Stephen Eric. “Conspiracy Fetishism, Community, and the Antisemitic Imaginary.” Antisemitism studies 4, no. 2 (2020): 371–387.Antisemitism has deep anthropological roots. But its form changed with the reaction to modernity and the establishment of the modern nation state. Jews were seen as the ethereal “Other,” the alien force whose unrooted nature apparently confirmed not only true loyalty to their global ranks as against their respective communities but also as harbingers of an all-encompassing world conspiracy bent on hastening the destruction of Western civilization in general and white Christendom in particular. This conspiratorial outlook was reflected in the infamous and fabricated which continues to serve as the cornerstone of modern expressions of Jewhatred. Antisemitism blends what I have called “conspiracy fetishism” with parochial interpretations of what constitutes the true community. This article distinguishes between modern antisemitism from the Right and the Left while also providing objective criticisms of Israeli policies that separate rather than conflate progressive critique with charges of antisemitism.
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Schroeter, Daniel J. “‘Islamic Anti-Semitism’ in Historical Discourse.” The American historical review 123, no. 4 (2018): 1172–1189.Countering the growing hostility to Israel and Zionism in the decades that followed the 1967 war, proponents of the “new anti-Semitism” have identified Arabs and Islam at the epicenter of anti-Semitism in the world. With the purpose of advocating for Israel, scholars and political activists have created a myth of “Islamic anti-Semitism,” producing a biased view of the history of Muslim-Jewish relations. Critics of these politicized writings have created a tendentious counter-narrative with the aim of condemning Zionism and Israeli policies, obfuscating the history of Judeophobia among Muslims. Discourses of Arab and Islamic anti-Semitism have evolved since the late 1960s in three phases. The first focuses on “Arab anti-Semitism,” a consequence of the national conflict between Israel and the Arabs. The second, with the turn to radical Islam, emphasizes the Islamic basis of anti-Semitism among Muslims, and especially Palestinians. In the third phase, following 9/11 and the expansion of global jihad, scholars have stressed the eternal enmity of Islam to the Jews, and opponents to Zionism and Israel of the past are anachronistically recast as “Islamists.” A reevaluation of the history of Judeophobia among Arabs and Muslims must first consider how scholarship has been shaped by conflicting narratives on the Israel/Arab/Palestine conflict.
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Waxman, Dov, David Schraub, and Adam Hosein. “Arguing About Antisemitism: Why We Disagree About Antisemitism, and What We Can Do About It.” Ethnic and racial studies ahead-of-print, no. ahead-of-print (n.d.): 1–22.Antisemitism has returned as a major issue across the Western world. But while concern about antisemitism is growing, agreement on what constitutes antisemitism is shrinking. Nowadays, charges of antisemitism are hotly disputed, often accompanied by accusations of bad faith, particularly when they concern criticisms of Israel or anti-Zionism. This article contends that one reason why antisemitism has become increasingly contested is because there are different ways of thinking about antisemitism and identifying it. We examine four common and contrasting approaches to identifying antisemitism, highlighting the challenges each presents when it comes to identifying antisemitism in practice. Since these alternative approaches yield different answers about whether something is antisemitic or not, disagreement and debate over allegations of antisemitism is unavoidable. Hence, we conclude by offering suggestions for how antisemitism claims should be addressed in a way that minimizes conflict and promotes greater awareness about the various ways that antisemitism can operate.
