Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?

Antony Lerman

Description

Antisemitism is one of the most controversial topics of our time. The public, academics, journalists, activists and Jewish people themselves are divided over its meaning. Antony Lerman shows that this is a result of a 30-year process of redefinition of the phenomenon, casting Israel, problematically defined as the ‘persecuted collective Jew’, as one of its main targets.

This political project has taken the notion of the ‘new antisemitism’ and codified it in the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s ‘working definition’ of antisemitism. This text is the glue holding together an international network comprising the Israeli government, pro-Israel advocacy groups, Zionist organisations, Jewish communal defence bodies and sympathetic governments fighting a war against those who would criticise Israel.

The consequences of this redefinition have been alarming, supressing free speech on Palestine/Israel, legitimising Islamophobic right-wing forces, and politicising principled opposition to antisemitism.

Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations
Introduction
1. Varieties of Confusion in Understandings of Antisemitism
2. The Use and Abuse of Antisemitic Stereotypes and Tropes
3. Motivated by Antisemitism? Challenges to Zionism 1975–1989
4. ‘New Antisemitism’: Competing Narratives and the Consequences of Politicisation
5. The Development of Institutions Combatting Antisemitism 1970s–2000
6. The Turning Point: ‘New Antisemitism’ and the New Millennium
7. The Codification of ‘New Antisemitism’: The EUMC ‘Working Definition’
8. Responding to ‘New Antisemitism’: a Transnational Field of Racial Governance
9. The Redefinition Project and the Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’ Exposed
10. Human Rights: The ‘Mask Under Which the Teaching of Antisemitic Contempt for Israel is Carried Out’
11. Geopolitics, Israel and the Authentication of ‘New Antisemitism’
12. ‘War’ Discourse and its Limitations
13. ‘Jewish Power’, Medical Analogies and ‘Eradication’ Discourse
14. Apocalypticism: Defining the Discourse, Writing the Headlines and Generating Moral Panics
15. Against Typological Thinking: Summary and Conclusions
Appendix: The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism
Notes
Index

Sujets

• Minority Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Human Rights
• Jewish Studies
• Social Science
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Labour Party (UK)
• Jeremy Corbyn
• Geopolitics
• General officer
• Holocaust denial
• Religious intolerance
• Zionism
• General
• Discrimination

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786806307
• Langue: English

Extrait

Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?
The contemporary debate about antisemitism is both incoherent and appalling. It s incoherent because there s no consensus definition about what antisemitism is. It s appalling because the definition employed by many influential Jewish organizations and Western politicians label virtually anyone with a genuine commitment to Palestinian freedom a Jew hater. Faced with this hot mess, Antony Lerman offers a cool, well-reasoned, deeply learned and morally courageous meditation on what antisemitism is and isn t. An urgently needed book.
-Peter Beinart, editor-at-large at Jewish Currents
Nobody unpacks the confusions currently circulating around antisemitism, nor the complexities of Jewish identity, better than Antony Lerman. This elegantly written, erudite book is essential reading for all of us, whatever our identifications.
-Lynne Segal, author of Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy
This important, essential book by a leading expert on antisemitism offers a nuanced and insightful history of the use and abuse of the fight against the world s oldest hatred. It powerfully unmasks the so-far very successful effort to twist the battle against antisemitism into a defence of the indefensible: Israel s subjugation of millions of people on the basis of their national and ethnic identity.
-Nathan Thrall, author of The Only Language They Understand
This is the best book I have read on why anti-Zionism has been equated with antisemitism and how the new antisemitism has been mobilised for political gain in a variety of arenas. Coming from one of the world s leading experts, Antony Lerman s incisive analysis will undoubtedly serve as the major reference for both pundits and novices for many years to come. I, for one, have learned a great deal from it.
-Neve Gordon, co-author of The Human Right to Dominate
We desperately need this book - and I can t imagine anyone better than Tony Lerman to write it. An essential tool to understand the weaponisation of antisemitism and its dangerous impact on free speech, Palestinian rights, and the very real threat of actual antisemitism.
-Rebecca Vilkomerson, former Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace
Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?
Redefinition and the Myth of the Collective Jew
Antony Lerman
First published 2022 by Pluto Press
New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Antony Lerman 2022
The right of Antony Lerman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3879 8 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3877 4 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 786806 29 1 PDF
ISBN 978 1 786806 30 7 EPUB



This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
for Kathy
Contents
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations
Introduction
1 Varieties of Confusion in Understandings of Antisemitism
2 The Use and Abuse of Antisemitic Stereotypes and Tropes
3 Motivated by Antisemitism? Challenges to Zionism 1975-1989
4 New Antisemitism : Competing Narratives and the Consequences of Politicisation
5 The Development of Institutions Combatting Antisemitism 1970s-2000
6 The Turning Point: New Antisemitism and the New Millennium
7 The Codification of New Antisemitism : The EUMC Working Definition
8 Responding to New Antisemitism : a Transnational Field of Racial Governance
9 The Redefinition Project and the Myth of the Collective Jew Exposed
10 Human Rights: The Mask Under Which the Teaching of Antisemitic Contempt for Israel is Carried Out
11 Geopolitics, Israel and the Authentication of New Antisemitism
12 War Discourse and its Limitations
13 Jewish Power , Medical Analogies and Eradication Discourse
14 Apocalypticism: Defining the Discourse, Writing the Headlines and Generating Moral Panics
15 Against Typological Thinking: Summary and Conclusions
Appendix: The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
I have been intending to write this book for longer than I care to remember. It draws on so many things I have learnt from the work and advice of other people over a 40-year period that this short thank you note can never do them justice. Some are no longer with us, but I particularly miss the sage and clear thinking about antisemitism generously dispensed by the late Lukasz Hirszowicz, an expert on modern Russian Jewish history and so much more, with whom I worked at the Institute of Jewish Affairs in London in the 1980s and 1990s.
My longest continuing conversation about antisemitism has been with Brian Klug. It began around the turn of the century and was only partially disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. His seminal 2003 article, The collective Jew: Israel and the new antisemitism , did all the heavy lifting in debunking new antisemitism and the false equivalence between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. It profoundly influenced my thinking, as has so much of his other writing in this area. It has been a tremendously rewarding dialogue and friendship, both when we agreed and when we disagreed, and long may it continue.
The dispassionate study of antisemitism has not been easy to maintain in the last 20 years, but someone who has done much to develop and sustain it is David Feldman. The seminars, lectures and workshops organized by his research institute at Birkbeck London University have shown the value of keeping open a space for discussion between people of very different views, however difficult that has been to execute. David s own work on the meanings of antisemitism played a key role in getting me started on this book.
The issue of antisemitism and other forms of racism was central to a five-year project, The Vienna Conversations, hosted by The Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue in Vienna and expertly led by its charismatic and indefatigable director, Gertraud Auer Borea. I had the good fortune to participate in most of the discussions and, here too, freedom to speak one s mind helped me greatly to develop my thoughts about current antisemitism within the context of understanding the seriousness of the problem of racisms in general in Europe. I am enormously grateful to Gertraud for inviting me to be part of this very rewarding project and subsequently honouring me with a Senior Fellowship.
I am also indebted to Richard Kuper for the work he did on exposing what we both knew to be the fundamental political nature of the creation of the European Union Monitoring Centre (EUMC) working definition of antisemitism, and its reincarnation as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition . On the IHRA version and the politicisation of antisemitism, Jamie Stern-Weiner has generously shared with me his deep and expanding knowledge. Collaborating with him has been enormously helpful both in getting details right and in clarifying the significance of key events in the redefinition saga.
Jamie was one of four unbelievably kind friends, colleagues and academic experts who read my entire manuscript and gave me the most incisive, crucial and constructive feedback on every level, from my treatment of the book s key arguments to the smallest points of fact. Two have written essential books and articles illuminating the complexities of attitudes to Jews, both hostile and affirmative, in various historical contexts. Steven Beller is the author of many highly regarded books on Austrian, Jewish and Central European history. Adam Sutcliffe s most recent book, What Are Jews For? History, Peoplehood and Purpose , yielded many insights of great value to me in the latter stages of writing the book. The hours they spent reading the text, flagging issues for me to consider and then discussing them with me went above and beyond any call of duty. I am of course solely responsible for what I have written.
The fourth reader is Barbara Rosenbaum, Editor of Patterns of Prejudice , with whom I have been discussing the subject matter of this book in numerous London cafes for many years. As a brilliant editor and scourge of woolly thinking, she has constantly challenged me to clarify and sharpen-up my ideas. I am so grateful to her for keeping me on the right track.
Others, too, have contributed to this book in a variety of ways. Benjamin Ross very kindly took time out from film-making and scriptwriting to read early versions of the first five chapters, and gave me much food for thought. I owe a lot to a long lunch conversation with novelist and polymath Zia Haider Rahman at a time when I was finding it very difficult to continue working on the book. The advice he gave me unlocked the door to the eventual completion of the project. A thank you, too, to Chad McDonald for helping me so much in obtaining key research articles that I needed over the last two years.
Without the constant encouragement of my commissioning editor at Pluto, David Shulman, there would be no book. He tolerated missed deadlines and changing conceptions of the book s focus, and he never lost faith in my ability to deliver. His enthusiasm for the final result made it all worthwhile. My thanks go to him and all the other Pluto staff for shepherding the manuscript through to printing and publication.
Finally, my partner Kathy has calmly helped me get through the difficult moments, when writing seemed an impossible task, and shared with me the better moments when I was making progress and needed some celebratory back-patting. As an historian of mod