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ANTISEMITISM INTERNATIONAL
An Annual Research Journal of the Vidal Sassoon International Center f or the Study of Antisemitism
2003
ANTISEMITISM INTERNATIONAL
2003
Contents:
Editors Diary
Robert S. Wistrich Albert Einstein
An Annual Research Journal of the Vidal Sassoon International Center f or the Study of Antisemitism
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Arab and Muslim Antisemitism 54 Seminars on Research Research 59 Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Western Europe since 2000 Sassoon Center Workshops and Lectures New Publications on Antisemitism Studies in Antisemitism Series 66 74 The Felix Posen Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism Paris Conference on Bernard Lazare Recent Publications, Lectures, Broadcasts, and Interviews by Center Researchers ACTA Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism
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Antisemitism in Europe Today Address to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 19 June 2003 62
Robert S. Wistrich
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Editor-in-Chief: Robert S. Wistrich Managing Editor: Alifa Saadya Editorial Coordinator: Jonathan Dekel-Chen Editorial Assistants: Sara Grosvald and Naomi Shmueli Design: Janis Design Articles of up to 6000 words to be considered for future issues may be submitted to the Editor
Antisemitism International Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus 91905 Jerusalem Israel
rom 1821 February 2003, the Vidal Sassoon Center convened a major international conference to mark its twentieth anniversary, which included about sixty participants, among them some of the leading scholars in the field of antisemitism and media studies. They gathered at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University to analyze and debate contemporary manifestations of antisemitism in the media and possible strategies to combat it. Many of the scholars, journalists and community activists came from Europe and North America as well as Israel. The participation of so many guests from abroad was all the more noteworthy at a time of great tension before the Second Gulf War, when few people were visiting Israel at all. The opening evening included greetings from Hebrew University President Menachem Magidor, from Prof. Dalia Ofer and the former President of Israel, Yitzhak Navon, who praised the richness of the conference program and spoke about the persistence of the blood libel and other anti-Jewish myths in Catholic countries like Poland, Spain, and Argentina. The conference organizer and director of the Vidal Sassoon Center, Prof. Robert S. Wistrich gave the keynote address on Global Antisemitism and Totalitarian Ideologies. He pointed out that contemporary antisemitism had truly become a worldwide phenomenon in the
highly mediatized global village of today; that the power of antisemitic images had been greatly amplified by the mobile and transnational character of electronic mass communications. At the beginning of the new century antisemitism was potentially more lethal than at any time since the Holocaust, as a result of its nexus with Islamo-fascism, inflammatory fundamentalist preaching in the mosques and the anti-globalist demagoguery deliberately incited in the wake of the Palestinian war against Israel. The core of Prof. Wistrichs lecturereproduced in this special anniversary publicationwas a comparison of the role of genocidal antisemitism in three major totalitarian ideologies of the 20th centuryNazism, Communism and radical Islam. Each had developed its own demonology of the Jew as part of a global challenge to Western liberal democracy, yet despite the divergence of their general outlook, they all shared a virulent antisemitism. The first working day of the conference was introduced by the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Gabriel Motzkin. There followed lectures by Dr. Gilad Margalit on the German media and Dr. Henrik Bachner on the Swedish debate surrounding Israel from the time of the Lebanon War until the present. Margaret Brearley, in a thought-provoking talk (reproduced in this issue) explored the anti-Israel discourse
currently rampant in Britain. Later that morning Konstanty Gebert, editor of the Warsawbased Midrasz, compared the stereotypes of Roma and Jews in the Polish press. Dr. Leon Volovici, Head of Research at the Sassoon Center, examined the changing perception of antisemitism and the use of anti-Jewish stereotypes in pubic discourse in Romania and other post-communist societies in Eastern Europe. Dr. Simcha Epstein, for his part, looked at the ways Jewish communities responded in the past and present to the challenge of antisemitism. He pointed out that confronted with the current antisemitic wave, French Jewry had opted for a strong, open and public reaction, while remaining faithful to the traditional idea that an assault on Jews was, in fact, an attack against the French Republic. In the afternoon session, the Secretary of the French Bishops Conference for Relations with Judaism, Rev. Patrick Desbois, analyzed the antisemitic imagery used in France since the late 19th century, especially in photographs and drawings; he pointed to the secularization of Christian images in the contemporary media which depict Israeli Jews as child-killers and ruthless exploiters of poor Palestinians. Prof. Daniel Dayan, Director of Research at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) in Paris, examined, for his part, the ways in which stereotypes
about Israel are constructed in the French media. He observed that contemporary antisemitism had a lot to do with the building of a new French identity that tried to integrate Muslims, while excluding those Jews who did not dissociate themselves sufficiently from Israel. Jacques Tarnero, filmmaker and associate researcher at CNRS, talked about Antisemitism in the French Media from a more subjective viewpoint. He observed that since the start of the second Intifada, the Jewish State had become the new incarnation of fascism and Nazism. The venomous message of the UN-sponsored Durban Conference was present not only in the Third World, but also in the minds of many Europeans, especially in France. Later that afternoon, there were presentations by Sara Grosvald (Sassoon Center) and Mike Dahan about hatred on the internet as well as an illuminating discussion of the ways in which the Holocaust has been manipulated on film. In the evening, Prof. Robert Wistrich introduced Jacques Tarnero to an overflow crowd at a special session organized in cooperation with the Jerusalem Cinmathque. The centerpiece of this highly successful cooperative effort with the Cinmathque was Tarneros film made with Philippe Bensoussan, Dcryptage, which had only been released two weeks earlier in France. This was the Israeli premiere showing of the documentary. It offered
the audience a fierce critique of French media coverage of the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The panel of European and Israeli journalists, which discussed the film on stage, after the projection, reached very divergent conclusions about the current anti-Israel and antisemitic discourse in Europe. Melanie Phillips and Fiamma Nirenstein regarded most European media treatment of Israel as hostile and highly partisan; David Witzthum, Eliahu Salpeter, and Itzhak Noy, the three Israeli jounalists, were much less certain about this and tended to see European reactions mainly as a response to what Israel was doing in the territories. Arab antisemitism was one of the major themes of the
Dr. Simcha Epstein, Prof. Robert Wistrich, Danielle Boccara and Rev. Desbois.
Prof. Menachem Magidor, President of the Hebrew University, opens the conference in the presence of former President of Israel, Mr. Yitzhak Navon.
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conference. Menahem Milson, a professor of Arabic literature at the Hebrew University and member of the Sassoon Centers academic board, addressed this topic as an increasingly significant political phenomenon in modern times. Its deeper roots belonged to a centuries-old cultural background. Though Quranic Islamic stereotypes of the Jew still informed Muslim responses to Israel, Arab antisemitism today had imported and internalized Christian myths like the blood libel, modern Western antisemitic elements (Holocaust denial, Zionism-is-Nazism) and the socalled anti-Zionist demonization of the Jew (see his paper in this issue). Dr. Reuven Paz, director of the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements at the GLORIA Center in the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya focused on Islamist anti-Westernism and its relation to Jew-hatred. According to Paz, the radical Islamist worldview mainly relied on one keyword: conspiracy. This movement, and these doctrines look at themselves as if they are surrounded by a global conspiracy, an alliance between the Jews and the western world. Their ideology was based on violent Jihad, which, by definition, is a war of self-defense in which there are no limitations or red lines. Dr. Rivka Yadlin, from the Hebrew Universitys Truman Institute, analyzed Rider without a Horse, the Egyptian
TV series (41 episodes) which created such a stir in both the international and Middle Eastern public arenas. The main bone of contention in the public outcry was the apparent endorsement of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in its contents and in the publicity for the series. This was clearly a political message. Its ideological aspect was enhanced by the wellpublicized anti-Zionist and panArabist bias of its producer and star actorMuhammad Sobhia popular actor considered to be the personification of Egyptian national identity. In another session, Dr. Yigal Carmon, head of MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) discussed Osama el-Bazs response to this production and a few other recent cases where Arab intellectuals have considered antisemitism to be harmful to the Palestinian cause. Dr. Dan Schueftan, a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Center and director of the National Security Studies Center, University of Haifa, spoke about how the establishment of Israel presented the Arabs with a painful challenge, far beyond the political realm. Not only had an infidel entity established itself in the heart of the Arab homeland; but to add insult to injury, the Jews (traditionally condemned to perpetual wretchedness) had vanquished the great Arab nation destined for glory. This ArabMuslim sense of shame underlay the distorted, often antisemitic image of Israel and the Jews in the
Arabic-speaking media. Dr. Elie Podeh, head of the Middle East Unit at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem spoke about Israeli and Palestinian history textbooks. He pointed out that each party to any conflict creates its own historical narrative, which is often replete with inaccuracies, biases, prejudices, stereotypes, and omissions; the Palestinian textbooks reflected this negative image of the other in a particularly sharp way. Following a similar methodology, there was an interesting duet between Dr. Mohammed Dajani from Al-Quds University and Prof. Gadi Wolfsfeld of the Hebrew University about media reflections of the Other during the current Intifada which provoked a lively audience discussion. Prof. Tamar Liebes, chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discussed the issue of global media, local conflict, and international public opinion. She noted that in the new global media environment, international news channels sometimes assume the power of arbiters in distant conflicts, who can influence the outcome of a local war even if its audience is far away. Among the examples she discussed were the death of the Palestinian youth Muhammad al-Dura in the crossfire at Netzarim junction in the Gaza strip and the lynching
of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah on October 2000, as reflected on American television. In a session on terrorism and antisemitism in the global media, there was also an interesting presentation by Prof. Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University contrasting American media coverage of Palestinian violence to its handling of global terror. There was also an insightful analysis by Dr. Judith Elizur (from the Communications Department of the Hebrew University) of how Israel is presented in the international media as a Goliath, exercising excessive force against the Palestinians. (See her contribution in this issue.) In a separate section on the Churches, Prof. Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Racism and Antisemitism at Tel Aviv University, discussed the treatment by the media (both Christian and non-Christian) of the Church of the Nativity Affair. This famous church in Bethlehem was taken over by armed Palestinians on April 4, 2002. They held its clergy hostage, while the Israeli Defense Forces surrounded the grounds and demanded the surrender of the wanted gunmen. Her presentation focused on the relation between biased media reporting of the Affair and deep-seated Christian religious feelings. There was also a fascinating presentation by Dr. Gershon Nerel which unmasked the displacement theology and the antisemitism currently
circulated by Palestinian Christian Arabs in the electronic media. Danny Rubinstein, a columnist on Arab affairs and a member of the editorial board of the Haaretz daily newspaper, enlarged on the topic of current Palestinian perceptions of Israeli Jews. He observed that in the eyes of the Arab and Palestinian media, the Jews of Europe had always been seen as a foreign implant in the Middle East. Having brought the alien ideology of Zionism to Palestine, they were all too readily demonized by the local Arab population. The image of the Jew had become more negative in recent years with Israel seen as a fundamentally aggressive entity and the local representative of the corrupt West. On the final day, Prof. Robert Wistrich chaired a discussion on possible strategies for dealing with the current wave of anti-Israelism, anti-Zionism and antisemitism. A number of the invited speakers from abroad were asked to summarize their conclusions and offered thought-provoking suggestions for trying to reverse anti-Israel and antisemitic trends in the media. There were incisive contributions by the Candaian M.P. Prof. Irwin Cotler and the ADLs Kenneth Jacobson; the former evaluated and strongly denounced the prejudicial treatment of Israel in international forums while the latter scrutinized the complexities of anti and pro-Jewish imagery in the American media. Prof. Yehuda
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Bauer (a former Chair of the Center) concluded with a general survey of the changing contours of antisemitism through the ages, with particular emphasis on the danger represented by radical Islam and its hegemonic ambitions. The Sassoon Center devoted a special evening to the celebration of its twentieth anniversary. Mr. Vidal Sassoon and Mr. Felix Posen, the major donors to the Center, spoke in a moving way about their involvement with the Center since its beginning in 1982. The Master of Ceremonies was Mr. Eliahu Honig from the Hebrew University, who also played a part in the creation of the Center. Professors Shmuel Almog and Yehuda Bauer shared reminiscences with the audience. Prof. Robert Wistrich responded and also presented gifts to the
donors and flowers to the members of the staff in recognition of their admirable efforts during the conference. The entire conference was broadcast in real time over the internet to the broader publican innovation introduced immediately after the arrival of the new director in October 2002. At the same time, a considerable effort was made to publicize the event and this was largely successful. The conference enjoyed extensive press coverage in Israel and abroad. It was a landmark event for the Sassoon Center. Three and a half days not only honored what had been done in the past, but more importantly, it looked boldly into the present abyss and beyond to future challenges in the study of antisemitism and strategies to combat it.
Felix Posen and Vidal Sassoon with the staff of the Center.
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n May 18, 2003, the Vidal Sassoon Center hosted the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lvy (BHL) who spoke movingly before a huge audience in the Mexico auditorium on Mount Scopus about his new book, Who Killed Daniel Pearl? The day of the lecture, just before he had specially flown
from Morocco in his private plane, a fatal explosion had occurred in Casablanca. The same morning, not far from the campus, another bombing with several Israeli fatalities, took place on French Hill. Nevertheless, despite these ominous events, a vast crowd came to the well-publicized event which the Head of the Sassoon Center, Professor Robert Wistrich, initiated and organized with the help of the Director of the Levinas Center in Jerusalem, Mr. Benny Lvy. The whole event was broadcast live on the website of the Sassoon Center with simultaneous translations into English and Hebrew. At a press conference on Mount Scopus, just before the lecture, BHL spoke about his sense of kinship with Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter so cruelly beheaded by Islamic fanatics in Pakistan a year before. He recalled that he had first learned of Pearls fate while in Kabul, in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He immediately flew to Pakistan where he found the videocassette of Pearls final agonies on sale as if it were a war trophy. All in the name of God. What greater horror could there be? A Jewish beheading in the 21st century? I knew I was facing a significant event, an affair that revealed the very heart of modern antisemitism. After the press conference, Bernard-Henri Lvy, his actress-singer wife, Arielle Dombasle, and friends, accompanied by their hosts, went to pay their respects to those who had died in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria bombing on Mount Scopus at the end of July 2002. By the time the guests arrived at the auditorium, there were already about 1,500 people inside despite the shadow of a general strike hovering over the country, the serious bombing in Jerusalem that morning, and the heavy security measures. The atmosphere was electric and the enthusiasm of the crowd expressed itself in sustained applause. The entire evenings proceedings were conducted in French and it seemed as if all of the Francophones of Jerusalem were to be found in the hall. Professor Robert Wistrich gave the audience a witty rsum of the intellectual and political activities of the Algerianborn writer, philosopher, and human rights activist
whose 537-page book on Daniel Pearl had only appeared in France two weeks earlier and was already a best seller. Professor Wistrich explained that he had invited Bernard-Henri Lvy, not simply because he was a celebrity, but because what he had to say powerfully evoked the most dangerous threat to civilization todaythe fusion of radical Islam, nuclear weapons, and rabid antisemitism in a rogue state, Pakistan, which, if it fell into fundamentalist hands, could become even more dangerous than Saddam Husseins Iraq. Lvys brilliant talk had the audience riveted for an hour and a half. The Jerusalem Post called it a cataclysmic revelation of what worldwide terrorism really means. He described Pakistan (a country where he spent a year, retracing the steps of Daniel Pearl) as a land of evil on the edge of an apocalypse; he evoked in grim terms the billion-dollar mafia enterprise run by Al-Qaeda and other power-hungry fundamentalist gangsters; he evoked briefly the sickening trade in drugs, sex, and suicide bombers; the hysterical antisemitism in Muslim lands that have no Jews. He also examined the motivations of Pearls murderer, the British-educated
Pakistani Omar Sheikhthe dark face of the encounter between Islam and the West. Lvy concluded by offering an interpretation of Daniel Pearls last words on the tape, which he suggested were intended to foil his executioners implacable will to totally humiliate him. In the full tape, Pearl confesses that he is a grandson of the Zionist Chaim Pearl, even mentioning a street named for him in Bnei Brak. Why, Lvy pointedly asked the audience, did he go out of his way to mention Bnei Brak? Lvys answer, inspired by his meetings with Daniel Pearls parents was one that undoubtedly touched his Israeli audience. Because he wanted to say I belong to a family which built a beautiful Israel and an advanced civilization, while you are wicked barbarians. The evenings proceedings are recorded on the Sassoon website in French, Hebrew, and English. CD-ROMs are available on request. The interview conducted by Robert Wistrich with Bernard-Henri Lvy in Jerusalem, on May 19, 2003, can be found on page 78.
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A Joint Project of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Harry S Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace
uring the academic year 20022003, this project expanded greatly under the direction of Professor Robert Wistrich and Dr. Simcha Epstein of the Vidal Sassoon Center, in cooperation with Professor Amnon Cohen and Dr. Eli Podeh of the Truman Institute. The seven students in the project presented detailed lectures on their work in the very successful course in the Faculty of Humanities jointly given by Robert Wistrich and Simcha Epstein on Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism in the Twentieth Century. Here are their summaries of the current state of their research.
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Shlomo Daskal
Neta Marmor
Perceptions of Jews and Judaism in the Public Sphere inside Assads Syria
During the preceding academic year, this project evolved from a study of Hafez Assads Syria in 19912000, to a focus on the country under his son and successor, Bashar Assad. Since ascending to power, Bashars verbal attacks against Jews and Israelis have been heavily peppered with antisemitic idioms. At a conference in Jordan in March 2001, he accused Israelis of being more racist than Nazism. During the Popes visit to Damascus in May of that year, Bashar stated that the Jews try to kill the principles of the heavenly religions, in the same way in which Christ was betrayed and tortured, and likewise they tried to betray the Prophet Mohammed. Later, he told the European press that these remarks were based on historical facts; Bashar then compared the agony of Christ to that of the Palestinians. After 9/11, the Syrian press claimed that the Mossad was involved in the attacks on the Twin Towers and that Israeli intelligence had forewarned 4000 Israelis working at the World Trade Center. Moreover, the Syrian press called the IDF incursion into Bethlehem in April 2002, the recrucifixion of Christ. What is the origin of such tirades? My research suggests that Bashar Assad is a true disciple of his father and his regime. True, the elder Assad refrained from using explicit charges against Jews. But the atmosphere of Jew-hatred was incited and maintained nonetheless through the press and by the statements of government officials of all ranks; many of these people still hold key positions in Syria. While the centrality of antisemitism in the countrys political life must not be ignored, the interim findings indicate that the tone and frequency of Syrian antisemitism must be measured with wider factors in mind. Specifically, both regimes inflamed or cast aside the antisemitic invective in reaction to political developments.
Itamar Radai
Uri Sabach
Tishreen (Syria) April 21, 2001. Israeli soldiers posing before the corpse of a Palestinian child. Antisemitism International, 2003
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Seminars on Research
Current Trends in the Conservative Islamic Press of Turkey
Daphna Sharef
Three major events have affected Turkey during the past year. The first was the ascendance of the Muslim religious AK Parti (Justice and Development Party) following the November 2003 elections. The next event was, of course, the second Gulf War. Turkeys aspirations to join the European Union and the factors barring its membership constitute the third key development. To determine whether these events changed attitudes among Islamist Turks towards the Jews and Israel, this project examined three Islamist Turkish daily newspapers. These dailies reflect a range of opinions within the Islamist camp: Yenisafak is the semi-official newspaper of AK Parti and reflects a more moderate approach vis--vis the West, Israel, and the Jews; Vakit is an Islamist daily published by Istanbuls city hall; and Milligazete is the semi-official voice of the extreme Saadet Partisi and expresses the most radical opinions toward the West, the Jews, and Israel. One must emphasize that none of these newspapers enjoy high levels of circulation in Turkey. My research has shown that Yenisafak does not publish antisemitica. It does, however, moderately criticize Israels policy towards the Palestinians and American policy in Iraq. During the second Gulf War, articles in Vakit claimed, almost on a daily basis, that the Zionists intended to take over Iraq once the war ended and thus fulfill the Zionist-colonialist dream of Greater Israel. After the war was over, however, such articles disappeared. Milligazete was the only newspaper of the three that continuously published anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and anti-Western articles. Such views have been typical in this newspaper for many years; recent events were merely new excuses to justify Milligazetes old agenda.
Poetry has been a central part of Arabic culture for over a thousand years. During that time, poets have filled a role comparable to that of modern journalists. Poetry still enjoys a unique status, even if challenged by prose since the nineteenth century. My research project seeks to assess how Palestinian poets, who consider themselves makers of public opinion, have reflected the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948. To do so, a number of categories were examined, including attitudes toward Israeli control over Palestinian land and the drive for revenge. This years work concentrated on three contemporary poetsH run Hsim Ra d, Ahmad Dahb and ala a s ur, Mutawkkil T hall of whom are important figures in a a the Palestinian community. Ra d was a PLO delegate s to the Arab League in the late 1980s and early 1990s; Dahb is a columnist at the newspaper al-Hay t alur a Jadda; and T h is chairman of the Palestinian Writers a a Union in the West Bank and Gaza. If my research during the previous academic year focused on how Palestinian poets demonized Israelis by characterizing them as wild animals and by equating them with Nazis, the current years research found more traditional antisemitic motifs in their writings. Even if a simplistic style can make his condemnations appear quite juvenile, Ra d has been the most hostile in this regard. s He introduced the blood libel into Palestinian literature and used the Protocols to explain the early development of Zionism. Ra d even dedicated a collection of poems s to Palestinian terrorists. Judging from the materials studied this year, Dahb and T h are more subtle than ur a a Ra d, but no less hateful; nationalism fuels the hostility s of the former, whereas religious resentment seems to drive Ra ds anti-Jewish and anti-Israel message. s
Yoni Sheffer
The following monthly seminars, featuring research on antisemitism were held at the Sassoon Center under the chairmanship of Professor Robert Wistrich during the academic year 20022003.
Prof. Menahem Milson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and MEMRI) What Is Arab Antisemitism?
This lecture dealt with Arab antisemitism as a modern political, ideological, and media phenomenon. Prof. Milson based his analysis of the distinctive features of anti-Jewish propaganda on a survey conducted by MEMRI (of which he is academic advisor), which covered a wide range of Arabic publications and forums, including newspapers, magazines, television programs, books, websites, and Friday sermons in mosques. Professor Milson defined Arab antisemitism as anti-Jewish materials produced by Arabs, in Arabic, and intended for Arab audiences. Frequently, Arab propagandists also address foreign audiences in order to recruit their support, and employ anti-Jewish arguments and themes. The lecture addressed three major components of anti-Jewish propaganda in the Arab world: (a) Anti-Jewish opinions derived from traditional Islamic sources; (b) Antisemitic stereotypes, images and accusations of European and Christian origin; (c) Denial of the Holocaust and the equation of Zionism with Nazism (this too is of Western provenance).
4 November 2002
Prof. Amatzia Baram (Haifa University) Antisemitism in the Iraqi Nation-State, 1920-2002
Although expressions of modern antisemitism emerged during the late 19th century in what eventually became Iraq, anti-Jewish hatred became a powerful socio-political force in the Iraqi nation-state only in the 1930s. Professor Baram described the cycles of antisemitism in the political life of Iraq. Under King Faysal I (19211933), there were few manifestations of antisemitism. In the 1930s, however, Nazi antisemitism was enthusiastically adopted by Iraqs educated classes. Those Jews who remained in Iraq after the mass exodus of 19501951 enjoyed a brief respite, but official and popular antisemitism swelled again in the 1960s, particularly after the Six-Day War. With the takeover of the Baath Party in July 1968, conditions for Iraqs Jews deteriorated rapidly and the regime brought antisemitic propaganda to its height. During the 1990s, the regime added elements from Islamic tradition to this anti-Jewish imageryit presented Jews as descendents of pigs and monkeys and cited calls in the Hadith to Muslims for the murder of Jews. Professor Baram concluded that the Baath regime (19682003) represented the peak of the significant antisemitic tradition in Iraq.
9 December 2002
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Prof. Anton Pelinka (University of Innsbruck) Antisemitism without Antisemites: The Case of Austria Today
Antisemitism in Austria after 1945 is an antisemitism without Jews. In fact, the current size of its Jewish community is approximately 5 percent of what it was in 1937. But if antisemites do not have Jews readily available, they invent them. Indeed, they grossly exaggerate the number of Jews living in Austria. Moreover, post-1945 antisemitism in Austria is one without antisemites. While open antisemitism was widely accepted before 1938, it was frowned upon after 1945. Consequently, antisemitism went undergroundno political party promotes an anti-Jewish platform, and antisemites deny being antisemitic. Instead, the use of code words such as East Coast to refer to Jewish New Yorkobscure their agenda. Research on post-1945 antisemitism in Austria clearly demonstrates that there is a significant divide between political antisemitism, on the one side, versus age and education, on the other. In short, among those better-educated Austrians of the younger generation who do not identify with the political Right, there is less temptation to articulate antisemitic attitudes.
16 December 2002
Dr. Franoise Ouzan (CNRS, French Research Centre of Jerusalem) American Antisemitism in the 1940s: A Reassessment
Drawing on archival collections from the Truman and Eisenhower Presidential Libraries, this lecture explored antisemitism in the 1940s and the reasons for its decline from the autumn of 1947 onwards. In 1946, the educational campaign launched by a non-denominational lobby, financed by American Jews, aimed at persuading the public and the Congress to admit European Displaced Persons (DPs). It played down the number of Jewish DPs and blotted out Jewish distinctiveness in order to neutralize antisemitic tendencies both in Congress and in the State Department. The campaign produced a wealth of editorials, articles and cartoons that illustrated the nature of prejudice. Franoise Ouzan used various indicators of the period such as polls, the American press, and two Hollywood movies nominated for Oscars in 1947 to assess the swift transformation of the image of the Jew, from a conspiratorial foreigner to a respectable neighbor. She concluded that a number of factors interacted in this change. Among these were the low profile adopted by American Jews during the Cold War and the creation of the state of Israel, supported by President Truman. Antisemitism was no longer morally acceptable in a triumphant, euphoric and economically booming country. Furthermore, American GIs had seen the Old World firsthand and, as a result, were less willing to tolerate discrimination at home.
2 June 2003
Dr. Simcha Epstein (Sassoon Center) Islam in France and the Jews
The Muslim population in France ranges from four to six million, according to various estimations. A collective effort toward social and cultural integration within French society was the dominant feature which unified its French-born generations during the 1980s. This trend was supplanted since the beginning of the 1990s by a growing inclination toward more radical and militant expressions of Arab-Islamic identity. Such a development naturally led to important repercussions in the French Jewish community, particularly since the October 2000 intifada. The years 2000/2003 have thus been marked by an unprecedented wave of violent aggression against Jewish institutions and Jewish persons in the streets. They were also characterized by a powerful stream of anti-Zionist propaganda which very often drifted into open incitement against the Jews as such. Schools and colleges represent the most acute sites where this hostility which is concurrently ethnic, social and religious has flourished and continues to do so.
13 January 2003
Dr. Dana Arieli-Horowitz (Tel Aviv University) The Jew as Destroyer of Culture in National-Socialist Ideology
A key motif in the Nazi critique of the Weimar republic linked the concept of the Jew as destroyer of culture (Kulturzerstrer) to modern degenerate art. Descriptions of the Jewish role in the destruction of German culture predate National-Socialist ideology. Such descriptions can therefore reinforce those observers who see a special path in Germanys history (Deutsche Sonderweg). But the Nazi worldview (Weltanschauung) was unique nonethelessit amalgamated traditional components into a violently Judeophobic imagery. The Nazi synthesis of the Jew as destroyer of culture can be divided into three segments: first, the racially defective Jews undermine the proper visual representation of the German Volk. Second, the Jews disseminate a subversive and degenerate culture, created in great part by the mentally ill; and, as disseminators of internationalist ideas, Jews are the principal agents of cultural Bolshevism. Finally, because they control world finance and the art market, the Jews were able to impose their artistic tastes on the German Volk.
24 March 2003
6:00 P.M. Monday July 21,1947 The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgement on world affairs... The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as DPs as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog.... Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. Ive found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.
Additional copies of this special issue of Antisemitism International can be had from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, payable by check or money order (includes postage and handling). $16.00 per copy outside of Israel NIS 60 per copy in Israel To order, contact: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus 91905 Jerusalem Israel
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Research
Three new research projects were approved by the Academic Committee for the academic year 20022003.
Has Serbia conformed to the revival of the far Right and antisemitic political ideas seen in Eastern Europe during the transition from communism? Dr. Byford goes beyond existing research on antisemitism in Serbia, in investigating how the authority of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovi a highly-respected but very controversial Serbian Orthodox c Christian theologianis used in far Right discourse to legitimize political extremism, especially antisemitism. The project will contribute to the ongoing debate about the presence of antisemitism and the persistence of antisemitic conspiracy theories in Serbian society. It will also draw attention to the role that the unchallenged authority of Bishop Velimirovi and the Serbian Orthodox Church play in the perpetuation of these phenomena. c Interviews with members of the Serbian Orthodox clergy, far Right activists, and representatives of the Serbian government, as well as with a variety of domestic political parties will supplement the analysis of written material.
Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovi: Between Mainstream Orthodox Culture and the Christian Right
Dr. Leonid Katsis The Ideological History of the Blood Libel in Russian Orthodox Thought from The Book of a Neophite Monk to the Beilis Trial The following research projects have been completed Dr. Philippe Oriol Bernard Lazare and Antisemitism Prof. Danny Ben-Moshe Holocaust Denial in Australia Oleg Budnitskii Russian Jews between the Reds and the Whites: Jews and the antiBolshevik Movement Prof. Jol Kotek Antisemitism in Belgian and French Comic Strips (19332000) Prof. Andrs Kovcs The Perception of Antisemitism among Jews in Contemporary Hungary: Results of a Survey Dr. Olaf R. Blaschke Jews and Catholics in the German Empire Dr. Yaron Harel The Response of the Enlightened Jews in the Near East to the Dreyfus Affair
Second Year
Jean Ancel Antisemitism vs. Nationalism Romania 1942 Shaul Baumann The Attitude of the Eranos Circle to Jews and Judaism Jacob Borut Antisemitism in Jewish Everyday Life in the Weimar Republic Benjamin Braude The Image of the Jew in the Literature of Eastern Travel, 1350 1650: Power and the Transition to Antisemitism Patrick Cavaliere Antisemitism in Fascist Italy: The Intellectual Origins of the Racial Laws of 1938 Andrew Horn The Connecting ThreadKiplings White Man and the Antisemitism of Empire Brian Horowitz Russian-Jewish Interaction: Cultural Cooperation in an Epoch of Antisemitism Melinda Jones The Role of Law in Overcoming Antisemitism in Australia Jonathan Judaken Theorizing Antisemitism: Confronting Modernity and Modern Judeophobia
Continuing Projects
Horst Junginger The Study of the Jewish Question and its Academic Setting in Germany, 19331945 Victoria Khiterer Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Ukraine, October 1905 Florin Lobont and Dan Stone Modernization and Antisemitism in Modern Romania: Continuities and Changes in Political Action and Culture James Mueller Jews and Judaism in Early Christian Literature Vadim Rossman Jewish Conspiracy and Yellow Peril: Antisemitism and Sinophobia in the Nineteenth Century Vygantas Vareikis From Prejudice to Destruction: Antisemitism in Lithuania at the End of the Nineteenth Century and during the First Half of the Twentieth Century Gyula Vattamany John Chrysostom and the Twentieth Century Hanna W grzynek e The Origins of the Blood Libel Accusations in Poland
Completed Research
Most of the womens liberation organizations from the 1970s onward have taken upon themselves the fight against all forms of social repression, not just discrimination against women. But why have feminists not treated antisemitism as an injustice that must also be fought? Dr. Las will assess the attitude of the various womens movements to the antisemitic events of the past thirty years in Europe and in the United States. She hopes to account for the global changes of the period as well as the new forms of prejudice and antisemitism that have surfaced in recent years. The project will examine public statements and personal testimonies of activists. The research will also look at the politicization of those feminist movements connected to the UN. Several cases will be explored in depth; among these are the international conference of women in Mexico (1975), where the equation of Zionism with racism emerged for the first time, and the Copenhagen conference (1985), where anti-Zionism assumed the form of virulent antisemitism. Dr. Lass research will bring a unique gender-oriented approach to the study of contemporary antisemitism. The use of gender in this study does not imply an exclusively female perspective, but rather a focus on the involvement of feminist groups.
Feminist Movements Confront Antisemitism from the 1970s until Today: From Silence and Non-Intervention to Political Use of Anti-Zionism
After 9/11, queries of why do they hate us? peaked in the West. This testifies to the crystallization of two notions that were heretofore either vague or dismissed: the relevance of words in the formation of imagery and attitudes, as well as the construction and the diffusion of malicious ideas of otherness among Arab/Muslim opinion makers. Dr. Yadlin posits that the current phase of Arab/Mulim antisemitism, while surely tied to the prevailing geopolitical or territorial conflict, is also rooted in the cultural sphere. For the Muslim world, Jews are a part of the irreconcilable, hegemonic,otherthe West against which Arab/Muslim identity must protect itself. In addition to a theoretical inquiry, a case study will be assessedthe mainstream discourse of the hatred of Jews in Egypt. This will focus on the convergence of the domestic Islamist revival with the globalization of the media and the internationalization of Islam. Rivka Yadlin will explore three major sources: recent publications by mainstream authors that deal with Israel, broadcasts by the al-Jazeera TV station, and self-styled Islamic sources in print format and on the Internet.
The Cultural Assault on the Muslim Mind: The Conceptual Basis of Arab/Muslim Antisemitism
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Congratulations
Applications approved by the Academic Committee, 2003. Yuval Boker (Haifa University) The Jewish Community, Antisemitism and Inter-Race Relations in Britain, 19451970 Vadim Gordimer (Ben Gurion University) The Jews in the Crimean Peninsula between the World Wars Clemens Heni (Universitt Tbingen) Henning Eichberg, the (antisemitic) New Right, and the (anti-Zionist) New Left in the Political Culture of Post-1968 Germany Andrea Hoffman (Universitt Tbingen) Antisemitism in Southern Germany: The Field of Tension between Religious Denominations David Shapira (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) In the Eye of the Storm: Chief Rabbi Yaacov KaplanThe Ordeals of the Jewish Community in TwentiethCentury France Martin Ulmer (Universitt Tbingen) Antisemitism in Public Discourse and Everyday Life in Stuttgart from 1871 to 1945. An Exemplary Local and Regional Study
Second Year
he Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism organized a one day international conference on the theme Antisemitism and AntiZionism in Western Europe since 2000, which took place at the Beit Maiersdorf Faculty Club on December 18, 2002. Martin Ulmer talked about the current trends in Germany, characterized by a certain switch rom latent to manifest antisemitism. German anti-Zionism before and after September 11, 2001 was dealt with by Clemens Heni, a younger German scholar. These two presentations provoked a protest by Reinhard Wiemer of the German Embassy, one of the patrons of the conference, who felt they were excessively critical of the Federal Republic. This intervention led to a lively debate and controversy. The French journalist Clement Weill-Raynal analyzed the responsibility of the media in the rise of antisemitism in his own country. Simcha Epstein, for his part, compared the present anti-Jewish wave with earlier outbreaks that occurred in France ten and twenty years ago. Joel Rubinfeld and Manfred Gerstenfeld, discussed Belgium and the Netherlands, respectively. They portrayed a situation no less worrying than that in France. Anton Pelinka opted for a different approach in relation to the situation in Austria, where the influence of Middle East events seems to have been weaker than in other European countries. Robert Wistrich analyzed Muslim Judeophobia in Great Britain, noting that extremist Muslim preachers have revived and radicalized those verses in the Quran which can be made to justify the unspeakable. As a result, he concluded: Islamists are now a danger to everyoneto Jews, to Christians, to themselves, and to Muslims in general. Britain, he added, was in danger of becoming the major playground for jihad in Europe. The evening session was opened by Esther Schapira, who presented to a broad
audience her documentary, Three Bullets and a Dead Child: Who Killed the Young Muhammed al-Dura? This was followed by a discussion chaired by Robert Wistrich. On the panel were Anton Pelinka, Clement Weill-Raynal, and David Witzthum. They addressed the issue of the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antiJewish bias in the media and impact of the tragic death of Mohammed al-Dura at the beginning of the intifada. There is no certainty, it emerged, that the bullets which killed the boy came from the Israeli side of the crossroad. The discussion also dealt more generally with the responsibility of Western media in distorting the image of Israel in the conflict and the issues of truth and propaganda in film. Simcha Epstein
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15 January 2003
Robert Wistrich,
This volume shows a perfect command of the subject. The authors ability to integrate an enormous amount of detail into a wide-ranging synthesis placed in its historical and cultural context successfully fuses the perspectives of European and Jewish history.
18 May 2003
Prof. Robert Wistrich, Chair; Prof. Victor Shnirelman (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow); Dr. Yitzhak Brudny (Hebrew University); Mr. Ehud Yaari (Israel Television, Channel 2). This symposium was convened to mark the publication of Victor Shnirelmans study, The Myth of the Khazars and Intellectual Antisemitism in Russia, 1970s1990s (Jerusalem: SICSA, 2003). The speakers addressed the role of the Khazar myth among antisemitic nationalists in post-Soviet Russia, both as supposed evidence of a foreign occupation regime and as a tool for creating an image of a hated other. The danger of this antisemitic rhetoric lies in its proximity to known historical facts about the Khazars. Over recent decades, the Khazar myth has inserted antisemitic content into Russian intellectual discourse and may be ultimately more dangerous than the blatant fabrications of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The myth of the Khazar origins of the Ashkenazi Jews has also shown great persistence in the Middle East. The late President Hafez Assad of Syria and other Arab leaders have employed it to justify their attempts to delegitimize Israel.
27 May 2003
10 April 2003
A substantial, comprehensive, and updated historical survey of the main antisemitic mythsthe deicide accusation, ritual murder allegation, demonization of Jews as international conspirators, the Jew as parasite and plutocrat. In each chapter the authors trace the way old religious myths molded in the Christian tradition were reshaped in the Nazi antisemitic ideology and propaganda in order to promote and justify an antiJewish annihilation policy. Modern antisemitism inherited the old irrational anti-Jewish myths. Perry and Schweitzer emphasize, however, the essential difference between Christian anti-Judaism, centered on the myth of Christ killers, and modern antisemitism which is powered by nationalist and racist myths that castigate Jews as an alien and dangerous race threatening the survival of the nation (p. 5). A separate chapter discusses Holocaust denial, here presented as a neo-Nazi mythology. The authors have brought the subject up to date with a thorough look at recent waves and trends in antisemitism. The Nation of Islam movement manufactured a new myththe Jews as the main force behind the slave trade. There has been a resurgence of antisemitism in Western Europe exacerbated by the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as the use of Christian and Nazi myths by the pervasive propaganda in the Arab Islamic world. Leon Volovici
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Cesare G. De Michelis
This study explores the ways in which West Germans in Munich responded after 1945 to the Holocaust. Examining the political and religious discourse on the Jewish Question, Kauders shows how men and women in the immediate postwar era employed antisemitic images from the Weimar Republic in order to distance themselves from the murderous policies of the Nazi regime. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many peopleand particularly Social Democrats and members of both the Protestant and Catholic Churchesbegan to repudiate antisemitism altogether, appreciating the connection between liberal democracy, on the one hand, and the rejection of Jewhatred, on the other. This change was a revolutionary moment in the democratization of the Federal Republic, as the language of liberalism merged with the spirit of democracy. ISBN 0-8032-2763-9 $55.00
Anthony D. Kauders
Robert S. Wistrich, ed., Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism, and Xenophobia. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999. ISBN 90-5702-497-7 Richard H. Weisberg, Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, and New York: New York University Press, 1996. ISBN 3-7186-5892-5 William Korey, Russian Antisemitism, Pamyat, and the Demonology of Zionism. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995. ISBN 3-7186-5740-6 (hardcover) ISBN 3-7186-5742-2 (softcover) Ronald Modras, The Catholic Church and Antisemitism: Poland, 19331939. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994. ISBN 3-7186-5568-3 (hardcover); ISBN 90-5833-129-1 (softcover, June 2000)
College Theology Society Best Book Award, 1994
Argentina has always identified itself as a Catholic country, and during the 1930s, the Church came to have great influence in shaping government policy. One matter of particular interest to the Jewish community was the willingness of Argentina to accept European Jewish refugees. Dr. Ben-Dror looks at the attitude of the Argentinean Church on this and other issues affecting the Jewish community. A Hebrew edition appeared in 2000, published by the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Zalman Shazar Center. In the same year, it received an award for excellence, presented by the Israeli Ministry of Science, Culture, and Sport, in the category Authors First Published Book (in Jewish History). The book has also appeared in Spanish (2003).
Graciela Ben-Dror
Harwood Academic Publishers has been acquired by the Taylor & Francis group. Publications in Harwood Studies in Antisemitism Series can be purchased online via their website: http://www.tandf.co.uk
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Robert S. Wistrich
Michel Abitbol, From Crmieux to Ptain: Antisemitism in Colonial Algeria, 18701940 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 1988. 188 pp. ISBN 965-205-122-7 Shmuel Almog, Nationalism and Antisemitism in Modern Europe 1815-1945 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 1988. 181 pp. ISBN 965-227-051-2 Nathaniel Katzburg, Antisemitism in Hungary 1867 1944 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 1992. 203 pp. ISBN 965-227-082-2 Rivka Yadlin, Anti-Zionism as Anti-Judaism in Egypt (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 1988. 157 pp. ISBN 965-227-050-4 Miriam Yardeni, Huguenots and Jews (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 1998. 193 pp. ISBN 965-227-122-5. Graciela Ben-Dror, The Catholic Church and the Jews, Argentina 19331945 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 2000. 320 pp. ISBN 965-227-151-9
Joint Project with the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History and the Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem
he Felix Posen Bibliographic Project comprises a current on-line database accessible through the Israel University Inter-Library Network and in printed volumes. It has a unique position in the world of scholarship for several reasons. First, it is truly comprehensive, i.e., it lists books and articles published throughout the world on the subject of antisemitism. This is made possible through the very special connection which the Projects research team has developed with the Jewish National and University Library located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The National Library, itself a priceless asset for Israel, the Diaspora, and world-wide Judaica scholarship, is committed to acquiring the majority of works published around the world dealing with Jews and Judaism. The Posen Bibliographic Project and its highly trained staff of abstractors have immediate access to the librarys acquisitions which greatly facilitates its endeavors. These holdings cover a diverse range of disciplineshistory, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and art. The second unique aspect has been the cumulative and consistent service that the Felix Posen Project has provided for researchers in the field since it first began publication in 1984. Other bibliographies are much more limited in scope and rarely offer more than a one-time publication. This project has been continuous, and in 2004 it will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Third, the Bibliographic Project is not confined to a particular language or country. One can find entries on works in all European languages, in Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages where relevant. Thus, its range and sweep is impressive and uncompromisingly global. Fourth, there is the special quality of our experienced staff of abstractors, who have immigrated to Israel from many countries, such as the United States, Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, and Argentina. Their ability to read works in their original languages and their knowledge of Jewish history makes it possible for them to produce reliable abstracts
of high quality. Fifth, the abstracts themselves are substantial and are provided for each item in the bibliography. This is a service that is unique in the world when it comes to the study of antisemitismand of immense benefit to professional scholars, students, lay people, community leaders, and others who seek a truly dependable guide to the constantly expanding ocean of newly published materials on antisemitism. Since no one person can be expected to master all the relevant publications or languages, our Project becomes literally indispensable for any individual interested both in the broad picture and in the concrete details of this particular subject matter. Elsewhere, the reader will find only bibliographies with no abstracts or at best a very brief one. The Bibliographic Project, on the other hand, offers readers a real window into the essence of what is being published today across the globe. One can hardly exaggerate the significance of this research asset. Since becoming the head of the Sassoon Center in October 2002, I have come to appreciate the work of Susie Cohen and the dedicated staff associated with the Felix Posen Project. At the same time, I have had to rethink and redefine some of the purposes of the bibliography, especially where it concerns borderline cases. Hence, the present edition has been streamlined and somewhat condensed. There have been some changes in the abstracting of publications relating to postwar reactions to the Shoahe.g., Holocaust commemoration, memory and meaning, study and teaching; these are still being listed, although in smaller numbers. On the other hand, the bibliography continues to abstract all the publications dealing with antisemitism in the Holocaust period (19331945). This treatment is remarkably comprehensive, including not only works on antisemitic ideology, policy, and attitudes but also materials dealing with the wider Jewish experience during the Shoah. We have continued the earlier bibliographic policy regarding the Middle East. Hence we do not include
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works in the present volume whose main interest is the political conflict between Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab states. Those books and articles listed here, relate strictly to antisemitism in the Arab world. Nevertheless, we will have to take account of the fact that the number of items concerning Arab and Muslim Judeophobia has greatly expanded since 2000. Therefore, I have already committed the Sassoon Center to adopt a much broader coverage of this issue, one that has already had violent overspill effects in Europe, Asia and the American continent. The Bibliographic Project will also be looking to cover relevant works about non-Arab Muslim antisemitism. Another future challenge is how this project will grapple with the issue of anti-Zionism. Hitherto, the policy has been to list only the literature that specifically describes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism; particularly those works that deal with explicitly antisemitic accusations directed at Zionism or Israel. Clearly, discussions of themes that relate to the world Jewish conspiracy, Zionist collaboration with the Nazis or the equation of Israel/Zionism with racism and Nazism, do warrant an abstract. But what about the less obvious manifestations of contemporary Judeophobia? It seems to me that we may have to widen our research to analyze newer and more subtle examples of antisemitism which deny any moral legitimacy to Israel, which apply double standards to its behavior or attribute to it imaginary crimes. Then, there is also the controversial issue of antisemitism concealing itself under the mask of anti-racism, human rights and protests against globalization (Americanization). Such complex discourses will offer a difficult challenge to bibliographers in the coming years. In discussing these methodological issues, it is important to clarify a common misconception about the Bibliographic Project. This bibliography has never sought to cover antisemitic publications per se. The Felix Posen Project is a bibliography that includes the great bulk of the relevant literature about antisemitism over the past two millennia.
We are living in a time of sweeping and dramatic changes which inevitably affect our research project. In the future, we may adopt a new format and publish a comprehensive volume each year on a central topic in the study of antisemitism. Such a book might combine keynote essays by experts to accompany the bibliographic abstracts on the chosen theme for that year. The subject of antisemitism has never seemed more urgent and timely in recent decades than it is today. Our project has therefore acquired a special significance at the turn of the new millennium. We would like to take this opportunity to express our special thanks to Mr. Felix Posen for his continuing and generous support, to the staff of the Jewish National and University Library for their cooperation and to the Fondation pour la mmoire de la Shoah for helping us to ensure the continuation of this enterprise.
Susan Sarah Cohen, ed., Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 1 (198485). New York: Garland, 1987. xxix +392 pp. ISBN 0-8240-8532-9 Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 2 (198687). New York: Garland, 1991. xxxiv + 559 pp. ISBN 0-8240-5846-1 Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 3 (198788). New York: Garland, 1994. xxxiv + 544 pp. ISBN 0-8153-1282-2 1994. Best Bibliography Award, Research and Special Libraries Division, Association of Jewish Libraries
Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vols. 46 (1988 1990). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 1997. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vols. 79 (19911993). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 1998. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vols. 1011 (1994 1995). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 1999. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 12 (1996). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2000. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 13 (1997). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2000.
Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 14 (1998). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2001. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 15 (1999). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2001. Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 16 (2000). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2001. Rena R. Auerbach, ed., The Jewish Question in GermanSpeaking Countries, 18491914. New York: Garland, 1994. xxv + 385 pp. ISBN 0-8153-0812-4. Outstanding Academic Book, 1995, CHOICE Reviews of Academic Books
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An international conference was held in Paris at the Sorbonne, September 16-18, 2003, to commemorate the French anarchist, Dreyfusard, and revolutionary Jewish nationalist, Bernard Lazare, who died a hundred years ago. The participants, coming from various countries, dealt with all the many aspects of Lazares militant legacy: his literary activity, his radical libertarian ideology, his conceptions about antisemitism, the Jewish people and Zionism; and his outstanding fight on behalf of Dreyfus. Among the participants were such prominent experts as Jean-Denis Bredin, Michel Drouin and Nelly Wilson. Professor Robert Wistrich and Dr. Simcha Epstein gave lectures in French and represented the Sassoon Center, which was a cosponsor of the event. The conference was organized by Philippe Oriol, a leading French specialist on the Dreyfus Affair, who has just completed a comprehensive biography of Bernard Lazare, based on new archival sources that have led him to reinterpret his life and activities. His research was supported by the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.
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his series analyzes current trends in antisemitism worldwide, identifying serious potential threats. ACTA is engaged in researching data on contemporary antisemitism in its ideological, political, media, and artistic ramifications. Analyses are published as a series of occasional papers.
Coming to Terms with the Dark Past: The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre
Jan Tomasz Gross, in his book, Neighbors (2000), described the collective murder of the Jewish community of Jedwabne by its ethnic Polish neighbors on July 10, 1941. Its publication sparked the most important and longest-lasting debate in post-communist Poland about Polish-Jewish relations and the Polish self-image as victims and heroes in the period of the Second World War. This paper places the discussion within the context of two approaches to the collective pastthe selfcriticism that challenges the old, biased representation of Polish-Jewish relations and the Polish self-image as victims; and the defensive attitude that seeks to maintain the older images while preserving Polands honor. There are signs that important segments of the Polish political and cultural elite are capable of overcoming the dark past. At the same time, reactions from the right wing reveal that older attitudes persist in public life. Only time will tell if this latter phenomenon will become marginal.
Joanna Michlic
Simon Kriez
The Sassoon Center will be sorry to lose the services of Dr. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, who will be leaving us at the beginning of November 2003. Jonathan played a much valued part in helping to organize our events during the past year, especially the anniversary conference of February 2003. He also contributed to putting together this special issue. We wish him luck in his new career.
Additional copies of this special issue of Antisemitism International can be had from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, payable by check or money order (includes postage and handling). $16.00 per copy outside of Israel NIS 60 per copy in Israel To order, contact: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus 91905 Jerusalem Israel
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Directorate
1. Barry Rubin: The PLO between Anti -Zionism and Antisem itism, Background and Recent Developments. 1993. [out of print] 2. Simon Epstein: Cyclical Patterns in Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Anti-Jewish Violence in Western Countries since the 1950s. 1993. 3. Theodore H. Friedgut: Antisemitism and its Opponents in the Russian Press: From Perestroika until the Present. 1994. 4. Herta Herzog: The Jews as Others: On Communicative Aspects of Antisemitism. 1994. 5. Leon Volovici: Antisemitism in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: A Marginal or Central Issue? 1994. 6. Tali Tadmor-Shimony: Antisemitism on the Information Superhighway: A Case Study of a UseNet Discussion Group. 1995. 7. Daniel Perdurant: Antisemitism in Contemporary Greek Society. 1995. 8. Simon Epstein: Extreme Right Electoral Upsurges in Western Europe: The 1984 1995 Wave as Compared with the Previous Ones. 1996. 9. Gilad Margalit: Antigypsyism in the Political Culture of the Federal Republic of Germany: A Parallel with Antisemitism? 1996.
Prof. Robert S. Wistrich Dr. Leon Volovici Prof. Gideon Shimoni Prof. Doron Mendels
Director of the Sassoon Center Head of Academic Research Head of the Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry
Academic Committee
Dept. of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Chair of Academic Committee Prof. Yehuda Bauer Jonah M. Machover Professor of Holocaust Studies (Emeritus), Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dr. Simcha Epstein Sassoon Center , Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Jacob Golomb Dept. of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Raphael Israeli Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Menahem Milson Dept. of Arabic Language and Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Gideon Shimoni Head of the Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Guy Stroumsa Dept. of Comparative Religions, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Mario Sznajder Dept. of Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dr. Leon Volovici Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Robert S. Wistrich Director/Head of the Sassoon Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Susan S. Cohen, Editor Sylviane Stampfer and Sara Grosvald, Managing Editors
Administration
Ruchama Roth
Office Coordinators
Avigail Saddan Naomi Shmueli
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The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism is an interdisciplinary research center founded in 1982. The Center is dedicated to an independent approach to the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge necessary for understanding the phenomenon of antisemitism. The Center supports research on antisemitism throughout the ages, focusing on relations between Jews and non-Jews, particularly in situations of tension and crisis. The Center will consider sponsoring projects in a variety of disciplines, such as history, political science, psychology, sociology, economics, literature, and the arts. The Center has published monographs on such subjects as nationalism and antisemitism; Arab and Muslim antisemitism; the roots of Christian antisemitism; images of Jews in literature and the arts; Jewish perceptions of and responses to antisemitism; the extreme Right and neo-Nazism in Western Europe; intellectuals and antisemitism; and communist and post-communist antisemitism in Russia and Eastern Europe. Research proposals submitted for approval at the December meeting of the Academic Committee must be received by October 1.
www.JanisDesign.biz
Inquiries regarding possible research proposals should be directed to Dr. Leon Volovici, Head of Research, at the address below, or via email: msvolo@mscc.huji.ac.il To request an application form, please contact: The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus 91905 Jerusalem Israel Tel: 972-2-588-2494 Fax: 972-2-588-1002 Email: sicsa@mscc.huji.ac.il
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