{"title":"Inundated with Online Antisemitism","authors":"Keith Kahn-Harris","doi":"10.26613/jca/3.1.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/3.1.43","url":null,"abstract":"Online technology has produced expressions of antisemitic abuse that, whether or not they are novel in content, do have novel experiential consequences. Online platforms have broadened, although not necessarily deepened, the Jewish experience of antisemitism. At the same time, they have multiplied the opportunities for Jewish action against antisemitism. However, the rapid growth in “decentralized” Jewish activism against antisemitism raises questions about its efficacy and the consequences for Jews who engage in this kind of activism. Thus, the practice of countering online antisemitism is therefore nascent, ill-understood, and imperfectly mapped. Above all, the experience of those engaged in this world is under-researched. This research note sketches agendas for research and Jewish communal action that might respond to these developments at a time when “exhaustion” has become a key experiential component of the contemporary Jewish experience of antisemitism and the fight against it. Keywords: social media, health, experience, internet, Labour Party","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114095201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Contemporary Globalization of Political Antisemitism: Three Political Spaces and the Global Mainstreaming of the “Jewish Question” in the Twenty-First Century","authors":"L. Rensmann","doi":"10.26613/jca/3.1.46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/3.1.46","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the current globalization of political antisemitism and its effects on the resurgent normalization of anti-Jewish discourse and politics in a global context. The focus is on three political spaces in which the “Jewish question” has been repoliticized and become a salient feature of political ideology, communication, and mobilization: the global radical right, global Islamism, and the global radical left. Different contexts and justificatory discourses notwithstanding, the comparative empirical analysis shows that three interrelated elements of globalized antisemitism feature most prominently across these different political spaces: anti-Jewish conspiracy myths; Holocaust denial or relativization; and hatred of Israel. It is argued that the current process of the globalization of political antisemitism has significantly contributed to antisemitism’s presence in all kinds of public spaces as well as the convergence of antisemitic ideology among a variety of different actors. Moreover, the globalization of political antisemitism has helped accelerate the dissemination and social acceptance of anti-Jewish tropes that currently take shape in broader publics, that is: the globalized mainstreaming of antisemitism. The article concludes by discussing some factors favorable to the globalization and normalization of antisemitism, and the resurgence of antisemitic politics in the current age. Keywords: conspiracy myths, globalization, Holocaust denial, Israel hatred, political antisemitism","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114458308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Journal of Genocide Research Featured Still Another Minimization of the Holocaust","authors":"I. Charny","doi":"10.26613/jca/3.1.48","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/3.1.48","url":null,"abstract":"Response to a review of two books on the Holocaust and why the Jews were singled out for extermination by Amos Goldberg, Helmut Walser Smith, Simone Gigliotti, Marc Buggein, and Alan Confino, in “Book Forum,” Journal of Genocide Research (2016). 1 The two books reviewed are by Alan Confino, Foundational Pasts: The Holocaust as Historical Understanding , 2012, and A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide , 2014. 2 The Journal of Genocide Research came under scrutiny in two research studies of readers who are genocide professionals (N=67) and a smaller number of students of Holocaust and Genocide courses (N=39), together N=106. These studies evoked considerable controversy. The present review essay is in response to a subsequent multi-author review in the book forum of the Journal of Genocide Research of two books on the Holocaust, in which both the review essay and the books under discussion are shown to be strong minimizations of the significance of the Holocaust: The thesis advanced is that the extermination of the Jews was not a product of ancient antisemitism-hatred of Jews, but a function of the Nazi vision of creating a new world. Keywords: minimization of the Holocaust, antisemitism, denials of genocide, integrity of genocide studies, laws against incitement of violence, Wannsee Conference, Final Solution","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132489323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Did a Corbyn-Led Government Pose an “Existential Threat to Jewish Life” in the UK? Revolutionary States and the Destruction of Jewish Communities","authors":"Jack Staples-Butler","doi":"10.26613/jca/3.1.47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/3.1.47","url":null,"abstract":"In a united front-page statement issued on July 25, 2018, Britain’s three largest Jewish newspapers claimed that a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would pose an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country.”1 On September 2, 2018, this unprecedented claim was echoed by Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.2 On August 1, 2019, the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission or EHRC announced a formal investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party under its statutory enforcement powers. On November 26, 2019, a Times article by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis accused Corbyn of having “sanctioned” antisemitism “from the very top”, claimed that “the vast majority of Jews [were] gripped by anxiety” at the prospect of a Labour victory, and adjudged Corbyn himself to be “unfit for high office”.3 On December 5, 2019, a dossier of evidence compiled for the EHRC by the Labour Party’s official Jewish affiliate, the Jewish Labour Movement, was leaked to the press. Featuring sworn testimony from seventy current or former Labour Party staffers, it provided evidence that the party was “institutionally antisemitic” and that the party leadership had directly interfered in the investigation of antisemitism allegations referred to the party’s disciplinary unit.4 Abstract","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127976748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party, and Public Belief By Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Julian Schlosberg, Anthony Lerman, and David Miller. London: Pluto Press, 2019. 272 pp. £14.99","authors":"D. Allington","doi":"10.26613/jca/3.1.49","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/3.1.49","url":null,"abstract":"Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party, and Public Belief. By Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Julian Schlosberg, Anthony Lerman, and David Miller. London: Pluto Press, 2019. 272 pp. £14.99.","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131344028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Memoriam: Robert S. Wistrich, 1945–2015","authors":"D. Hirsh","doi":"10.26613/jca/2.2.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/2.2.33","url":null,"abstract":"We are pleased to publish one of the last pieces that Robert Wistrich wrote, which is on antisemitism in France at the time of Alfred Dreyfus. It is published with an introductory essay by David Hirsh which looks at how the issues Wistrich highlights around the Dreyfus affair may be read in the contemporary context of the reemergence of antisemitism and populism into mainstream discourse. Keywords: Wistrich, Dreyfus, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Anti-Semitism, Arendt","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125155276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The European Union, Antisemitism and the Politics of Denial. By R. Amy Elman. University of Nebraska Press for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2014. 176 pages. $34.96; £40.00","authors":"P. Spencer","doi":"10.26613/jca/2.2.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/2.2.38","url":null,"abstract":"The European Union, Antisemitism and the Politics of Denial . By R. Amy Elman. University of Nebraska Press for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2014. 176 pages. $34.96; £40.00.","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130921782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The AzAs (Antizionist Antisemitism) Scale: Measuring Antisemitism as Expressed in Relation to Israel and Its Supporters","authors":"D. Allington, D. Hirsh","doi":"10.26613/jca/2.2.32","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/2.2.32","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports on the development and testing of the AzAs (Antizionist Antisemitism) scale: a six-item questionnaire instrument for measuring antisemitic attitudes as articulated in the language of hostility to Israel and its supporters. It is important to be able to recognize and measure this kind of antisemitism because it is often embedded within ostensibly democratic discourse. The identification of this antisemitism is frequently contested even by those who are in broad agreement on the recognition of older forms of antisemitism. The scale contains a balance of protrait and contrait items, and achieved a satisfactory level of internal consistency when piloted on a sample of US-based respondents recruited through the Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing market ( N = 122). There appears to be no relationship between scores on the scale and the subjective political position of respondents (as measured on a left-right self-report scale). We suggest that the AzAs scale will be of general use in measuring antizionist antisemitism because (a) it collects several familiar and demonstrably antisemitic ideas expressed in relation to Israel and its supporters and (b) it exhibits good psychometric properties. Keywords: Antisemitism, Antizionism, Attitudes, Israel, Questionnaire instrument","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116614519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Continuity and Discontinuity: From Antisemitism to Antizionism and the Reconfiguration of the Jewish Question","authors":"David Seymour","doi":"10.26613/jca/2.2.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/2.2.30","url":null,"abstract":"This paper argues that antizionism must be understood, like the antisemitism that came before it, as an ideology. Here I draw upon Arendt’s definition of ideology as a radical distortion of social and political relations. I draw also upon Fine and Spencer’s understanding of the Jewish question as the antisemitic reaction to Jewish emancipation. I argue that antizionism is a reconfiguration of that reaction in the context of Jews’ modern emancipation in the form of national self-determination in the State of Israel. While that modern reaction, antizionism, displays both continuity and discontinuity with the antisemitism that came before it, it remains a manifestation of the Jewish question. Keywords: Jewish question, Ideology, Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism, Antizionism, Hannah Arendt","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128712986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Devil’s Intersectionality: Contemporary Cloaked Academic Antisemitism","authors":"Cary Nelson","doi":"10.26613/jca/2.2.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/2.2.29","url":null,"abstract":"Over a period of years, a pattern has emerged in anti-Zionist faculty publications that seriously compromises not only the scholars’ credibility and professionalism but also that of academic publishing as a whole. Academia has proceeded for a decade by blindly assuming that basic evaluation procedures like peer review, fact-checking, and copy editing have continued to function reliably. My 2019 book Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & The Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State uses highly detailed case studies to demonstrate why this is not the case. I summarize those findings here and explore several of the key issues and consequences further. The ferocity of anti-Zionist conviction in these books and essays unfortunately means that they often cross the line into antisemitism. Using examples from work by Jasbir Puar, Sari Makdisi, and others, I demonstrate how distinguished university presses have become purveyors of antisemitism. Keywords: Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Peer review, Higher education, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Scholarly publishing, University presses, BDS, Jasbir Puar, Saree Makdisi, Duke University Press, University of Chicago Press, Apartheid","PeriodicalId":283546,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128000025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}