Antisemitism is a complex and, at times, a perplexing form of hatred. Some observers refer to it as the “longest hatred.” It spans centuries, infecting different societies, religious, philosophical and political movements, and even civilizations, particularly in Europe, the epicentre of antisemitism. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, some argue that antisemitism illustrates the limitations of the Enlightenment and modernity itself.
There is a consensus among scholars and policy experts that contemporary forms of antisemitism(s) are increasing across Europe. Some contend that the manifestation of this hatred represents a threat to the stability of the democratic centre of society. Contemporary forms of antisemitism(s) occur in numerous ideologically-based narratives and in constructed identities of belonging and Otherness, such as race and ethnicity, and within nationalist and anti-nationalist, religious and secular based, social movements. In the contemporary context of globalized relations, antisemitism takes on new complex and changing forms that need to be mapped, de-coded, and exposed.
The symposium will examine contemporary antisemitism(s) in Europe, and how radical reactionary social movements of the extreme left, the extreme right, and extreme political Islamism, utilise ideologically rooted forms of antisemitism to attack the political and cultural centre. Manifestations of antisemitism occur within a context of socio-economic, cultural and political processes associated with globalisation. Is the growth antisemitism indicative of a weakening state, the fragmentation of society and increased marginality, in the age of neoliberal globalised relations? This symposium will explore this subject matter from interdisciplinary perspectives.
Speakers:
Dr Charles Asher Small, D.Phil., “Globalisation and Antisemitism: the need to Create Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies”.
Visiting Scholar St. Antony’s College, Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Charles is the founding Director and President of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) an international interdisciplinary research center. He graduate of St. Antony’s College and the School of Geography, Charles convened ground-breaking academic seminar series in the emerging field of critical contemporary antisemitism studies at Columbia University, Fordham University, Harvard University, McGill University, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Sapienza University, Rome, the Sorbonne and the CNRS, Paris, Stanford University, University of Miami, Yale University, and other universities, as well as an academic training programme for professors at Hertford College, St. John’s College, and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Charles is has published on antisemtism including the six Volume series entitled ‘Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity”.
Dr. Viera Žúborová, “Anti-Semitism 2.0: Radicalized online hate speech in Central Europe”; Bratislava Policy Institute
Viera is based at the Bratislava Policy Institute; she is a political scientist by background. She focuses her interests on issues of populism, extremism, social movements, civil society, political communication, marketing, intolerance and hate speech. She worked for 10 years at Trnava University on various positions (vice-dean for research and strategic projects, head of department). She also worked as executive editor of the Slovak Journal of Political Science and as senior research fellow at the think-tank Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA). In 2017 she was scholar-in-residence in the ISGAP at Oxford University and in 2010 visiting PhD scholar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Viera has been a regular columnist at the online newspapers Aktuality.sk since 2015. Viera Žúborová is the co-founder of the non-profit organization Trnavská Alternatíva and also the co-founder of the non-profit organization Mladá Archa, where she has been serving as director since 2015. From 2018 she is working as expert and member of working group “Civil society” under the Office of Government Representative for Civic Society. Currently she is also participating in the program “School without Hate” as the member of expert team. As the research fellow she is also involved in the project DEMOS, focusing on populism and its disconnection between how democratic polities operate and how citizens perceive their own aspirations and project COMPACT with aim to raise awareness of the latest technological discoveries among key stakeholders in the context of social media and convergence. Both these projects are funded under H2020.
Dr. Dina Lisnyansky, “On European Muslim Antisemitism – ideology, realities, patterns and changes”.
Dina is a researcher and lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern Studies in Tel Aviv University. Her fields of research include Islam in Europe, Islam in the West, Islamic Da’wa, Islamic movements and Global Jihad as well as Terrorism and National Security. Dr. Lisnyansky holds a PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dina is a published author and has many media appearances. She is also an active member of the EU-based IIMSR (International Institute for Migration and Security Research), a member and contributor to MECARC (The Middle East and Central Asia Research Center) and other research institutes. She is currently working on her book, based on her PhD thesis combined with field research about Da’wa in the West as well as antisemitism in the West.
Dr. David Hirsh, “The new populism and its potential to nurture antisemitism”, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His PhD and first book was a sociology of international humanitarian law, ‘Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan trials’. His latest book is on ‘Contemporary Left Antisemitism’. David also writes on the mainstreaming of the new populism. David’s book (2017), is ‘Contemporary Left Antisemitism’. It begins assesses the Livingstone Formulation, a standard response which accuses Jews of raising the issue of antisemitism in bad faith only in order to silence criticism of Israel or to smear the left. It also examines the rise of antizionist and antisemitic politics in the British Labour movement and the campaign to exclude Israelis from the academic, cultural, sporting and economic life of humanity. It examines case studies of openly antisemitic discourse which have emerged out of antizionism; it discusses struggles over defining antisemitism; and it thinks about specifically sociological approaches to understanding contemporary antisemitism
This event will be chaired by Dr Hartmut Mayer, Director, European Studies Centre.
