Contemporary Antisemitism on the Left A British Case Study of a Global Phenomenon
Contemporary Antisemitism on the Left A British Case Study of a Global Phenomenon
The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies and
the European Caucus of the History Department at the University of Maryland
Present: Contemporary Antisemitism on the Left A British Case Study of a Global Phenomenon
Antisemitism on the left is difficult to recognize because it does not come dressed in a Nazi uniform and it does not openly proclaim its hatred or fear of Jews. This talk looks at the kind of antisemitism which is tolerated in apparently democratic spaces in England: trade unions, churches, left-wing and liberal politics, social gatherings of the chattering classes and the seminars and journals of radical intellectuals. It analyses how criticism of Israel can mushroom into antisemitism and it looks at struggles over how antisemitism is defined. It focuses on ways in which those who raise the issue of antisemitism are often accused of doing so in bad faith in an attempt to silence or to smear. Hostility to Israel has become a signifier of identity, connected to opposition to imperialism, neo-liberalism and global capitalism; the ‘community of the good’ takes on toxic ways of imagining most living Jewish people.
David Hirsh (PhD Warwick) is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His first book, Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials won the BSA Philip Abrams prize for the best first book in sociology in 2004. Contemporary Left Antisemitism (2017) combines narrative and case study with sociological analysis and theory to understand the controversial and contested phenomenon of antisemitism on the left.
For additional questions, please contact Debra Kirsch at dakirsch@umd.edu or (301)-405-4975 or visit https://jewishstudies.umd.edu/events