The Isgap Papers Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective Volume Three
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THE ISGAP PAPERS ANTISEMITISM IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE VOLUME THREE THE ISGAP PAPER.S ANTISEMITISM IN COMPAR.ATIVE PERSPECTIVE VOLUME THREE Charles Asher Small Editor ISGAP New York • Montreal • Kyiv • Tel Aviv • Paris • Rome • Oxford • Vienna INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM AND POLICY Executive Director Charles Asher Small Co-Chairs of the International Academic Board of Advisors Professor Alan Dershowitz Professor Ruth Wisse Director of ISGAP, Canada Michelle Whiteman Director of ISGAP, France Glen Feder Director of ISGAP, Israel Mala Tabory Director of ISGAP, Italy Robert Hassan ISGAP 165 East 56th Street, 2nd Floor New York, New York 10022 Phone: 212-230-1840 Fax: 212-230-1842 www.isgap.org The opinions expressed in this work are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, its officers, or the members of its boards. Cover design and layout by AETS Cover image by ariadne de raadt/Shutterstock © 2018 ISBN 978-1-724898-51-7 Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Charles Asher Small Antisemitism and the Problem of Jewish Firstness ........................................... 13 Adam Katz Theodor Lessing and Jewish Self-Hatred ............................................................ 25 Alon Segev Trends in the Psychological Study of Contemporary Antisemitism: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Evidence ........................................................ 39 Neil J. Kressel and Samuel W. Kressel The German People and the Holocaust: New Sources, New Insights............. 67 Susanna Schrafstetter and Alan E. Steinweis Resentment, Anxiety, and Careerism: Accounting for Antisemitism in the Academy and among the Intelligentsia .................................................... 79 Barry A. Kosmin Gaza = Auschwitz: The Logic of Holocaust Inversion ...................................... 95 Martin Kramer Anti-Zionism: The Soft Underbelly in Jihad’s Cognitive War on the Western World ......................................................................................... 107 Richard Landes From Christian Antisemitism to New Antisemitism: The Case of Philoumenos of Jacob’s Well ........................................................ 139 David Gurevich and Yisca Harani The Three Totalitarian Temptations: A Different Look at an Essential Aspect of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict ......................................... 171 Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman The Political and Intellectual War on Israel in Latin America ...................... 187 Luis Fleischman = VI TABLEOFCONTENTS= Primary Holocaust Inversion and Eastern European Antisemitism .............207 Dovid Katz Post-Communist Russia and Ukraine: Countries with Philosemitic Pretensions and Societies with Antisemitic Sentiments? ................................219 Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin Butchering History But Not the Jews: The Case of Post-Revolutionary Ukraine ..........................................................235 Samuel Sokol Friends or Foes? Attitudes of the Czech Antisemitic Scene toward Islam and Muslims ..................................................................................257 Zbyněk Tarant Introduction Charles Asher Small* History teaches that antisemitism affects all of society. It is neither a Jewish nor an Israeli parochial issue. As Elie Wiesel warned repeatedly, antisemitism begins with the Jews, but it never ends with them. Once this virulent form of hatred is unleashed, it attacks all of society, as well as the very institutions that are fundamental to the protection of democratic practice, citizenship, and basic human rights. Antisemitism knows no boundaries. The very forces that demon- ize and attack Jews also target women, religious minorities, various gendered identities, and those with unconventional political beliefs who are deemed to be impure by reactionary forces. In the contemporary context, we are witnessing reactionary social movements that attempt to delegitimize the State of Israel and notions of Jewish peoplehood. Simultaneously, this hatred is tolerated and even supported by some who claim to be “progressive” and “liberal,” including a number of leading Western policy-makers. It is this amalgamation of hatred— contemporary antisemitism—that needs to be mapped, decoded, and examined at the highest levels of scholarship. Antisemitism is a highly complex and, at times, perplexing form of hatred. It spans history and has infected many societies, religious and philosophical movements, and even civilizations. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, some contend that antisemitism illustrates the limitations of humanity itself. Manifes- tations of antisemitism emerge in numerous ideologically-based narratives and in the constructed identities of belonging and otherness such as race and ethnicity, nationalisms, and anti-nationalisms. The investigation of anti- semitism has a long and impressive intellectual and research history. It remains a topic of ongoing political importance and scholarly engagement. However, when it comes to the formal study of antisemitism, especially in its contempo- rary manifestations, such as extreme anti-Israel practice and sentiment and the growth of Islamist antisemitism in the West and the Middle East, there is an ======================================== ======================================== ======================================== ======================= * Founder and Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP); Goldman Fellow at the Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy and Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University; Visiting Scholar at St Antony’s College, Oxford. 1 2 CHARLES ASHER SMALL unwillingness within the academy to address the topic in accordance with its traditions of serious and unfettered intellectual inquiry. In fact, some might argue that, in this politically correct, postmodern moment, the academy in general has actually been guilty of antisemitism as a result of its refusal to engage with these important issues in an open and honest manner and its attempts to silence those who seek to challenge the new status quo. In other words, the academy itself has become a purveyor of antisemitism in contempo- rary society. The rise of political Islam, which incorporates antisemitism at the core of its ideology, has been largely met with acquiescence in the West. As a result, this reactionary social movement has wreaked havoc across the Middle East and beyond, including the ongoing genocide in Syria and a refugee crisis that has spilled over from the Middle East into Europe. In spite of this, the West’s response to criticism of its tolerance of political Islam is itself becoming increas- ingly intolerant, with the emergence of nationalist and xenophobic tendencies becoming more mainstream, as the vacuum created by denial and inaction is filled. In 2004, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) was established with the aim of promoting the interdisciplinary study of antisemitism—with a focus on the contemporary context—and publishing high-caliber academic research in this area. ISGAP’s mission encompasses the study of such subjects as the changing historical phases of antisemitism, regional variations, and how hatred of the Jewish people relates to other forms of hate. From the outset, the aims and objectives of ISGAP have been supported by scholars from many disciplines and countries and by a group of dedicated philanthropists initially led by the great humanitarian William (Bill) Prusoff. ISGAP is committed to countering efforts to sweep antisemitism under the carpet by providing scholarly research, academic programming, curriculum development, and publications of unassailable quality. It is also the only interna- tional interdisciplinary research organization that is seeking to confront and combat antisemitism within the academy on a practical and ideological level. ISGAP aims to ensure that future generations of scholars and professionals are both aware of the destructive nature of antisemitism and determined to eradi- cate it from society. Between 2006 and 2011, ISGAP sponsored and operated the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), the first academic research center dedicated to the study of antisemitism based at a North Ameri- can university. During this period, YIISA hosted a successful graduate and post- graduate fellowship program, research projects, conferences, and a high-level interdisciplinary seminar series at Yale University. A selection of the papers presented in the framework of this seminar series, as well as several other working INTRODUCTION 3 papers, conference papers, and lectures commissioned by or submitted to YIISA by eminent scholars and researchers from around the world, was published in 2015 in The Yale Papers: Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective. In addition to providing a fascinating overview and scholarly analysis of some of the many facets of historical and contemporary antisemitism around the globe, this substantial volume stands as a solid and incontrovertible testament to the abundant—and, above all, productive—academic activity that characterized YIISA’s truncated tenure at Yale, despite the prevailing political and academic environment that often suppresses the study of this important