antisemitism internationa

Antisemitism International, 20031

An Annual Research Journal of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

ANTISEMITISMINTERNATIONAL

2003

Special Issue

2 Antisemitism International, 20033

Contents:

Editor’s Diary 4Robert S. Wistrich

The Mission of Our University 11Albert Einstein

Totalitarian Antisemitism: A Global Menace 13Robert S. Wistrich

What is Arab Antisemitism? 23Menahem Milson

Hatred and Antisemitism in the Egyptian Press 32Zvi Mazel

How David Became Goliath:The Demonization of Israel’s Image, 1948-2003 41Judith Elizur

Bi-focal Vision: Israel and the Intifada in the British Press 47Margaret Brearley

Anti-Jewish Violence in Western Countries since 2000:An Initial Assessment 54Simcha Epstein

Teaching and Learning about Antisemitism in Romania 59Leon Volovici

Antisemitism in Europe TodayAddress to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 19 June 2003 62Robert S. Wistrich

Antisemitism and Prejudice in the Media 66

In the Footsteps of Daniel Pearl 74

Interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy 76

In Memoriam: Benny Lévy 82

Blame and Shame: the Making of a TV Documentary 83Roger Bolton

Antisemitism Watch among the Bloggers 85Alifa Saadya

ANTISEMITISMINTERNATIONAL

Editor-in-Chief: Robert S. WistrichManaging Editor: Alifa SaadyaEditorial Coordinator: Jonathan Dekel-ChenEditorial Assistants: Sara Grosvald and Naomi ShmueliDesign: Janis Design

Articles of up to 6000 words to be considered for future issues may be submitted to the Editor

Arab and Muslim Antisemitism 87

Seminars on Research 91

Research 94

Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Western Europe since 2000 97

Sassoon Center Workshops and Lectures 98

New Publications on Antisemitism 99

Studies in Antisemitism Series 100

The Felix Posen Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism 103

Paris Conference on Bernard Lazare 106

Recent Publications, Lectures, Broadcasts, and Interviews by Center Researchers 107

ACTA - Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism 109

An Annual Research Journal of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

Additional copies of this special issue of Antisemitism International

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of Antisemitism, payable by check or money order (includes postage

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NIS 60 per copy in Israel

To order, contact: Vidal Sassoon International Center

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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mount Scopus

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2003

Antisemitism International, 2003

Antisemitism InternationalVidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of AntisemitismThe Hebrew University of JerusalemMount Scopus91905 Jerusalem Israel

Antisemitism International, 2003 66 Antisemitism International, 200367

From 18–21 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

Antisemitism and Prejudice in the Media

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. Wistrich’s lecture—reproduced in this special anniversary publication—was a comparison of the role of “genocidal” antisemitism in three major totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century—Nazism, 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 Warsaw-based 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 Cinémathèque. The centerpiece of this highly successful cooperative effort with the Cinémathèque was Tarnero’s film made with Philippe Bensoussan, Décryptage, 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.

Prof. Wistrich addressing the guests at a gala dinner.


conference. Menahem Milson, a professor of Arabic literature at the Hebrew University and member of the Sassoon Center’s 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 Qur’anic 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 so-called “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 University’s Truman Institute, analyzed “Rider without a Horse,” the Egyptian

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

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 well-publicized anti-Zionist and pan-Arabist bias of its producer and star actor—Muhammad Sobhi—a 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-Baz’s 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 Arab-Muslim sense of shame underlay the distorted, often antisemitic image of Israel and the Jews in the

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 ADL’s 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 Jacques Tamero (L) making a point to Prof. Doron Mendels.

Mr. Felix Posen addressing guests.

Prof. Menahem Milson (L) with Mr. Vidal Sassoon.

Danielle Boccara, Vidal Sassoon, Ilana Bauer, Felix Posen.


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 public—an 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 at the anniversary dinner.

Conference participants at gala dinner.

Alex Jacobson with Dan Schueftan.

Avigail Saddan and Naomi Shmueli at the bookstand.

Vidal Sassoon at the opening keynote lecture. Felix Posen at the reception.

The audience on Mount Scopus at the opening night lecture. Felix Posen and Vidal Sassoon with the staff of the Center.

Eliahu Honig with Vidal Sassoon.

Prof. Wistrich hands flowers to the staff.

Conference participants on the third night.

Antisemitism International, 2003 74

On May 18, 2003, the Vidal Sassoon Center hosted the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri

Lévy (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 Lévy. 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 Pearl’s fate while in Kabul, in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He immediately flew to Pakistan where he found the videocassette of Pearl’s 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 Lévy, 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 evening’s 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 résumé of the intellectual and political activities of the Algerian-born writer, philosopher, and human rights activist

75 Antisemitism International, 2003

Prof. Robert Wistrich introduces Bernard-Henri Lévy.

In the Footsteps of Daniel Pearl

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 Lévy, not simply because he was a celebrity, but because what he had to say powerfully evoked the most dangerous threat to civilization today—the 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 Hussein’s Iraq. Lévy’s 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 Pearl’s murderer, the British-educated

Pakistani Omar Sheikh—the dark face of the encounter between Islam and the West. Lévy concluded by offering an interpretation of Daniel Pearl’s 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 B’nei B’rak. Why, Lévy pointedly asked the audience, did he “go out of his way to mention B’nei B’rak?” Lévy’s answer, inspired by his meetings with Daniel Pearl’s 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 evening’s 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 Lévy in Jerusalem, on May 19, 2003, can be found on page 78.

Bernard-Henri Lévy begins his lecture on Daniel Pearl.

Arielle Dombasle, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Benny Lévy.


Arab and Muslim Antisemitism

During the academic year 2002–2003, 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.

Carol DahanAntisemitic Motifs among Senior Muftis

in the Arab World

This project examines the different types and levels of antisemitism contained in the current statements of senior Muftis in the Middle East. The study has followed antisemitic patterns among three such clerics: Sheikh Mustafa Yousuf al-Qardhawi operates from Qatar and is considered one of the leading Muftis in the Arab world. He has stated that Jews bear responsibility for the death of Jesus. In one of his TV programs, Qardhawi claimed that, “in history Jews were isolated from all people, being hostile towards them and trying to suck their blood.” Sheikh Faisal Mawlawi is the Mufti of the Lebanese Islamic Party (Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya). In a response to a question posed to his website concerning views about Jews in the West, Mawlawi invoked the traditional myth of an international Jewish conspiracy. Furthermore, he accused Jews of manipulating Western people and governments in order to gain support for the occupation of Palestine. Sheikh Ikrima Sabri serves as the Mufti for the Palestinian Authority. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica (24 March 2003), Sabri repeated an old claim of Holocaust deniers about the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust: “Six million? It was a lot less. It’s not my fault if Hitler hated the Jews. Anyway, they are hated just about everywhere.” Thus far, my research has found that these Muftis employ old antisemitic myths in their current statements. Such rhetoric is important because of the centrality of the Muftis in Arab society and their influence upon the political arena.

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

“No comment.” Al-Ahram (Egypt) April 25, 2001.


Itamar RadaiPerceptions of Jews and Judaism in the

Public Sphere inside Assad’s Syria During the preceding academic year, this project evolved from a study of Hafez Assad’s Syria in 1991–2000, to a focus on the country under his son and successor, Bashar Assad. Since ascending to power, Bashar’s 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 Pope’s 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 re-crucifixion 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 country’s 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.

Uri SabachAttitudes toward Jews in Algerian

Historiography In the 2002–2003 academic year, this project deepened its exploration of two antisemitic episodes in Algeria and their presentation in local historiography. By revealing how Algerian historiography views these events—as driven by antisemitism, nationalism, or colonialism—my research may add to our understanding of the attitudes toward Jews and their place in society. One could have expected that the Algerian authors would highlight the European antisemitism of the late 19th century (following the Crémieux Edict of 1870 that gave French citizenship to Algeria’s Jews) and would try to minimize the antisemitism unleashed by Muslims during the Constantine Riots in 1934. Why is this not the case? It may be that the Algerian historians considered the clash between the “French” Jews and other Europeans as an internal matter of Algeria’s French population. When European antisemitism is discussed, it usually “demonstrates” that the Europeans’ anger was justified: Jews allegedly abused their new French citizenship to enrich themselves at the expense of the local population and to grab jobs from Europeans. Algerian historiography presents the Constantine Riots as a part of the national awakening of the 1930s. The authors emphasize that the anti-Jewish Riots actually exposed the wider tensions among the Muslim majority in Algeria: although violent, they were brief and engulfed only a small area. Moreover, according to these historians, the Riots expressed the general embitterment of the Muslim population and their resistance to the French policy of “divide and rule.” In regard to the Crémieux Edict, the historiographic approach is similar. Like their analysis of the

Constantine Riots, most authors conclude that the preferential status given to Jews by the

Crémieux Edict triggered antisemitism among the country’s Europeans. At the

same time, some discussions of the edict note that French citizenship was, in

fact, imposed on Algeria’s Jews.Tishreen (Syria) April 21, 2001. Israeli

soldiers posing before the corpse of a

Palestinian child.

Shlomo DaskalAntisemitism on the Islamist Web

Over the past year, I studied an Islamic, Saudi-oriented website, the “Alsalafiyoon Islamic Page” (www.alsalafyoon.com). The Arabic version contains audio files, a virtual library, correspondence with viewers on religious opinions or responses (fatawa) to questions, a chat forum and a special section for women (alsalafiyat). The scholars and preachers that are cited in the website either originate from the Arabian Penisula or are linked to the Saudis. Most also share a radical Islamic point of view. Among these are the Saudi scholar Imam Ibn Baz, the Kuwaiti resident Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatan, and two deceased preachers—the Palestinian Abdallah Azam and the Egyptian Abd al-Hamid Kishk. The importance of the site is the accessibility it gives to these scholars and their writings. Anti-Jewish statements on this site are usually based upon references to Jews contained in the Quran and in Islamic tradition. (I dealt with these topics in my work last year on Sayyid Qutb.) Such condemnations include charges of treason, the equation of Jewish behavior to that of animals, and blaming the Jews for all that has gone wrong in Islam. Another central theme in the website is conspiracy: the “mighty” Jews and Christians have schemed all over the globe since the days of the Prophet Muhammad against Islam and Muslims. Elsewhere on the website, Israel’s policy is strongly criticized and attempts are made to erase Jewish links to the Temple Mount. Interestingly, this site is not devoted solely to attacks against Jews or Judaism. Rather, its main goal is the spread of Wahhabism (the Wahhabiya is the dominant theological stream in Saudi Arabia) among Arabic, English, Spanish, and Filipino readers. As a result, I have found in the site’s guest book both criticism from Sunni Muslims as well as curses directed against the Salafis and the Wahhabis.

Neta MarmorAntisemitism in the Egyptian Media

Since last year, my study has shifted its focus to the recent “Cold War” of mutual accusations over the issue of antisemitism that has been waged in the media between Israel and Egypt. Since the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada in October 2000, the degree of antisemitism and anti-Jewish motifs have increased and subsided with the ongoing local and global events. During that time, Israeli and Jewish organizations in the Diaspora have translated and brought antisemitic material to the attention of the West. Egypt, always sensitive to international pressure, responded by citing the Western concern for “Freedom of Speech” to cover its criticism of Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza. Over the past two years of this “Cold War,” a number of items have attracted particular attention in the Egyptian media:• The trial of the editor of the Al-Ahram newspaper, accused by the French Prosecutor’s Office of publishing an antisemitic article, based on the 1840 Damascus Blood Libel.• The use of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a literary device in the TV series “A Rider without a Horse.”• A reading project for Egyptian children sponsored by the President’s wife, Mrs. Susan Mubarak, which included books containing messages of hatred against Israelis and Jews.• A flood of antisemitic articles and caricatures in Egyptian newspapers that included, among other things, charges of a “Jewish conspiracy” behind the attacks on the World Trade Center. In reaction to international criticism, some Egyptian officials have begun to condemn antisemitism. Mubarak’s policy advisor, Osama Al-Baz, for example, published a series of such articles in Al-Ahram and the Egyptian Human Rights Association criticized the broadcast of “A Rider without a Horse.” These voices are still a small minority in the Egyptian media, but will hopefully spread in the future.


Seminars on Research

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 2002–2003.

Prof. Menahem Milson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and MEMRI)“What Is Arab Antisemitism?”

4 November 2002 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).

Prof. Amatzia Baram (Haifa University)“Antisemitism in the Iraqi Nation-State, 1920-2002”

9 December 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 (1921–1933), there were few manifestations of antisemitism. In the 1930s, however, Nazi antisemitism was enthusiastically adopted by Iraq’s educated classes. Those Jews who remained in Iraq after the mass exodus of 1950–1951 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 Ba’ath Party in July 1968, conditions for Iraq’s 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 imagery—it 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 Ba’ath regime (1968–2003) represented the peak of the significant antisemitic tradition in Iraq.

Daphna SharefCurrent Trends in the Conservative

Islamic Press of Turkey 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. Turkey’s 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-à-vis the West, Israel, and the Jews; Vakit is an Islamist daily published by Istanbul’s 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 Israel’s 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 Milligazete’s old agenda.

Yoni ShefferThe Image of the Israelis through the

Mirror of Palestinian Poets 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 year’s work concentrated on three contemporary poets—Harun Hasim Rasīd, Ahmad Dahbur, and al-Mutawkkil Taha—all of whom are important figures in the Palestinian community. Rasīd was a PLO delegate to the Arab League in the late 1980s and early 1990s; Dahbur is a columnist at the newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadīda ; and Tahais chairman of the Palestinian Writers’ 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 year’s research found more traditional antisemitic motifs in their writings. Even if a simplistic style can make his condemnations appear quite juvenile, Rasīd has been the most hostile in this regard. He introduced the blood libel into Palestinian literature and used the Protocols to explain the early development of Zionism. Rasīd even dedicated a collection of poems to Palestinian terrorists. Judging from the materials studied this year, Dahbur and Taha are more subtle than Rasīd, but no less hateful; nationalism fuels the hostility of the former, whereas religious resentment seems to drive Rasīd’s anti-Jewish and anti-Israel message.


Dr. Françoise Ouzan (CNRS, French Research Centre of Jerusalem)“American Antisemitism in the 1940s: A Reassessment”

2 June 2003Drawing 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. Françoise 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.

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


To order, contact: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus


Truman diary entry vents annoyance at Jews6:00 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. I’ve found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.”

Prof. Anton Pelinka (University of Innsbruck)“Antisemitism without Antisemites: The Case of Austria Today”

16 December 2002 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 underground—no 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 York—obscure 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.

Dr. Simcha Epstein (Sassoon Center)Islam in France and the Jews

13 January 2003The 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.

Dr. Dana Arieli-Horowitz (Tel Aviv University)“The Jew as ‘Destroyer of Culture’ in National-Socialist Ideology”

24 March 2003A key motif in the Nazi critique of the Weimar republic linked the concept of the Jew as “destroyer of culture” (Kulturzerstörer) 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 Germany’s history (Deutsche Sonderweg). But the Nazi worldview (Weltanschauung) was unique nonetheless—it 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.


Second Year• Dr. Leonid KatsisThe Ideological History of the Blood Libel in Russian Orthodox Thought from The Book of a Neophite Monk to the Beilis Trial

Completed ResearchThe following research projects have been completed

• Dr. Philippe OriolBernard Lazare and Antisemitism

• Prof. Danny Ben-MosheHolocaust Denial in Australia

• Oleg Budnitskii Russian Jews between the Reds and the Whites: Jews and the anti-Bolshevik Movement

• Prof. Joël KotekAntisemitism in Belgian and French Comic Strips (1933–2000)

• Prof. András KovácsThe Perception of Antisemitism among Jews in Contemporary Hungary: Results of a Survey

• Dr. Olaf R. BlaschkeJews and Catholics in the German Empire

• Dr. Yaron HarelThe Response of the Enlightened Jews in the Near East to the Dreyfus Affair

Continuing Projects• Jean AncelAntisemitism vs. Nationalism—Romania 1942

• Shaul BaumannThe Attitude of the Eranos Circle to Jews and Judaism

• Jacob BorutAntisemitism in Jewish Everyday Life in the Weimar Republic

• Benjamin BraudeThe Image of the Jew in the Literature of Eastern Travel, 1350–1650: Power and the Transition to Antisemitism

• Patrick CavaliereAntisemitism in Fascist Italy: The Intellectual Origins of the Racial Laws of 1938

• Andrew HornThe Connecting Thread—Kipling’s “White Man” and the Antisemitism of Empire

• Brian HorowitzRussian-Jewish Interaction: Cultural Cooperation in an Epoch of Antisemitism

• Melinda JonesThe Role of Law in Overcoming Antisemitism in Australia

• Jonathan JudakenTheorizing Antisemitism: Confronting Modernity and Modern Judeophobia

• Horst JungingerThe Study of the “Jewish Question” and its Academic Setting in Germany, 1933–1945

• Victoria KhitererAnti-Jewish Pogroms in Ukraine, October 1905

• Florin Lobont and Dan StoneModernization and Antisemitism in Modern Romania: Continuities and Changes in Political Action and Culture

• James MuellerJews and Judaism in Early Christian Literature

• Vadim RossmanJewish Conspiracy and Yellow Peril: Antisemitism and Sinophobia in the Nineteenth Century

• Vygantas VareikisFrom Prejudice to Destruction: Antisemitism in Lithuania at the End of the Nineteenth Century and during the First Half of the Twentieth Century

• Gyula VattamanyJohn Chrysostom and the Twentieth Century

• Hanna WegrzynekThe Origins of the Blood Libel Accusations in Poland

Research

Three new research projects were approved by the Academic Committee for the academic year 2002–2003.

Dr. Jovan Byford (Nottingham Trent University)Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović:

Between Mainstream Orthodox Culture and the Christian Right 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 Velimirovic—a highly-respected but very controversial Serbian Orthodox Christian theologian—is 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 Velimirovic and the Serbian Orthodox Church play in the perpetuation of these phenomena. 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.

Dr. Nelly Las (independent researcher)Feminist Movements Confront Antisemitism from the 1970s until Today:

From Silence and Non-Intervention to Political Use of Anti-Zionism Most of the women’s 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 women’s 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. Las’s 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.

Dr. Rivka Yadlin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)“The Cultural Assault on the Muslim Mind”:

The Conceptual Basis of Arab/Muslim Antisemitism 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,“other”—the West against which Arab/Muslim identity must protect itself. In addition to a theoretical inquiry, a case study will be assessed—the 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.


Antisemitism and Anti-Zionismin Western Europe since 2000

The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism organized a one day international

conference on the theme Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism 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 כrom 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 Qur’an which can be made “to justify the unspeakable.” As a result, he concluded: “Islamists are now a danger to everyone—to 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 anti-Jewish 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

Felix Posen Doctoral Candidates

Applications approved by the Academic Committee, 2003.

• Yuval Boker (Haifa University)The Jewish Community, Antisemitism and Inter-Race Relations in Britain, 1945–1970

• Vadim Gordimer (Ben Gurion University)The Jews in the Crimean Peninsula between the World Wars

• Clemens Heni (Universität Tübingen)Henning Eichberg, the (antisemitic) New Right, and the (anti-Zionist) New Left in the Political Culture of Post-1968 Germany

• Andrea Hoffman (Universität Tübingen)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 Kaplan—The Ordeals of the Jewish Community in Twentieth-Century France

• Martin Ulmer (Universität Tübingen)Antisemitism in Public Discourse and Everyday Life in Stuttgart from 1871 to 1945. An Exemplary Local and Regional Study

• Kati Vörös (University of Chicago)From Nation to Race: Population Politics in Hungary, 1867–1920

Second Year• Göran Adamson (London School of Economics and Political Science)The Sudden Post-1986 Rise of the Austrian Freedom Party: Four Hypotheses

• Maria Ghitta (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania)Nationalism and Antisemitism among the Romanians of Transylvania between the Two World Wars

• Laurent Joly (Sorbonne)L’administration antijuive de Vichy: Le Commissariat général aux questions juives, 1940–1944

• Isabelle Rohr (London School of Economics and Political Science)The Franco Regime and the Jews: Antisemitism and Rescue Activities

• Jurgita Verbickiene (University of Vilnius, Lithuania)Jews in Society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Aspects of Coexistence

CongratulationsThe Sassoon Center is very pleased to congratulate Dr. Katharine Poujol, who received her Ph.D., summa cum laude, from the Sorbonne for her dissertation, “Aimé Pallière (1868–1949), itinéraire d’un chrétien dans le judaïsme.” We also extend our congratulations to Dr. Anthony Bale of the University of London on the completion of his doctoral dissertation, “Fictions of Judaism in Medieval England.” Dr. Bale and Dr. Poujol were recipients of Felix Posen Doctoral Fellowships.


New Publications on Antisemitism

Robert Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Universal History series, 2001. xii + 322 pp. (hardcover); New York: Modern Library, 2001, Modern Library Chronicles, xviii + 296 pp. (paperback).

Following several books on the nature of the Third Reich, its art, ideology, propaganda techniques, and main protagonists, Robert Wistrich in his newest book approaches the Nazi phenomenon and the Holocaust from a broader historical and comparative perspective. At the core of his synthesis rests the fundamental question which continues to haunt contemporary historians, philosophers, and theologians: Why? What was the essential reason for the Holocaust? This question is to be found in the very first lines of the book, and the author’s response is to analyze the impact of radical apocalyptic antisemitism in Hitler’s totalitarian state, committed to the domination of the European continent and the “ethnic cleansing” of impure races. The first chapters provide a comprehensive survey of traditional and modern antisemitism; followed by an exploration of its place in Nazi ideology with its peculiar combination of Christian demonization of the Jew (as the enemy of God), and the modern German construct of the Jews as an inferior and dangerous race. Wistrich alternates a panoramic explanation of the German war against the Jews with close-up views of specific aspects, especially portraits of Nazi leaders. The section on Hitler emphasizes his obsessive neo-pagan antisemitism, and describes the Nazi propaganda machine that spread the racist message so effectively. The book also critically examines British and American attitudes to the Jewish tragedy; analyzes in expert detail the Vatican’s highly ambivalent position; Jewish behavior, and the Jewish communities’ response to the Nazi threat, including the controversial role of Jewish leadership. There is also a chapter on “collaboration” and the pan-European nature of the Holocaust as well as a comparison with other genocides, including the Soviet Gulag, and the fate of the Armenians.

This volume shows a perfect command of the subject. The author’s 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.

Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer,

Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present

New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, x + 309 pp.

A substantial, comprehensive, and updated historical survey of the main antisemitic myths—the 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 anti-Jewish 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 myth—the 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

Sassoon Center Workshops and Lectures

15 January 2003Symposium on Robert S. Wistrich’s Hitler and the Holocaust

Prof. Dov Kulka, Prof. Dan Michman, Dr. Leon Volovici, Dr. Simcha EpsteinHitler and the Holocaust is Professor Robert Wistrich’s most recent book and was recently published in paperback by the Modern Library (Chronicles series); the hardback edition was part of the prestigious Universal History series from Weidenfeld & Nicholson and Random House. The participants emphasized how this work of synthesis formed a link with other books authored by Robert Wistrich that address the Nazi phenomenon and antisemitism. The speakers commended the author’s succinct and comprehensive survey of the Holocaust in each European country and his discussion of the controversies that have arisen in the historiography of the subject in the past two decades.

18 May 2003A Public Evening with Bernard-Henri Lévy, Qui a tué Daniel Pearl?

(Who killed Daniel Pearl?) This gathering was organized in cooperation with the Institut d’études Lévinassiennes. (A detailed description of the event and an interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy appears in this issue.)

27 May 2003Symposium on Victor Shnirelman’s

The Myth of the Khazars and Antisemitism in RussiaProf. Robert Wistrich, Chair; Prof. Victor Shnirelman (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow); Dr. Yitzhak Brudny (Hebrew University); Mr. Ehud Ya’ari (Israel Television, Channel 2).This symposium was convened to mark the publication of Victor Shnirelman’s study, The Myth of the Khazars and Intellectual Antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s (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.

Center Guests View Décryptage10 April 2003

The Sassoon Center hosted a group of Catholic seminarians from the Communauté des Béatitudes near Latrun, Israel. After viewing the film Décryptage (directed by Jacques Tarnero and Philippe Bensoussan, 2002), they met with Dr. Simcha Epstein for a short discussion about antisemitism today. The Communauté was founded in France in 1973, and has more than 80 houses worldwide. Many of their students for the priesthood spend a year in Israel, during which they attend classes in Hebrew, the Bible, Judaism, and the history of the Holy Land, and also participate in home hospitality programs to become more acquainted with Judaism as it is lived.


Previous Publications in the Series• Vadim Rossman, Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press. 2002. ISBN 0-8032-3948-3 x+309 pp.

• 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, 1933–1939. 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

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

Denying the Holocaust

One of the Sassoon Center’s most successful projects over the past twenty years was to sponsor the research and publication in 1993 of Deborah Lipstadt’s Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Free Press). Kirkus Reviews proclaimed already ten years ago that Denying the Holocaust is “a forceful analysis” and “an important, well-documented study” of Holocaust revisionism. Christopher Browning, among the world’s foremost scholars of Nazism, considers this “the essential book” on Holocaust denial. Two years ago, Denying the Holocaust was the focus of a private lawsuit brought by Holocaust revisionist David Irving against Lipstadt and Penguin (who published the later paperback edition). This resulted in a historic decision by Justice Charles Gray in a London court, which conclusively branded David Irving as a racist, a Holocaust denier, and an antisemite. It was the Vidal Sassoon Center which convinced Deborah Lipstadt back in the mid-1980s to embark on her study, and which thereby initiated the chain of events that led to Irving’s downfall. Since the Sassoon Center first published Lipstadt’s book, it has been reprinted and has enjoyed wide popularity as well as critical praise. However, new forms of Holocaust denial have evolved in the past decade, which require an updated approach. To meet this need, the Center will be publishing next year an important collection of essays on the subject, edited by Robert Wistrich, titled Lying about the Holocaust.

Two new titles from the Studies in Antisemitism series will appear in the Spring 2004 catalog of the University of Nebraska Press.

Studies in Antisemitism SeriesUniversity of Nebraska Press

Anthony D. KaudersDemocratization

and the Jews, Munich, 1945–1965This 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 people—and particularly Social Democrats and members of both the Protestant and Catholic Churches—began to repudiate antisemitism altogether, appreciating the connection between liberal democracy, on the one hand, and the rejection of Jew-hatred, 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

Cesare G. De MichelisThe Non-existent

Manuscript: A Study of the Protocols of

the Sages of ZionWith this detailed linguistic analysis of the earliest published manuscripts of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion, we can better assess the early transmission of this ever-popular libel

against the Jews. Through a precise examination of the Russian texts published at the turn of the twentieth century, De Michelis suggests that the text arose within extreme nationalist circles in St. Petersburg. Of special importance is the inclusion of the annotated Russian text in the appendix, which also lists the exact quotes taken from Maurice Joly’s 19th-century tract that formed the basis for the Protocols.ISBN 0-8032-1727-7 $55.00

Graciela Ben-DrorThe Catholic Church in Argentina and Antisemitism, 1933–1945

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 Author’s First Published Book (in Jewish History). The book has also appeared in Spanish (2003).


The 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 Project’s 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 library’s acquisitions which greatly facilitates its endeavors. These holdings cover a diverse range of disciplines—history, 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

The Felix PosenBibliographic Project on Antisemitism

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 antisemitism—and 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 Shoah—e.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 (1933–1945). 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

Robert S. Wistrich• Robert Everett, Christianity without Antisemitism: James Parkes and the Jewish Christian Encounter. Oxford: Pergamon, 1993. xiv + 346 pp.ISBN 0-08-041040-5

• Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Free Press, 1993. ix + 278 pp. ISBN 0-02-919235-8

• Ronald Nettler, Past Trials and Present Tribulations: A Muslim Fundamentalist’s View of the Jews. Oxford: Pergamon, 1987. 104 pp.ISBN 0-08-0347916

• Elisheva Revel-Neher, The Image of the Jew in Byzantine Art. Oxford: Pergamon, 1992. 200 pp. with 100 illustrations, 10 in color. ISBN 0-08-0406556

• Frank Stern, The Whitewashing of the Yellow Badge: Antisemitism and Philosemitism in Postwar Germany 1945–1952. Oxford: Pergamon, 1992. xxv + 455 pp. ISBN 0-08-040653X

• Leon Volovici, Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism: The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s. Oxford: Pergamon, 1991. xi + 213 pp. ISBN 0-08-041-24-3

Studies in Antisemitism: HistoryShmuel Almog, Nationalism and Antisemitism in Modern Europe, 1815–1945. Oxford: Pergamon, 1990. xxv + 159 pp. ISBN 0-08-377742 (softcover); ISBN 0-08-0372546 (hardcover)

Joint Project with the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History and the

Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem• Michel Abitbol, From Crémieux to Pétain: Antisemitism in Colonial Algeria, 1870–1940 (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 1933–1945 (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shazar, 2000. 320 pp. ISBN 965-227-151-9


• Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 14 (1998). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 2001.



• Rena R. Auerbach, ed., The “Jewish Question” in German-Speaking Countries, 1849–1914. New York: Garland, 1994. xxv + 385 pp. ISBN 0-8153-0812-4. Outstanding Academic Book, 1995, CHOICE Reviews of Academic Books

Publications of the Felix Posen Bibliographic

Project• Susan Sarah Cohen, ed., Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 1 (1984–85). New York: Garland, 1987. xxix +392 pp. ISBN 0-8240-8532-9

• Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 2 (1986–87). New York: Garland, 1991. xxxiv + 559 pp. ISBN 0-8240-5846-1

• Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, Vol. 3 (1987–88). 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. 4–6 (1988–1990). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag, 1997.





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 mémoire de la Shoah for helping us to ensure the continuation of this enterprise.

Ordering the BibliographiesThe series Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography is published by K. G. Saur Verlag, Munich, including reprints of the first three volumes. For further information please contact: Ms. Barbara Fischer Editorial Dept. K. G. Saur Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Ortlerstr. 8 D-81373 Munich, Germany FAX 49 89 76 902 350 You may order directly from the Saur website: http://www.saur.de/jewish/jeindex.htm


Recent Publications, Lectures, Broadcasts,and Interviews by Center Researchers

During the past year Robert Wistrich published Hitler and the Holocaust (London: Phoenix Press, 2002), which has already been translated into German, Spanish, and Portuguese, with a French translation also planned. Together with Jacob Golomb, he edited Nietzsche: Godfather of Fascism? (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002) which recently appeared in paperback. His many published articles during the past year include “Muslims, Jews and September 11: The British Case,” in A New Antisemitism?, edited by Barry Kosmin and Paul Iganski (London: Profile Books, 2003), 169–91; “Old-New Antisemitism,” The National Interest (Summer 2003): 51–69; and “The Jedwabne Affair,” Antisemitism Worldwide 2001–2 (Tel Aviv, 2003): 60-78. In addition, he published shorter articles in Le Figaro, Midstream, The Independent, The Jewish Chronicle, The Jerusalem Post, Die Presse (Vienna), and Haaretz on various aspects of contemporary antisemitism. During the past year, Prof. Wistrich spoke at many international conferences and gatherings, including the following: in February 2002, he gave a lecture at the British House of Lords on the Catholic-Jewish International Historical Commission of which he had been a member until October 2001. The Commission focused its investigation on Pope Pius XII, the Catholic Church, and the Shoah. A different version of this talk was given to the School of Historical Studies at Princeton University in October 2002. In May 2002, Robert Wistrich addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on contemporary Muslim antisemitism. Lectures on related topics (including European antisemitism) were given at the University of Vienna on 21 June 2002 and at Trinity College, Connecticut, as well as Manhattan College in New York in October 2002. In February 2003, Prof. Wistrich gave a public lecture on global Jihad and antisemitism at the London Jewish Cultural Center; on 11 May 2003 he addressed the YIVO International Conference in New York on “Israel and Antisemitism”; on 18 June 2003 he addressed the OSCE conference in Vienna; and on 30 July 2003 he opened the International Forum on Antisemitism, convened by Minister of Diaspora

Affairs Natan Sharansky in Jerusalem. In the course of the academic year, Robert Wistrich gave many interviews relating to antisemitism, anti-Americanism, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, blood libel accusations, jihad, and related topics to local and international media, including La Stampa, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, Austrian Radio, the BBC Radio 3 and 4, CNN, Irish television, the Israel Arabic channel, National News, Channels 1 and 2 (Israel television), as well as Reshet Aleph and Bet of Israel radio. Between 29 October and 17 December 2002, Prof. Wistrich could be heard in a series of eight 25-minute interviews in Hebrew on Benny Hendel’s program, “Academia Be’Aleph.” These broadcasts, on Israel radio’s Reshet Aleph, were given under the title “Neo-Antisemitism or Shylock in Arms.” In May–June 2003, he served as historical advisor to British television’s Channel 4 documentary, “Blaming the Jews.”

Leon Volovici took part in a number of international conferences during 2002–2003. These included: A conference in Prague, “Antisemitism in Post-totalitarian Europe—10 Years Later,” where he lectured on “Jews and Antisemitism in the Public Discourse in Post-Communist Eastern Europe.” At the international conference in Bled, Slovenia, on “Jews and Antisemitism in the Balkans,” Dr. Volovici presented the paper, “New Trends in Dealing with Ethnic Prejudice and the Image of the Mythical Jew in Post-Communist Public Discourse.” In December 2002, he delivered a lecture on “Intellectuals and Radical Politics” at the conference “Private Biography and Public Career: A Debate on Ethics, Politics and Creativity” held at the New Europe College in Bucharest. Later that month in Bucharest, he presented a paper, “Jews in Post-Ceausescu Romania: ‘Centrality’ and Phobia,” at the Goethe Institut’s conference on “Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in Central and South-Eastern Europe.” At the Sassoon Center’s international conference in February 2003, he lectured on “Dealing with Prejudice and Antisemitism

Paris Conference on Bernard Lazare

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 Lazare’s 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 co-sponsor 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.

Illustration, The Dreyfus Trial.


ACTA -Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism

This 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.

Simon KriezJewish and Israeli Stereotypes in the

Russian Detective NovelDetective stories have gained great popularity in Russia over the past decade. Because this genre is rarely read with a critical eye, readers may accept latent messages without serious examination. Today’s Russian detective novels depict Jews in a variety of professions, epochs, and locations. Given that these novels are much more widely read than serious texts or newspaper articles, they may serve as a reader’s only source of information about Jews or Israel. A careful look at the representations of the Jew and Israel in detective literature can help us understand the state of these images in Russian popular culture. The works of five current authors are examined, with an eye toward the common features of their books, and the continuity of images from previous generations of writers. Overall, the modern novelists are ambivalent toward Jews and Israel; they reject the official antisemitism of tsarist Russia and Soviet anti-Zionism, while implicating Jewish characters for their comparative wealth and success.

Joanna MichlicComing 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 past—the self-criticism 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 Poland’s 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.

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


To order, contact: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus


in the Romanian Press.” In April 2003, he addressed the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Cluj, “On the Judaism of Non-Religious Jews.” He then presented a paper, “From Traditional to Modern Antisemitism,” at the International Seminar on Antisemitism and the Holocaust at Bucharest University. Dr. Volovici’s paper, “Jews in Post-Ceausescu Romania: ‘Centrality’ and Phobia,” was published in Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in Central and South-Eastern Europe (Bucharest: Goethe Institut, 2003); and “Jews in Romania under Ceausescu,” will appear in Studies in Contemporary Jewry (2003), edited by Ezra Mendelsohn.

Dr. Jonathan Dekel-Chen participated at a conference of the Université de Versailles-St. Quentin-IEP de Paris in November 2002 on “Images et représentations des Juifs dans la culture et la culture politique XIXe–XXe siècle. ” He presented a paper on “Images and Representations of Jews in the Soviet Union, 1924–1941.” During the past academic year he has also published articles connected to the fate of Soviet Jews during the interwar period in the journals Diplomatic History, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, and the Columbia Journal of Historiography.

Sara Grosvald gave a number of interviews to Israeli television and radio stations around the time of our international conference “Antisemitism and Prejudice in the Contemporary Media.” Considerable public and media interest was raised by her presentation at the conference on “Websites of Hate: Overview and Update.” In the aftermath of the conference, Ms. Grosvald published an article based on this presentation in volume 13 of the journal of the Israeli Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Massuah. In June, she followed up the article with a lecture to the staff of Massuah on “Extremist Groups and their Activities on the Internet.”

Dr. Simcha Epstein was invited as one of the keynote speakers at the 7th Congress of the French Association of Political Science in Lille in September 2002. He spoke on the topic of philosemites of the 1930s who became antisemites in the 1940s, with some remarks related to the present situation in Europe. He also spoke at various conferences during the academic year 2002–2003, and addressed two parliamentary delegations that visited Israel, one from France and the other from Belgium. He lectured about the extreme Right in Europe in a seminar convened by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He participated in an International gathering organized by the French Fondation pour le Mémoire de la Shoah in June 2003. Dr. Epstein also gave some radio and television interviews during the year.

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.


DirectorateProf. Robert S. Wistrich Director of the Sassoon CenterDr. Leon Volovici Head of Academic ResearchProf. Gideon Shimoni Head of the Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry

Academic CommitteeProf. Doron Mendels Dept. of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Chair of Academic CommitteeProf. Yehuda Bauer Jonah M. Machover Professor of Holocaust Studies (Emeritus), Hebrew University of JerusalemDr. Simcha Epstein Sassoon Center , Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Jacob Golomb Dept. of Philosophy, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Raphael Israeli Truman Institute, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Menahem Milson Dept. of Arabic Language and Literature, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Gideon Shimoni Head of the Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Guy Stroumsa Dept. of Comparative Religions, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Mario Sznajder Dept. of Political Science, Hebrew University of JerusalemDr. Leon Volovici Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of JerusalemProf. Robert S. Wistrich Director/Head of the Sassoon Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Editorial Board, ACTA Analysis of Current Trends in AntisemitismDr. Leon Volovici (Chair)Prof. Robert S. WistrichDr. Simcha Epstein

Publications and DocumentationAlifa SaadyaSara Grosvald

Felix Posen Bibliographic StaffSusan S. Cohen, EditorSylviane Stampfer and Sara Grosvald, Managing Editors

AdministrationRuchama Roth

Office CoordinatorsAvigail SaddanNaomi Shmueli

Editorial and Abstracting StaffIlana DanaDr. Yisrael Eliot CohenRuth EngelbergMirjam FactorDaniel RomanovskySylviane StampferTamar SternRachael Agnes VazsonyiDr. Hanna VoloviciRenate Wolfson Manuel Zkorenblut

The following titles appeared in 1993–2002:

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.

10. Shlomit Levy: Israeli Perceptions of Antisemitism. 1996.

11. Rotem Kowner: On Ignorance, Respect and Suspicion: Current Japanese Attitudes towards Jews. 1997.

12. Laslo Sekelj: Antisemitism and Jewish Identity in Serbia after the 1991 Collapse of the Yugoslav State. 1998.

13. Victor A. Shnirelman: Russian Neo - Pagan Myths and Antisemitism. 1998.

14. Liudmila Dymerskaya-Tsigelman and Leonid Finberg: Antisemitism of the Ukrainian Radical Nationalists: Ideology and Policy. 1999.

15. José L. Rodríguez-Jiménez: Antisemitism and the Extreme Right in Spain (1962-1997). 1999.

16. András Kovács: Antisemitic Prejudice in Contemporary Hungary . 1999.

17. Goetz Nordbruch: The Socio-Historical Background of Holocaust Denial in Arab Countries: Reactions to Roger Garaudy’s The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics. 2001.

18. Anat Peri: Jörg Haider’s Antisemitism. 2001.

19. M ich a e l S h a f i r : Bet wee n D e n i a l a nd “C o m pa ra t i ve Tr i v i a l i za t i o n” : Hol oc aus t Negationism in Post- Communist East Central Europe. 2002.

20. Yaakov Ariel: Philosemites or Antisemites? Evangelical Christian Attitudes towards Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel. 2002.

21. Joanna Michlic: Coming to Terms with the “Dark Past”: The Polish Debate about the Jedwabne Massacre. 2002.

22. Simon Kriez: Jewish and Israeli Stereotypes in the Russian Detective Novel. [in press]

23. Gershon Nerel: Prejudice in the Church: Between Messianic Jews and Palestinian Christians. [in preparation]

24. Danny Ben-Moshe: Holocaust Denial in Australia. [in preparation]

Research proposals for the ACTA series may be submitted to the ACTA staff.The information and documentation service of ACTA enables researchers and students to easily access articles, reports, surveys, and specialized journals that deal with current antisemitism. Advice and assistance are provided by the ACTA staff. Inquiries are welcome.Sara Grosvald972-2-5882870e-mail: [email protected]

Antisemitism International, 2003 112

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.

Inquiries regarding possible research proposals should be directed to Dr. Leon Volovici, Head of Research, at the address below, or via email: [email protected]

To request an application form, please contact:The Vidal Sassoon International Centerfor the Study of AntisemitismThe Hebrew University of JerusalemMount Scopus91905 Jerusalem Israel

Tel: 972-2-588-2494Fax: 972-2-588-1002Email: [email protected]

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