Antisemitism and the Politics of History

Scott Ury is associate professor in the Department of Jewish History and director of the Eva and Marc Besen Institute for the Study of Historical Consciousness at Tel Aviv University and senior editor of the journal History and Memory. He is the author of Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry. Guy Miron is professor of history and vice president for academic affairs at the Open University of Israel. He is the author and editor of The Waning of Emancipation: Jewish History, Memory, and the Rise of Fascism in Germany, France, and Hungary and Space and Time under Persecution: The German-Jewish Experience in the Third Reich.

"Pushing back against years of attempts to refine the definition of antisemitism, [Ury and Miron]. . . explain how the term has been used as a 'super-category' to describe a sweeping range of 'historical, religious, and social phenomena,' . . . The essayists demonstrate how the definition of 'antisemitism' has evolved since its advent in the late 19th century, including recent attempts to link antisemitism with Islamophobia, and other attempts to apply the term retroactively to earlier periods of history."

• Part I: INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS1) Scott Ury and Guy Miron: Antisemitism: On the Meanings and Uses of a Contested Term2) David Engel: Thinking about “Antisemitism”Part II: METHODOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS3) Amos Morris-Reich: History and Noise4) Susannah Heschel: Erotohistoriography: Sensory and Emotional Dimensions of Antisemitism5) Stefanie Schüler-Springorum: Toward EntanglementPart III: PREMODERN CONTEXTUALIZATIONS6) Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi: Separatism, Judeophobia, and the Birth of the Goy: On the Chickens and the Egg7) Youval Rotman: Antisemitism and Islamophobia: A Medieval Comparison8) Tzafrir Barzilay: The Term “Antisemitism” as a Category for the Study of Medieval Jewish HistoryPart IV: MODERN CONTESTATIONS9) Ofri Ilany: Feverish Preference: Philosemitism, Anti-antisemitism and Their Critics10) Gershon Bacon: Cautious Use of the Term “Antisemitism” for Lack of an Alternative: Interwar Poland as a Case Study11) Eli Lederhendler: America and the Keyword Battle Over “Antisemitism”12) Arie M. Dubnov: “Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off” Remarks on Antisemitism, Pride, and Prejudice in Britain13) David Feldman: A Retreat from Universalism: Opposing and Defining Antisemitism and Islamophobiain Britain, ca. 1990–2018Part V: POST-HOLOCAUST RUMINATIONS14) Havi Dreifuss: In Defense of the Concept of “Antisemitism” in Holocaust Studies15) Amos Goldberg and Raz Segal: “Antisemitism” as a Question in Holocaust Studies16) Karma Ben-Johanan: Is Christian Antisemitism Possible? A History of an Intra-Catholic Debate (1965–2000)VI: CONCLUDING EXPLANATIONS17) David Engel, Can the Circle Be Broken?