Monika Schwarz-Friesel - Böcker

Antisemitism never disappeared in Europe. In fact, there is substantial evidence that it is again on the rise, manifest in violent acts against Jews in some quarters, but more commonly noticeable in everyday discourse in mainstream European society. This innovative empirical study examines written examples of antisemitism in contemporary Germany. It demonstrates that hostility against Jews is not just a right-wing phenomenon or a phenomenon among the uneducated, but is manifest among all social classes, including intellectuals.Drawing on 14,000 letters and e-mails sent between 2002 and 2012 to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and to the Israeli embassy in Berlin, as well as communications sent between 2010 and 2011 to Israeli embassies in in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain, this volume shows how language plays a crucial role in activating and re-activating antisemitism. In addition, the authors investigate the role of emotions in antisemitic argumentation patterns and analyze “anti-Israelism” as the dominant form of contemporary hatred of Jews.

Anti-Jewish sentiments and prejudices are no longer fringe-group phenomena. Judeophobic ideas have in recent years been widely accepted into the mainstream of society, with Israel frequently serving as a substitute for views with clearly anti-Jewish content. Verbal anti-Jewish utterances are increasingly common in public and media discourse and are met by public opinion with indifference or even acceptance. While the coarse Judeophobic expressions of extremist groupings are frowned upon, anti-Jewish views relating to Israel are common in civil society not causing much concern and meeting with little protest.This new form of anti-Semitism is the theme of this interdisciplinary volume of essays in which experts critically analyze Judeophobic resentments and prejudices - frequently directed at the Jewish state - that have widely reasserted themselves among the broader sectors of Western society.

The series European-Jewish Studies reflects the international network and competence of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish studies (MMZ). Thanks to the highly interdisciplinary character of the series, which is edited in collaboration with the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, particular emphasis is placed on the way in which history, the humanities and cultural sciences approach the subject, as well as on fundamental intellectual, political and religious questions that inspire Jewish life and thinking today, and have influenced it in the past.