Antisemitism in America – serie

Antisemitism on the Campus: Past and Present , edited by Eunice G. Pollack, is the first entry of a multidisciplinary series on antisemitism in America to be published by Academic Studies Press. In this volume, eighteen leading scholars explore the roots and manifestations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism at American, British, and Canadian colleges and universities over the course of the twentieth century and the responses to such biases. Topics such as the intensification of antisemitism and anti-Zionism on individual campuses, the anti-Israel divestment and boycott movements, discrimination against Jewish faculty, students, and organizations, and students’ exposure to anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism through popular culture, among others, are covered.

Leading scholars use the lenses of history, sociology, political science, psychology, philosophy, religion, and literature to examine, disentangle, and remove the disguises of the many forms of antisemitism and anti-Zionism that have inhabited or targeted the English-speaking world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although in principle one can be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic, authors document and trace the numerous parallels and continuities between the hoary tropes attached for centuries to the Jewish people and the more recent vilifications of the Jewish state. They evaluate—and discredit—many of the central claims anti-Zionists have promoted in their relentless effort to delegitimize the Jewish state. They show how mainstream anti-racist communities, courses and texts have ignored—or denied—the antisemitic hatred that pervades much of the Muslim world.

Leading scholars use the lenses of history, sociology, political science, psychology, philosophy, religion, and literature to examine, disentangle, and remove the disguises of the many forms of antisemitism and anti-Zionism that have inhabited or targeted the English-speaking world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although in principle one can be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic, authors document and trace the numerous parallels and continuities between the hoary tropes attached for centuries to the Jewish people and the more recent vilifications of the Jewish state. They evaluate—and discredit—many of the central claims anti-Zionists have promoted in their relentless effort to delegitimize the Jewish state. They show how mainstream anti-racist communities, courses and texts have ignored—or denied—the antisemitic hatred that pervades much of the Muslim world.

After Adolph Ochs purchased The New York Times in 1896, Zionism and the eventual reality of the State of Israel were framed within his guiding principle, embraced by his Sulzberger family successor, that Judaism is a religion and not a national identity. Apprehensive lest the loyalty of American Jews to the United States be undermined by the existence of a Jewish state, they embraced an anti-Zionist critique that remained embedded in its editorials, on the Opinion page and in its news coverage. Through the examination of evidence drawn from its own pages, this book analyzes how all the news “fit to print” became news that fit the Times’ discomfort with the idea, and since 1948 the reality, of a thriving democratic Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

After Adolph Ochs purchased The New York Times in 1896, Zionism and the eventual reality of the State of Israel were framed within his guiding principle, embraced by his Sulzberger family successor, that Judaism is a religion and not a national identity. Apprehensive lest the loyalty of American Jews to the United States be undermined by the existence of a Jewish state, they embraced an anti-Zionist critique that remained embedded in its editorials, on the Opinion page and in its news coverage. Through the examination of evidence drawn from its own pages, this book analyzes how all the news “fit to print” became news that fit the Times’ discomfort with the idea, and since 1948 the reality, of a thriving democratic Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

In the Spring of 2015, a post-modern version of the Salem witchcraft trials took place at Connecticut College on the Thames River. Only this time instead of sorcery it was Zionism; instead of punishing in the name of God's law it was in the name of anti-hate speech and inclusive excellence; instead of young teenage girls leading the hysteria it was college-aged social warriors stampeding 200 professors into sacrificing one of their colleagues, and thereby contributing to a wave of administration-promoted hate-speech at their college.The Pessin affair offers us a case study in a tendency towards "public shaming" that not only deeply compromises the integrity of academia, but increasingly spreads to many aspects of our society, so susceptible to media-driven feeding frenzies.

“Richard Landes offers a sharply-drawn, no-holds-barred dissection of today’s campus politics at its worst. As a case study of the damage done to academic integrity by the intrusion of anti-Zionism into college life, his book is a must-read.”  —Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies and Director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, Indiana UniversityThis compelling volume focuses on the story of Andrew Pessin, a tenured philosophy professor at Connecticut College, who was accused by students and faculty of having “directly condoned the extermination of a people” based on a deliberate misreading of his 2015 Facebook post on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Salem on the Thames captures the events as they unfolded and discusses topics such as Western sentiments concerning Israeli-Palestinian relations, academics and free speech, antisemitism and diversity on the college campus, and social media and politics. The Pessin affair offers us a case study in a tendency towards “public shaming” reminiscent of the Salem witch trials that deeply compromises the integrity of academia.

A Winner of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa 2023 Bernard Lewis PrizeLandes,a medievalist and historian of apocalyptic movements, takes us through thefirst years of the third millennium (2000-2003), documenting how a radicalinability of Westerners to understand the medieval mentality that drove GlobalJihad prompted a series of disastrous misinterpretations and misguidedreactions that have shaped our so-far unhappy century. These misinterpretationsin 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005, contributed fundamentally to the ever-worsening moraland empirical disorientations of our information elites (journalists,academics, pundits). So while journalists reported Palestinian war propagandaas news (lethal journalism), they were also reporting Jihadi war propaganda asnews (own-goal war journalism). These radical disorientations havecreated our current dilemma of pervasive information distrust, deep splitswithin the voting public in most democracies, the politicization of science,and the inability of Western elites to defend their civilization, and instead,to stand down before an invasion.

A Winner of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa 2023 Bernard Lewis PrizeLandes, a medievalist and historian of apocalyptic movements, takes us through the first years of the third millennium (2000-2003), documenting how a radical inability of Westerners to understand the medieval mentality that drove Global Jihad prompted a series of disastrous misinterpretations and misguided reactions that have shaped our so-far unhappy century. These misinterpretations in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005, contributed fundamentally to the ever-worsening moral and empirical disorientations of our information elites (journalists, academics, pundits). So while journalists reported Palestinian war propaganda as news (lethal journalism), they were also reporting Jihadi war propaganda as news (own-goal war journalism). These radical disorientations have created our current dilemma of pervasive information distrust, deep splits within the voting public in most democracies, the politicization of science, and the inability of Western elites to defend their civilization, and instead, to stand down before an invasion.

This is the first volume in a multidisciplinary series on anti-Semitism in America to be published by Academic Studies Press. Eighteen leading scholars explore the roots and manifestations of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at American, British, and Canadian colleges and universities over the course of the 20th century and the responses to them. Topics range from the intensification of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on individual campuses and the anti-Israel divestment and boycott movements, to discrimination against Jewish faculty, students, and organisations, and students' exposure to anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism through popular culture.