Synopses & Reviews
Copublished with the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, this study asks if the European Union (EU) has the capacity or the will to counter antisemitism. The desire to counter antisemitism was a significant impetus toward the formation of the EU in the twentieth century and now prejudice against Jews threatens to subvert that goal in the twenty-first.
The European Union, Antisemitism, and the Politics of Denial offers an overview of the circumstances that obliged European political institutions to take action against antisemitism and considers the effectiveness of these interventions by considering two seemingly dissimilar EU states, Austria and Sweden.
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This examination of the European Unionand#8217;s strategy for countering antisemitism discloses escalating prejudice within the EU in the aftermath of 9/11. R. Amy Elman contends that Europeand#8217;s political actors have responded to the challenge and provocation of antisemitism with only sporadic rhetoric and inconsistent commitment; this halfhearted strategy for countering anti-Semitism exacerbates skepticism toward EU institutions and their commitment to equality and justice. This exposition of the insipid character of the EUand#8217;s response simultaneously suggests alternatives that might mitigate the subtle and potentially devastating creep of antisemitism in Europe.
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The author offers a new approach insofar as scholarly considerations of the EUand#8217;s attempts to combat racism rarely focus on antisemitism, while scholarship on antisemitism rarely considers the political context of the European Union.
Review
"This is a magisterial work, providing a comprehensive understanding of the origins of the most pernicious challenges currently facing the Jewish people, especially those originating from the enemy within."—Isi Leibler, Jerusalem Post
Review
"With this politically urgent and morally compelling study, Wistrich offers a thoroughly researched and demystifying exploration of leftist biases, stereotypes and delusions regarding Jews, Judaism and the state of Israel."—Vladimir Tismaneanu, International Affairs
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"Professor Wistrich has now written some 30 scholarly books on Jewish history and philosophy, but his work has been dominated by the subject of anti-Semitism. This book is his finest and most comprehensive on the subject."—Stephen Daisley, Standpoint
Review
and#8220;This volume covers a wide variety of topics with considerable relevance for society in Israel today, written by well-trained and serious students of Israeli society and culture.and#8221;and#8212;Herbert S. Lewis, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of In Defense of Anthropology: An Investigation of the Critique of Anthropology
Review
“On a matter that concerns us today—the question of identity—Nelly Las examines the diversity, contradictions, and complexities of various ‘Jewish voices’ in French and American feminism during the last half century. This thought-provoking book helps us to better hear and understand these voices in the context of our time.”—Michelle Perrot, coeditor of the History of Women in the West series and 2014 winner of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom
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andldquo;This book will contribute to a better understanding of immigration and settlement in Israel, contemporary Israeli society, and Israel-Diaspora relations, as well as the general corpus of literature on immigration, diasporism, and transnationalism.andrdquo;andmdash;Uzi Rebhun, author of The Wandering Jew in America
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andquot;A timely reading.andquot;andmdash;Libby K. White, Jewish Book Council
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"Inventing the Jew is a necessary book. Nobody interested in the history (past and present) of Eastern and Central European anti-Semitism, radical nationalism and ethnocentric populism should miss it."—Vladimir Tismaneanu, Times Literary Supplement
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"[Andrei Oisteanu] has produced a superb piece of research which will serve as a fundamental resource for future work on the cultural roots of ideas about Jews, not just in Romania but in the wider East European context."—Alex Drace-Francis, Eastern European Jewish Affairs
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"This monograph has much to offer to scholars and graduate students not only of East European and Jewish Studies, but also of Ethnic Studies and Cultural Anthropology."—Joanna B. Michlic, American Historical Review
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"Inventing the Jew is an outstanding contribution to the study of images of the "imaginary Jew" in Romania and an important book for those who are interested in cultural perceptions of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe."—Günther Jikeli, Journal for the Study of Antisemitism
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"This work of cultural anthropology is unparalleled in scope and interest for a whole range of disciplines."—Peter Sherwood, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
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"Historians eager to explain the operation of anti-Jewish politics in a particular time and place would do well to study Oisteanu's rich inventory of anti-Jewish myths and stereotypes. His account of the depth, variety, and longevity of antisemitic stereotypes is a well-taken reminder of how powerful and widely felt the image of the Jew as “Other” has been and continues to be in the region."—Paul Hanebrink, Journal of Modern History
Synopsis
From Ambivalence to Betrayal is the first study to explore the transformation in attitudes on the Left toward the Jews, Zionism, and Israel since the origins of European socialism in the 1840s until the present. This pathbreaking synthesis reveals a striking continuity in negative stereotypes of Jews, contempt for Judaism, and negation of Jewish national self-determination from the days of Karl Marx to the current left-wing intellectual assault on Israel. World-renowned expert on the history of antisemitism Robert S. Wistrich provides not only a powerful analysis of how and why the Left emerged as a spearhead of anti-Israel sentiment but also new insights into the wider involvement of Jews in radical movements.
There are fascinating portraits of Marx, Moses Hess, Bernard Lazare, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, and other Jewish intellectuals, alongside analyses of the darker face of socialist and Communist antisemitism. The closing section eloquently exposes the degeneration of leftist anti-Zionist critiques into a novel form of “anti-racist” racism.
Synopsis
Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel presents twenty-two original essays offering a critical survey of the anthropology of Israel inspired by Alex Weingrod, emeritus professor and pioneering scholar of Israeli anthropology. In the late 1950s Weingrodand#8217;s groundbreaking ethnographic research of Israeland#8217;s underpopulated south complicated the dominant social science discourse and government policy of the day by focusing on the ironies inherent in the project of Israeli nation building and on the process of migration prompted by social change.
Drawing from Weingrodand#8217;s perspective, this collection considers the gaps, ruptures, and juxtapositions in Israeli society and the cultural categories undergirding and subverting these divisions. Organized into four parts, the volume examines our understanding of Israel as a place of difference, the disruptions and integrations of diaspora, the various permutations of Judaism, and the role of symbol in the national landscape and in Middle Eastern studies considered from a comparative perspective. These essays illuminate the key issues pervading, motivating, and frustrating Israeland#8217;s complex ethnoscape.
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Synopsis
Feminist theories maintain that gender issues are a ubiquitous component of our lives, intersecting with every aspect of the society in which we live and interact. Because the feminist debate has included questions important to Jewish discourse, including religion, antisemitism, Zionism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is not surprising that such matters should also be of concern to Jewish women, many of whom have played an active role in feminist movements.
In Jewish Voices in Feminism, Nelly Las navigates primarily among three cultures (French, Anglo-American, and Israeli) to present a philosophical and historical analysis of the intersection between contemporary Jewish dilemmas and feminism and its impact on Jewish thinking. She also explains the ambivalent attitude of feminist activists regarding current developments in the Jewish world. This book, based on extensive documentation that includes written and oral testimonies, provides a wide variety of gender-centered approaches to ethics, solidarity, identity, and memory.
Synopsis
Despite consensus about the importance of multigenerational analysis for studying the long-term impact of immigration, most studies in Israel have focused on the integration of first-generation migrants, neglecting key changes (in economic, social, linguistic, and identity outcomes) that occur intergenerationally. Rebeca Raijman tackles this important but untold story with respect to Jewish South African immigration in Israel. By collecting data from three generational cohorts, Raijman analyzes assimilation from a comparative multigenerational perspective. She also combines both quantitative and qualitative evidence with in-depth interviews and participant observation, thereby providing a rich and more complete picture of the complex process of migrant assimilation.
While the migrant subpopulation of South Africa has not received the attention that immigrant populations from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia have, as English-speaking migrants they are a powerful and significant group. Given the status of English as an international language, this study has important implications for understanding the expected assimilation trajectories of Anglophone immigrants in Israel as well as in other non-English-speaking societies. South African Jews in Israel not only contributes empirical material concerning immigrants in Israeli society but also articulates theoretical understanding of the social mechanisms underlying the integration of various generations of immigrants into a variety of societal domains.
Synopsis
Inventing the Jew follows the evolution of stereotypes of Jews from the level of traditional Romanian and other Central-East European cultures (their legends, fairy tales, ballads, carols, anecdotes, superstitions, and iconographic representations) to that of “high” cultures (including literature, essays, journalism, and sociopolitical writings), showing how motifs specific to “folkloric antisemitism” migrated to “intellectual antisemitism.” This comparative perspective also highlights how the images of Jews have differed from that of other “strangers” such as Hungarians, Germans, Roma, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks. The gap between the conception of the “imaginary Jew” and the “real Jew” is a cultural distance that differs over time and place, here seen through the lens of cultural anthropology.
Stereotypes of the “generic Jew” were not exclusively negative, and are described in five chapters depicting physical, occupational, moral and intellectual, mythical and magical, and religious portraits of “the Jew.”
About the Author
Robert S. Wistrich (1945-2015) was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad (2010) and Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in Central Europe (Nebraska, 2007).