Introduction to the History of Antisemitism
This ten-week course provides the opportunity to study one of the oldest forms of human hatred now in the midst of a resurgence, seventy years after the Shoah.
Today, there is debate over whether or not the contemporary hostility directed toward Israel is a manifestation of antisemitism. It is important for Jews and non-Jews of all backgrounds to understand exactly how the current assault on the State of Israel and diaspora Jewry uses antisemitism as part of its arsenal.
The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon of antisemitism and combines lectures, film, and discussion. Reading suggestions will be provided to the class but there will be no required reading, assignments, or examinations.
We will examine antisemitism as a central phenomenon of western history. Together, we will study its theological origins in the conflict between Judaism, the Jesus Movement, and the early church, follow its development through the Middle Ages, examine its secularized forms during the modern period, focus on its central role in Hitler's ideology, and conclude with a discussion of contemporary antisemitism, including that of the Islamic world.
Read our student testimonials
This ten-week course provides the opportunity to study one of the oldest forms of human hatred now in the midst of a resurgence, seventy years after the Shoah.
Today, there is debate over whether or not the contemporary hostility directed toward Israel is a manifestation of antisemitism. It is important for Jews and non-Jews of all backgrounds to understand exactly how the current assault on the State of Israel and diaspora Jewry uses antisemitism as part of its arsenal.
The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon of antisemitism and combines lectures, film, and discussion. Reading suggestions will be provided to the class but there will be no required reading, assignments, or examinations.
We will examine antisemitism as a central phenomenon of western history. Together, we will study its theological origins in the conflict between Judaism, the Jesus Movement, and the early church, follow its development through the Middle Ages, examine its secularized forms during the modern period, focus on its central role in Hitler's ideology, and conclude with a discussion of contemporary antisemitism, including that of the Islamic world.
Read our student testimonials
Syllabus
Definitions, Debates, Origins
The first class will discuss various definitions of antisemitism, current debates in academe and public life about the subject, and introduce the historical origins of the phenomenon. We will also discuss the controversy over whether the contemporary assault on the State of Israel is antisemitic.
Judaism and Christianity
The origins of antisemitism are found in the crime of deicide, a charge leveled by the Church against the Jewish people as a collectivity. This class will discuss the story of Christ's Passion as presented in the Gospels, as well as the history of the Jesus Movement, its transition into a gentile church, and its evolution into the imperial religion of Christianity.
Medieval Europe
The foundational libels of antisemitism appear during the High Middle Ages (1000-1300) and it is during this period that antisemitism becomes a popular mass phenomenon in Europe. We will examine myths and images from this period to understand the popular conception of "the Jew," a caricature produced by Christian teaching and European mythologies, and reinforced by economic and social structures conditioned by these same influences.
The Spanish Expulsion
In 1492 the 300,000 Jews of Spain were given three months to leave the peninsula by its Catholic King and Queen. This traumatic exodus created the large Sephardic populations of the Ottoman Empire, and smaller communities of Italy and the Netherlands. The intensified process of forced conversion to Christianity during the 14th century led to a paranoid obsession with crypto-Judaism and limpieza de sangre (blood purity) that still persists in sections of the Spanish and Portuguese population today.
Luther's Reformation
In 1517, the Protestant Reformation was unleashed by a young Catholic monk named Martin Luther. The unforeseen implications of his thought and brave confrontation with Rome would be monumental. The effects of the Reformation on Jews were mixed. They were positive in that the process itself broke the power and unity of Latin Christianity (the Catholic Church) and planted the seeds of future pluralism and religious toleration in some European societies. But Luther's impact was also very negative due to the combination of his great influence as a German hero and his extremely vicious rhetorical assaults on the Jewish people. These writings would give antisemitism credence for centuries, and be used effectively by the Nazi regime.
In 1517, the Protestant Reformation was unleashed by a young Catholic monk named Martin Luther. The unforeseen implications of his thought and brave confrontation with Rome would be monumental. The effects of the Reformation on Jews were mixed. They were positive in that the process itself broke the power and unity of Latin Christianity (the Catholic Church) and planted the seeds of future pluralism and religious toleration in some European societies. But Luther's impact was also very negative due to the combination of his great influence as a German hero and his extremely vicious rhetorical assaults on the Jewish people. These writings would give antisemitism credence for centuries, and be used effectively by the Nazi regime.
Jewish Emancipation and Its Discontents
The first Jews to be given civil rights as members of a European nation were those of France, where there were both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities. The official debates over whether this could or should be done, during the French Revolution, inaugurated the so-called "Jewish Question." This class will illustrate the complexity of the process of Jewish emancipation and the development of modern attitudes toward Jews in Europe, including adaptations of antisemitism. The ideals of the Enlightenment (including the Jewish Haskalah) form the basis of our discussion.
Racism and Nationalism
In this class we will focus on the German reaction to the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Nationalism is a European phenomenon that develops in response to, and in mimicry of, these transformative events that mark the beginning of the modern period in European history. We will discuss the concepts of nationalism, romanticism, and racism that evolve during this period and their impact on the so-called "Jewish Question" in Europe.
Hitler's Antisemitism
Antisemitism was the central motivating factor in Hitler's Weltanschuuang (worldview). We will examine his racialist understanding of history and society and see how "the Jew" becomes the central obsession in his early thought, in his state policy as leader of Germany, and later in the war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) he unleashes on the Jews of Europe.
Contemporary Antisemitism
Since 9-11 there has been much discussion about a so-called "new antisemitism." This class will discuss the following questions: what is actually new about what we have seen since 2001; is anti-Zionism always antisemitic; is Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) by nature antisemitic; is it time to find another vocabulary for new phenomena that may be equally threatening to the Jewish people but do not necessarily rely on antisemitic thinking, like anti-Israelism for example?
Islamized Antisemitism
European antisemitism was first imported into the Arab and Islamic worlds through imperialism in the late nineteenth century, where it had a negligible effect on the population. The Nazi alliance with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem against the Jewish people, and the postwar Soviet influence on the Arab world and inside the United Nations, introduced European forms of antisemitism to a part of the world unfamiliar with these lies and libels against the Jewish people. Today, we are seeing the disastrous result of these ideologies in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Antisemitism has been Islamized in the decades since WWII, and globalized since 2000, and it is now a significant factor in the propaganda and incitement directed toward Israel and diaspora Jewry.
European antisemitism was first imported into the Arab and Islamic worlds through imperialism in the late nineteenth century, where it had a negligible effect on the population. The Nazi alliance with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem against the Jewish people, and the postwar Soviet influence on the Arab world and inside the United Nations, introduced European forms of antisemitism to a part of the world unfamiliar with these lies and libels against the Jewish people. Today, we are seeing the disastrous result of these ideologies in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Antisemitism has been Islamized in the decades since WWII, and globalized since 2000, and it is now a significant factor in the propaganda and incitement directed toward Israel and diaspora Jewry.
Antisemitism Today
We will spend the last class in discussion about the current state of affairs in Europe, North America, and Israel with regard to antisemitism and anti-Israelism.