Dr. David E. Kaufman
Antisemitism — Yesterday and Today
Mondays, 6:30 - 8:00 PM
March 11, 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15
OFFERED IN-PERSON
“Antisemitism,” the blanket term for all expressions and ideologies of Jew-hatred, is an enormously complex phenomenon. Recent attempts at defining antisemitism can never adequately explain it as they tend to miss the full range of its root causes, diverse iterations, and internal dynamics. To fully understand its resurgence in the world today, we must turn to the study of its history – from ancient social and religious sources of anti-Jewishness, through medieval cultural and economic forms of Judeophobia, to the more political and racialist versions of modern antisemitism. Our six-session class concludes by addressing the currently pressing question of ‘how to fight antisemitism’ – for if history is our guide, the battle is not futile.