Antisemitism

Book excerpt: The award-winning author of The Eichmann Trial and Denial provides a penetrating and provocative analysis of the hate that will not die. In the past few years there has been a decided rise in acts and expressions of antisemitism worldwide. No one could have predicted the contemporary situation: a Labour Party in the UK whose leadership has condoned expressions of overt antisemitism and debated whether to condemn Holocaust denial; a white supremacist/nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, with chants of ‘Jews will not replace us’ and the murder of a counter protestor; the prime minister of Hungary using blatantly antisemitic imagery to win a political campaign; and a former mayor of London and a major UK trade union leader claiming that discussions about antisemitism were nothing more than an attempt by Israel to cover up its wrongdoings. In Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt argues that this is a problem that comes from both ends of the political spectrum. She exposes those who use classic antisemitic imagery to attack Israel, and challenges those supporters of Israel who automatically equate criticism with antisemitism. Antisemitism is based on countless conversations Lipstadt has had over the past few years about definitions of antisemitism, types of antisemites, and the current troubling situation. Written as an exchange of letters with an imagined college student and imagined colleague, both of whom are perplexed by this resurgence, Lipstadt gives us her own superbly reasoned, brilliantly argued, and sure- to-be-controversial responses to these troubling questions.