Anti-Semitism - Brandeis Center

June 18, 2014 What Me Worry: The “New York Times” and Hitler in 1924

In a recent blog entry, I wrote that nobody—not even H. G. Wells—would have predicted in 1914 that, less than 20 years later, a megalomaniacal, anti-Semitic dictator would seize power in enlightened Germany. Now, I find that that bastion of prognostication, the “New York Times,” actually implied it was impossible in 1924. The wording of […]

June 11, 2014 Terrorism and Anti-Semitic Violence: Complex New Realities Defy Simple Ideological Labels

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that we live in an age when almost every headline story has become a Rorschach Test for spin doctors on cable news or in cyberspace. Their purpose is not to promote dialogue leading to some sort of shared understanding but to further fuel current political polarizations with […]

June 11, 2014 Does Anti-Semitism Threaten American Jews?

The following article by LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus is distributed via JNS.org. JNS.org — In a recent issue of Time magazine, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, writes that anti-Semitism is “not a threat to American Jews.” He could not be more wrong. Let us start with the obvious. Any […]

June 11, 2014 Left, Right, and “What’s Good for the Jews”

The resurgence, now on both sides of the Atlantic, of what is usually interpreted as extreme conservative politics—but might better be called right-wing populism—is likely to spark a new debate about present and future threats posed by political extremism to Jews. Since the Revolution of 1848—when according to a story an Orthodox rabbi with a […]

June 11, 2014 Good News from Western Washington

StandWithUs is reporting that the student government at Western Washington University unanimously voted yesterday not to consider boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) based on national origin. The Student government’s “Resolution Regarding International Divestment, Boycott, and Sanctions” is an extraordinary response to the BDS resolutions adopted at other schools. In a powerfully written statement, the Western Washington student […]

June 3, 2014 The Horror of Holocaust Denial

Over the last few weeks, the Holocaust has appeared surprisingly often in the news. In most cases, the reason has been the surprising degree of ignorance or denial that so many people have about this cataclysmic event. The most disheartening reports have addressed the role of educators in spreading misinformation. Worse, they have illustrated that […]

May 30, 2014 Holocaust Survivors, Too, Need to “Check Your Privilege”

In a twitter exchange with MSNBC host Touré Neblett, a child of Holocaust survivors asked: “How much do I owe for what Dems did in the first half of the century, while my family was in Europe running from Nazis, or in Dachau?” In other words, Jewish victims of the Nazis don’t owe “reparations” to […]

May 28, 2014 Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Prosecuted in Texas, Utah and New Mexico

The U.S. Department of Justices’s Civil Rights Division focuses on anti-Jewish hate crimes in the lead article to the new May 2014, Volume 60, issue of “Religious Freedom in Focus. The following excerpt from the new issue presents the Department’s view of anti-Semitic hate crime: Three Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Prosecuted in April in Texas, Utah […]

May 27, 2014 Call for Applications for Anti-Semitism Research: Tel Aviv University – Stephen Roth Institute

Our colleagues at the Stephen Roth Institute in Tel Aviv are posting this Call for Applications for research students, post-doctoral fellows and scholars who focus on the study of anti-Semitism and racism. Given the paucity of institutional support for anti-Semitism research, this opportunity is worth noting. The Roth Center’s call appears in full below: CALL […]

May 23, 2014 Brandeis Center Presses Vassar College to Hold Student Group Accountable

The Brandeis Center has urged Vassar College President Catherine Bond Hill to take penalizing action against the college’s chapter of SJP, Students for Justice in Palestine. In a letter to Vassar President Catherine Bond Hill on May 19th, 2014, “We believe that this incident may raise serious issues concerning federal civil rights law.” SJP […]