April 7, 2013 Presidents, Prejudice, and Public Policy Like much else about the 1960s, the mantra that “all politics is personal” was rather naïve compared to earlier, more pointed formulations. According to Harold D. Lasswell, who authored Psychopathology and Politics (1930) during the first wave of Freudian debunking, all politics is the displacement of private motives unto public issues, rationalized in terms of […] Anti-Semitism Blog
April 6, 2013 Irish Teachers’ Union Votes to Bar Israeli Scholars The Teachers’ Union of Ireland, which represents Irish secondary and post-secondary school teachers and lecturers, has voted at its annual meeting to boycott all academic collaboration with Israel, as the Jewish Chronicle (U.K.) reports. The Union’s new resolution steps up its campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against what it calls “the apartheid state of […] Anti-Zionism Blog
April 6, 2013 Historian Catherine Chatterley to Address Struggles Over Holocaust Memory Historian Catherine Chatterley, a member of the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s Academic Advisory Board, will deliver a lecture on April 11 on “Canada’s Struggle with Holocaust Memorialization: The War Museum Controversy, Ethnic Identity Politics, & the Canadian Museum for Human Rights” at the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research in Montreal. It is sadly true that the preservation […] Anti-Semitism Blog
April 5, 2013 Iran’s Incitement to Genocide Against Israel Columnist Michael Gerson has an interesting Washington Post opinion piece arguing that Iran may be culpable for incitement to genocide against Israel under international criminal law. This is not a new argument. We have made the same argument here and here and elaborated on some of the technical issues here. Mitt Romney famously endorsed the argument […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
April 4, 2013 Woodrow Wilson—1913 and 2013—and Louis D. Brandeis Previewing his forthcoming biography, A. Scott Berg’s New York Times’ opinion piece—“Wilson to Obama: March Forth!”—lauded a few weeks ago the hundredth anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. In Berg’s view, “the Princeton schoolmaster” (as Wilson was sometimes called by both friends and foes) was a model and validation for subsequent presidents using “the bully pulpit” […] Blog
April 3, 2013 Louis D. Brandeis Center Appoints Senior Civil Rights Legal Fellow Today, the Brandeis Center is announcing the appointment of our first Senior Civil Rights Legal Fellow, Joshua Sol Brewster, Esq. Mr. Brewster is a highly experienced civil rights attorney, who recently completed ten years of service at the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, where he worked his way up to Deputy Director and Chief Staff Counsel. […] Anti-Semitism Blog Litigation
April 3, 2013 Decision Postponed in Al Dura Case Historian Richard Landes (Boston University) announces on his Augean Stables web site that the French court has delayed its decision on the Enderlin-Karsenty trial until May 22. This case concerns the extraordinary al Dura hoax, which has been used to foment anti-Semitic antagonism throughout the world. Philippe Karsenty, a party to the case, offers the message […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog Litigation
April 2, 2013 Interesting Events This Week Via The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy LDB Academic Advisor Charles A. Small (ISGAP) reports the following interesting events this week at his Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (after the jump). Impressively, this week’s events feature Israeli Justice Elyakim Rubinstein and Dr. Amichai Magen, as well as Dr. Small himself. Dr. Small, as our readers will recall, was the […] Anti-Semitism Blog
April 2, 2013 ”Antisemitism in the Ancient Mediterranean? Early Christianity and Anti-Judaism” Having just blogged on Charles Small’s impressive offerings through his Institute for Global Antisemitism and Policy, it should be noted that Small’s former university has not been idle. Maurice Samuels, the scholar of French and Jewish culture and literature, heads Yale’s new anti-Semitism center, which is known as the Yale Program for the Study of […] Anti-Semitism Blog
April 2, 2013 Obama, African Americans, and Israel After a bumpy ride with Israel during his first term, President Barack on his first official visit to the Jewish state appears to have made a stabilizing mid-course correction. Though most attention has been paid to his Jerusalem speech, Obama’s remarks on landing at Tel Aviv may have the greater historical importance. In Cairo in […] Blog
April 2, 2013 David Hirsh on the English Academic Anti-Semitism Case, Fraser vs. UCU David Hirsh, the English sociologist, has just circulated a “preliminary response” to the UK Employment Tribunal’s controversial decision in the academic anti-Semitism case, Fraser vs. UCU. Hirsh’s piece was initially posted to the Engage website, an important English online journal which opposes the BDS movement. Hirsh, who occupies a politically interesting position as both a […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 31, 2013 Which is the Englishman Here, and Which the Jew? Or Is It the Zionist? Judges on a UK Employment Tribunal have dismissed as “not well-founded” Ronnie Fraser’s case against the University & College Union (UCU) for “institutional anti-Semitism.” The UCU’s shameful track record: passing an assembly line of inflammatory anti-Israel resolutions that, in effect, created a hostile environment in which union members like Fraser sympathetic to Zionism were demonized […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 29, 2013 BDS ORIGINS—REMOTE AND RECENT President Harry S. Truman, a history buff, said: “The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” As a professional historian, I confess to an occupational affliction, which might be called “the obsession with origins,” that is a more sophisticated version of Truman’s aphorism. This causes me, like many of my […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 29, 2013 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL SANCTIONS ANTISEMITISM Employment Tribunal Sanctions Anti-Semitism Lesley Klaff Having just finished reading the lengthy judgment in the case of Ronnie Fraser v The University and College Union, I want to comment briefly on the Employment Tribunal’s response to the allegation of anti-Semitism in the UCU; and to the claim that Israel is a non-contingent aspect of Jewish […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog Litigation
March 28, 2013 The Brandeis Center’s New Litigation Initiative With the expansion of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, we have begun a new litigation initiative that focuses on the resurgence of anti-Semitism on universities across the nation. Specifically, we will work with faculty and students to investigate incidents, work with administration on procedures and protocols, and file legal complaints […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog Litigation
March 27, 2013 WHY THE DEBATE OVER THE BOYCOTT/DIVESTMENT/SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT MATTERS WHY THE DEBATE OVER THE BOYCOTT/DIVESTMENT/SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT MATTERS Voltaire said: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” A difficult standard not always lived up to by Voltaire—who often used invective (including anti-Semitic invective) to try to silence his own critics. […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 26, 2013 UCU cleared of harassment in landmark tribunal An Employment Tribunal has found in favour of UCU on all ten complaints of harassment brought by a UCU member who opposed the union’s policy on Palestine. The claimant had been supported in his claim by leading lawyer Anthony Julius. In giving their reasoning the Tribunal stated that ‘the proceedings are dismissed in their totality’ […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 25, 2013 The Shame of the Netherlands: A Young Muslim Must Go Into Hiding for Fighting Anti-Semitism Post by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Harold Brackman: Passover. This week, Jews will eat more matzo then we ever thought possible, hear more commentary about the Haggadah and its multiple messages for our time, and sit back in awe and (hopefully) love at the site at of our […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 25, 2013 Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Mehmet Sahin As the first night of Passover approaches, we are delighted that Rabbi Abraham Cooper has joined guest blogger Harold Brackman in appealing for solidarity with Mehmet Sahin, a young Muslim man who is now in hiding over death threats because he has take a stand against anti-Semitism. Rabbi Cooper, who serves as Associate Dean of […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 25, 2013 New Editions Planned for Alvin Rosenfeld’s Landmark Holocaust Volume The End of the Holocaust will soon be available to readers in Israel. LDB Academic Advisor Alvin Rosenfeld (Indiana University), a leading scholar of Holocaust literature, will shortly publish his landmark volume in Hebrew, by the Magnes Press of Jerusalem and Yad Vashem. The End of the Holocaust is also scheduled to appear next year in German, […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 23, 2013 Historian Harold Brackman to Guest Blog on BDS and Other Topics On Thursday, I blogged very briefly about the Simon Wiesenthal’s interesting new report on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. SWC’s report really deserves more attention, so I am pleased to announce that its author, Dr. Harold Brackman, has agreed to join us as a guest blogger over the next couple of weeks. Dr. Brackman will […] Anti-Semitism Blog