Kenneth L. Marcus Published in Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism

Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus authored a new review for the Spring 2022 edition of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. Editor-in-chief and law school professor Lesley Klaff serves on the Brandeis Center’s academic advisory board.  

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Marcus’s article is a book review of ‘Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism,’ published in 2021 and edited by Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, and Kalman Weiser. The book is a collection of 21 essays and serves as a handbook to educate college instructors on the nature of anti-Semitism. Marcus takes the reader through different authors and essays, including Jonathan Judaken on the historiography of anti-Semitism, James Loeffler on anti-Zionism, Sol Goldberg on Jewish self-hatred, Maurice Samuels on philo-Semitism, and Lena Salaymeh and Shai Levi on Secularism.  

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Marcus’s review highlights the increasing divide in anti-Semitism studies. As anti-Semitism continues to increase in its various forms, this divide will likely become even more drastic. 

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The book’s editors argue that anti-Semitism must be studied within the broader context of different manifestations of evil. They criticize what Marcus calls ‘Wistrichism,’ named from the work of the late Hebrew University historian Robert Wistrich. Wistrichism views anti-Semitism as a long and unique tradition in history rather than a modern pathology. Wistrichism also views anti-Semitism as a unique phenomenon, rather than a manifestation of other evils. The editors charge that that Wistrichism is accepted “without questioning,” which Marcus argues is incorrect – because it ignores that other scholars do not necessarily accept this concept at face value. Marcus argues that the authors’ resolute anti-Wistrichism suffers from many of the same flaws that they attribute to Dr. Wistrich’s perspective. 

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Former Brandeis Center intern Hilary Miller co-published an article in this issue with David Hirsh, titled ‘Durban Antizionism: Its Sources, Its Impact, and Its Relation to Older Anti-Jewish Ideologies.’