History, hate, hope: Clark University forum focuses on antisemitism
Why do acts of violence against ethnic, cultural and religious groups persist despite horrific lessons from the Holocaust and other campaigns of genocide?
Can academics make a difference?
The panelists at a Clark University forum on antisemitism hope their work can create an impact.
The panel, held March 25 by Clark’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, included Susannah Heschel, author and chair of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College; Lisa Moses Leff, associate professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C., and Thomas Kühne, panel moderator and director of the Strassler Center.
'Evermore violent conflicts'
"We do our work here in the hope of making the world a better place,” said Kühne in his introduction. “This hope has often been disappointed. But, in my personal experience of 20 years at Clark, never as much as in the recent past. We are facing evermore violent conflicts around the globe, often morphing into genocide.”
Kühne said violence in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Armenian, Israel, Palestine and the Middle East may seem far, but touches lives of people in the immediate area. Although hate-motivated violence may seem rare closer to home, Kühne said, “Xenophobia, racism and antisemitism have been on the rise as well and have materialized not only in the minds of people, but more violently than you may have thought a few years ago.”
If that prospect is frustrating, and frightening, Kühne said, “We cannot give up on what we as academics are trying to do, which is trying to understand and explain why these things happen, how they happen, what their consequences are, and what one might do to fight them.”
Hate and history
Kühne said the Clark and the Strassler Center plan for upcoming forums, focusing on conflict in Gaza, Armenia, and Ukraine. The March 25 forum looked specifically at antisemitism — language, attitudes and acts of hatred and discrimination targeting Jews.
“The three of us on this panel won’t be able to fix antisemitism, and we don’t want to resort to simple recipes,” Kühne said. Kühne said the panelists would speak not as activists, but scholars seeking facts.
“Jews have been around thousands of years. Hatred has taken many forms, but also long periods when Jews have been at peace with their neighbors,” said Leff, observing that some scholars debate when and how to use the term.
The word “antisemitism” didn’t emerge until the 1880s. Leff said, “Jews become a useful way to express anxieties, something that the society is afraid of.”
Rights and revolution
Citing the French Revolution, Leff said revolutionaries supported equal rights for everyone, including Jews, whose rights were limited under the monarchy and influence of the Catholic Church.
However, Leff said debates arose that perpetuated prejudices and false ideas, such as whether Jews worked against a common cause and charged unreasonably high lending rates.
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French revolutionaries exiled and killed thousands of Catholic clergy, and confiscated church properties. Heschel said antisemitism is unique, and yet also much in common with other forms of hate.
Heschel said some Enlightenment thinkers blamed Judaism for laying the groundwork for Christianity.
“In the course of attacking Christianity, Judaism gets blamed, and that often comes up,” Heschel said. Heschel likened antisemitism to a “red thread” running through centuries of history, and through many places around the world.
Many threads
Heschel said, “One can find other similar red threads in many other regards. I think we have problems of misogyny that also runs through all cultures and civilizations that I know of.”
Hatred toward or discrimination against a group can exacerbate women’s struggles, said Heschel.
“Antisemitism has multiple forms of expression,” Heschel said, alluding to historical attacks on Jews for many characteristics, including intellect, profession and appearance.
“The other question is, why should we care?” Heschel said. “Because there are ramifications for all of us who live in a world where one group is targeted.”
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The panelists noted ebbs, flows and terrible waves of antisemitism, and eras of greater tolerance, such as Germany in the early 20th century.
Originally from Germany, Kühne, who has studied conflict in 19th and 20th-century Germany, noted that antisemitism increased with a rise of nationalism during and after World War I. It was then that loyalty of Jews was questioned.
Questioning of loyalty arose again and again, such as in the case of Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, but later exonerated. Dreyfus’ ordeal came to be known as The Dreyfus Affair, which led to greater activism among Jews, and fueled the Zionist movement.
Modern dilemmas
In addition to panelists’ thoughts, questions came from audience members, written on index cards, which Kühne shared. This included looking at hate in the context of the murders and hostage-taking of Jews by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, followed by Israeli strikes which have killed Palestinian civilians.
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The Israel-Hamas War has lead to concerns about both rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, and protests against both Hamas and the Israeli government.
If antisemitism is often equated with right-leaning politics, such as Germany under Nazi rule, the panelists considered that left-leaning political movements can also espouse antisemitism.
In addition to moments in history, panelists and audience members through their questions debated how antisemitism plays out in the modern age, including on the internet and in forums such as social media. The internet and social media can provide ways to share information, but also to spread hate and false and misleading ideas, Heschel said.
Online, Heschel said, people do not communicate in person, which can lead to a sense of distance, and make attacks and false assumptions easier.
To view the entire panel, check out the link on the Strassler Center page.
This article originally appeared on Worcester Magazine: 'Why should we care?' Forum eyes antisemitism, past and present
