American Historical Review Roundtable: Rethinking Anti-Semitism

AHR Roundtable: Rethinking Anti-Semitism was a special section of the American Historical Review Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018.

The Journal summarises the Roundtable thus:

As the striking caricature on the front cover indicates, the October issue features an AHR Roundtable on the vexed history of anti-Semitism. Initiated by Jonathan Judaken (Rhodes College) in partnership with the International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism (ICRAR) at Birkbeck, University of London, the eight-part roundtable reflects ICRAR’s ongoing effort to overcome the isolation and politicization of the study of anti-Semitism. This is necessarily a controversial topic, and some of the essays are sure to generate heated debate; given recent developments in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and of course the Middle East, the task of historicizing anti-Semitism seems even more relevant now than it did when first initiated several years ago. The roundtable offered the occasion to confine our four featured reviews to recent monographs in Jewish history.

Here is the abstract for the Introduction by Jonathan Judaken which introduces the argument that the term 'anti-Semitism' should be replaced by 'Judeophobia':

In his introduction, Jonathan Judaken surveys theories and debates about anti-Semitism. He makes three salient observations about what hampers the field. First, it lacks agreed-upon definitions of its central concepts and terms. Second, how anti-Semitism compares to Islamophobia, anti-black racism, and other forms of oppression is unresolved. Third, periodization of anti-Semitism remains vague. In particular, he underscores and counters eternalist and teleological narratives, claims about uniqueness, and apologetics. He argues that these impediments are in part a product of the shadow of the Holocaust and the continuing conflict over Israel/Palestine. To move out of these theoretical impasses, Judaken makes two recommendations. First, he suggests replacing the term “anti-Semitism.” He argues that as a term for the fear and fascination about Jews and Judaism, “Judeophobia” better lends itself to conceptual clarity, periodization, and comparability. Second, he calls for more meta-level considerations, drawing from work in critical social and literary theory, postcolonialism, and studies of racism and gender. Congruent with this conceptual groundwork, Judaken suggests that Judeophobic discourses and practices encompass five modes — stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, racialization, and murder — and five periods — ancient, early Christian, high medieval, modern, and post-Holocaust.

Contents

• Jonathan Judaken Introduction The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1122–1138, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy024
• David Feldman Toward a History of the Term “Anti-Semitism” The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1139–1150, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy029

Abstract View article Strange Bedfellows? Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Fate of “the Jews”Get accessArrow Scott Ury The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1151–1171, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy030 Abstract View article “Islamic Anti-Semitism” in Historical DiscourseGet accessArrow Daniel J. Schroeter The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1172–1189, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy026 Abstract View article An Imperial Entanglement: Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and ColonialismGet accessArrow Ethan B. Katz The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1190–1209, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy022 Abstract View article Gender and the Politics of Anti-SemitismGet accessArrow Stefanie Schüler-Springorum The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1210–1222, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy020 Abstract View article Literature and the Study of Anti-SemitismGet accessArrow Maurice Samuels The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1223–1233, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy031 Abstract View article Postcolonialism and the Study of Anti-SemitismGet accessArrow Bryan Cheyette The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1234–1245, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy028