Demonizing Israel and the Jews


Book Description

Today, well over 150 million Europeans embrace a satanic view of the State of Israel. They believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians, despite their major population growth in recent decades. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies. This demonization has been exacerbated by the consequences of the massive and non-selective immigration into Western Europe from Muslim countries, where incitement against Jews and Israel is often fanatic and ongoing. This collection of 57 interviews with scholars, politicians, and the like, depicts how extensive and intense the hate-mongering is. In his opening essay, Gerstenfeld puts the facts and views presented in the book into context. Praise: "Gerstenfeld helps us all understand the world's oldest hatred." -Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center "An authoritative, up-to-date guide to the cultural-ideological war being waged against the democratic Jewish state." -Prof. Frederick Krantz Director, Canadian Institute Jewish Research "This superb collection of incisive interviews on the demonization of Israel and the Jews should be located on the bookshelves of every committed Jewish activist." -Isi Leibler Former Chairman Governing Board World Jewish Congress "Manfred Gerstenfeld's collection of interviews on anti-Semitism and its proxy, delegitimization of Israel, is brilliantly selected and encyclopedic in scope. His own essay tying the interviews together makes this required reading for those who want to understand where anti-Semitism is today." -Richard B. Stone Chairman Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations




Demonizing the Jews


Book Description

The acquiescence of the German Protestant churches in Nazi oppression and murder of Jews is well documented. In this book, Christopher J. Probst demonstrates that a significant number of German theologians and clergy made use of the 16th-century writings by Martin Luther on Jews and Judaism to reinforce the racial anti-semitism and religious anti-Judaism already present among Protestants. Focusing on key figures, Probst's study makes clear that a significant number of pastors, bishops, and theologians of varying theological and political persuasions employed Luther's texts with considerable effectiveness in campaigning for the creation of a "de-Judaized" form of Christianity. Probst shows that even the church most critical of Luther's anti-Jewish writings reaffirmed the anti-semitic stereotyping that helped justify early Nazi measures against the Jews.




From Ambivalence to Betrayal


Book Description

From Ambivalence to Betrayal is the first study to explore the transformation in attitudes on the Left toward the Jews, Zionism, and Israel since the origins of European socialism in the 1840s until the present. This pathbreaking synthesis reveals a striking continuity in negative stereotypes of Jews, contempt for Judaism, and negation of Jewish national self-determination from the days of Karl Marx to the current left-wing intellectual assault on Israel. World-renowned expert on the history of antisemitism Robert S. Wistrich provides not only a powerful analysis of how and why the Left emerged as a spearhead of anti-Israel sentiment but also new insights into the wider involvement of Jews in radical movements. There are fascinating portraits of Marx, Moses Hess, Bernard Lazare, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, and other Jewish intellectuals, alongside analyses of the darker face of socialist and Communist antisemitism. The closing section eloquently exposes the degeneration of leftist anti-Zionist critiques into a novel form of “anti-racist” racism.




Palestine in Israeli School Books


Book Description

Each year, Israel's young men and women are drafted into compulsory military service and are required to engage directly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict is by its nature intensely complex and is played out under the full glare of international security. So, how does Israel's education system prepare its young people for this? How is Palestine, and the Palestinians against whom these young Israelis will potentially be required to use force, portrayed in the school system? Nurit Peled-Elhanan argues that the textbooks used in the school system are laced with a pro-Israel ideology, and that they play a part in priming Israeli children for military service. She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity. This book provides a fresh scholarly contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and will be relevant to the fields of Middle East Studies and Politics more widely.




Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Malaysia


Book Description

Offering an empirical study into anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes in Malaysia, this book examines the complicated nature and function of such beliefs within the contemporary context, mapping these discourses onto different ethnic and economic divisions. Based largely upon qualitative interviews with thirty Malaysian participants who detail their own experiences with and perceptions of this phenomenon, the project reveals how political actors and organizations in Malaysia achieve political success and maintain political power through investing in the Palestinian cause, simultaneously demonizing Israel and Jews to an astounding degree. However, the book also reveals how, in contrast to this state-led agenda, challenging anti-Semitism and pushing for dialogue with Israel has become a means by which progressive citizens can critique authorities and reassert their desire for a liberal and heterogenic Malaysia. The book therefore argues that both interest in and even support for Judaism and Israel may be more prominent than the official Malaysian position may suggest, with citizens holding far more complex opinions and views upon this subject matter.




Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism


Book Description

This volume provides a compendium of the history of and discourse about antisemitism - both as a unique cultural and religious category. Antisemitic stereotypes function as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred, which are stored in the cultural and religious memories of the Western and Muslim worlds, migrating freely between Christian, Muslim and other religious symbolic systems.




It Could Happen Here


Book Description

“Refreshingly candid . . . Get off Instagram and read this book.” —Sacha Baron Cohen From the dynamic head of ADL, an impassioned argument about the terrifying path that America finds itself on today—and how we can save ourselves. It’s almost impossible to imagine that unbridled hate and systematic violence could come for us or our families. But it has happened in our lifetimes in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. And it could happen here. Today, as CEO of the storied ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), Jonathan Greenblatt has made it his personal mission to demonstrate how antisemitism, racism, and other insidious forms of intolerance can destroy a society, taking root as quiet prejudices but mutating over time into horrific acts of brutality. In this urgent book, Greenblatt sounds an alarm, warning that this age-old trend is gathering momentum in the United States—and that violence on an even larger, more catastrophic scale could be just around the corner. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Drawing on ADL’s decades of experience in fighting hate through investigative research, education programs, and legislative victories as well as his own personal story and his background in business and government, Greenblatt offers a bracing primer on how we—as individuals, as organizations, and as a society—can strike back against hate. Just because it could happen here, he shows, does not mean that the unthinkable is inevitable.




Making David Into Goliath


Book Description

During the Six Day War of 1967, polls showed that Americans favored the Israelis over the Arabs by overwhelming margins. In Europe, support for Israel ran even higher. In the United Nations Security Council, a British resolution essentially gave Israel the terms of peace it sought and when the Arabs and their Soviet supporters tried to override the resolution in the General Assembly, they fell short of the necessary votes. Fast forward 40 years and Israel has become perhaps the most reviled country in the world. Although Americans have remained constant in their sympathy for the Jewish state, almost all of the rest of the world treats Israel as a pariah. What caused this remarkable turnabout? Making David into Goliath traces the process by which material pressures and intellectual fashions reshaped world opinion of Israel. Initially, terrorism, oil blackmail, and the sheer size of Arab and Muslim populations gave the world powerful inducements to back the Arab cause. Then, a prevalent new paradigm of leftist orthodoxy, in which class struggle was supplanted by the noble struggles of people of color, created a lexicon of rationales for taking sides against Israel. Thus, nations can behave cravenly while striking a high-minded pose in aligning themselves on the Middle East conflict.




The Undefeated


Book Description

Winner of the 2020 Caldecott Medal A 2020 Newbery Honor Book Winner of the 2020 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award The Newbery Award-winning author of THE CROSSOVER pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree. Originally performed for ESPN's The Undefeated, this poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. The text is also peppered with references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others, offering deeper insights into the accomplishments of the past, while bringing stark attention to the endurance and spirit of those surviving and thriving in the present. Robust back matter at the end provides valuable historical context and additional detail for those wishing to learn more.




Catch-67


Book Description

A controversial examination of the internal Israeli debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a best-selling Israeli author Since the Six-Day War, Israelis have been entrenched in a national debate over whether to keep the land they conquered or to return some, if not all, of the territories to Palestinians. In a balanced and insightful analysis, Micah Goodman deftly sheds light on the ideas that have shaped Israelis' thinking on both sides of the debate, and among secular and religious Jews about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Contrary to opinions that dominate the discussion, he shows that the paradox of Israeli political discourse is that both sides are right in what they affirm—and wrong in what they deny. Although he concludes that the conflict cannot be solved, Goodman is far from a pessimist and explores how instead it can be reduced in scope and danger through limited, practical steps. Through philosophical critique and political analysis, Goodman builds a creative, compelling case for pragmatism in a dispute where a comprehensive solution seems impossible.