ISGAP

February 9, 2020

"Incitement to Antisemitism: The Acquiescence of Universities to Relativism, Political Islam, and Unreported Financing"

Dr. Charles Asher Small, Executive Director, ISGAP; Research Scholar, St. Antony's College, Oxford

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

Bar-Ilan University

February 11, 2020

“Understanding Contemporary Global Antisemitism: the University as the Purveyor of Delegitimization”

Dr. Charles Asher Small, Executive Director, ISGAP; Research Scholar, St. Antony's College, Oxford

Chairs

Professor Alessandro Saggioro, “King Hamad” Chair for Inter-religious Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence, La Sapienza University

Professor Andrea Carteny, Director of Research Center for Cooperation with Eurasia Mediterranean Sub-Saharan Africa

Program Organizers

Ramy Aziz, ISGAP Research Fellow

Dr. Robert Hassan, Director, ISGAP Italy

An ISGAP International Seminar Series lecture at La Sapienza University to an audience of40 PhD Students and Professors.

Speaker: Dr. Charles Asher Small

Affiliation: Founder and Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP)

Title: "Academia And Antisemitism Today"

Date: December 9, 2010

Location: Global Forum on Antisemitism, Jerusalem

Description: Dr. Charles Asher Small asserts that there is a blind spot in academia to deal with contemporary antisemitism.

Speaker: Dr. Charles Asher Small

Affiliation: Founder and Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP)

Title: "Oxford Union Debate on Holocaust Denial Criminalisation"

Location: Oxford University

Date: January 28, 2016

Description: Dr. Charles Asher Small explains the various phases of antisemitism throughout history and maintains that contemporary antisemitism attacks notion of Jewish peoplehood. Dr. Small argues that today, Islamist reactionary social movements use European antisemitism and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to openly call for the extermination of the Jewish people and the destruction of the State of Israel. Dr Small argues that while antisemitism begins with the Jews, it never ends with the Jews, but threatens democratic principles and human rights worldwide.

Speaker: Dr. Catherine Chatterley

Affiliation: Department of History, University of Manitoba; Founding Director, Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (CISA)

Title: "Western Culture, the Holocaust, and the Persistence of Antisemitism"

Convener: Dr. Charles Asher Small, Founder and Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP)

Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT

Date: March 5, 2009

Description:

Dr. Catherine Chatterley examines the persistence of antisemitism in post-Holocaust Western culture and whether Holocaust education has failed to educate the public about the specific nature and history of antisemitism. She goes on to question whether it is possible that the strategy of Holocaust universalization -- a strategy perceived as making the Holocaust accessible to non-Jews -- has worked against achieving an adequate understanding of antisemitism and subsequently against the eradication of antisemitic discourse and thinking from Western culture.

Speaker: Dr. Robert S. Wistrich (z"l)

Affiliation: Director, The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA), Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Title: "Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in the Contemporary World"

Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT

Date: February 19, 2009

Description:

Dr. Robert S. Wistrich (z"l) maintains that as the number of those who witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust are diminishing by the years, the challenges of communicating the atrocities of the Holocaust to the next generation are becoming exceedingly difficult. Many today, including teenagers, have been exposed to the literature of Holocaust denial and are becoming highly skeptical that such horrific brutalities had been committed against the Jews. Dr. Wistrich maintains that despite intense efforts of commemoration and education, the current generation is severely lacking in both the knowledge and understanding to effectively combat modern manifestations of antisemtisim.

Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Spyer

Affiliation: Director, Rubin Center (formerly the GLORIA Center), Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya; Fellow, Middle East Forum

Title: "Antisemitism in the Contemporary Middle East: Survey And Analysis"

Convener: Lloyd Fischler, Member, ISGAP Board of Directors and Board of Trustees

Location: McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Date: October 30, 2012

Description:

Dr. Jonathan Spyer argues that the Middle East today is the most antisemitic region in the world. It is a region in which negative stereotypes of Jews, including ideas of Jewish conspiracy, exist in the mainstream. Spyer elucidates the pervasive presence of antisemtisim in contemporary Middle Eastern societies and notes two approaches that seek to explain the roots of this phenomenon. He goes on to explain the history of antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment in the contemporary Middle East.

Speaker: Dr. David Seymour

Affiliation: Professor of Law, City University, London

Title: "Critical Theory, the Holocaust, and Human Rights"

Location: Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA

Date: March 13, 2013

Description:

Professor David Seymour deconstructs the modern comparison between Nazi Germany and the State of Israel. Seymour examines how the Holocaust is being exploited to demonize Israel and contribute to modern manifestations of antisemitism, namely the notion of Jewish peoplehood. Seymour notes that the Holocaust was “a universal crime committed on the body of the Jews,” and therefore in order for one to acquire a complete understanding of the Holocaust one must recognize its universal aspects and its particular Jewish dimensions.

Speaker: Dr. Milton Shain

Affiliation: Director, Isaac & Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Title: "Anti-Alienism, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism In 20th Century South Africa"

Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT

Date: November 9, 2006

Description:

Milton Shain notes that for many years, scholars have commented on the continuities, discontinuities, and contingencies of antisemitism through the ages, including: pagan and early Christian antisemitism, medieval and modern antisemitism, modern antisemitism and Nazism, and, more recently, antisemitism and anti-Zionism. He notes that while these debates are general in their focus, it is apparent that continuities, discontinuities, and contingencies are also discernible within national policies. The South African case in the twentieth century demonstrates continuities between anti-alienism at the turn of the century, the "Jewish Question" in the 1930s and early 1940s, and anti-Zionism during the latter part of the century.

Speaker: Dr. Gregory H. Stanton

Affiliation: Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, George Mason University, Virginia

Title: "Iran's Anti-Jewish Incitement To Genocide"

Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT

Date: October 7, 2010

Description:

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton speaks about genocide prevention and notes that establishing genocide tribunals after genocides have already occurred is futile and that we, as a society, need to take preventive measures to prevent future genocides from occurring. He focuses on the genocidal rhetoric of the Iranian regime and makes a direct comparison between Nazi Germany and the Iranian regime. He goes on to break down, what he calls, the eight stages of genocide and states that from an analytic perspective it is necessary to understand each stage in order to better comprehend this phenomenon.