The politics of defining antisemitism are increasingly playing an important role in how scholars write on and teach about the Holocaust in a variety of political and cultural contexts. They also impact how teachers teach about and confront antisemitism in their classrooms. The papers in this session explore the complications of adopting official non-legally binding definitions of antisemitism, such as the one put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), into these cultural, political, pedagogical contexts. How do these definitions either help or hinder efforts to prevent religious bigotry and violence, educate about the legacy of colonialism, of xenophobia, and of racism, as well as address more broadly the complicated legacy of genocides?
The uptick in antisemitism in the last few years in North America and Europe reveals a crisis that has been building for decades. The Holocaust and its aftermath helped to initiate an era of dialogue, educational efforts, human rights work, genocide prevention and a deeper commitment to international peace. Yet despite these many important initiatives and the longstanding efforts to educate on the Holocaust, the distance in time from the genocide and the passing of the survivor generation, brings us to a critical moment how we comprehend historical antisemitism, what it is and how it is expressed.
In light of this, defining antisemitism has become a critical mode of assessing these issues. I will assess the creation of these varying definitions and the definitions themselves. I will note how Israel plays into this argument over antisemitism and explore whether these varying definitions are helping or hurting us fight Jew hatred.
Since the end of the Algerian War, the question of race and racism in France has been intimately tied to a history of colonialism and immigration. As various scholars and activists have illustrated, the colonial question and its afterlives continues to structure French political and intellectual life today. This is especially true of the emergence of the “Muslim Question” and Islamophobia which are deeply connected to France’s colonial history in North Africa. However, what is the relationship between this colonially inflected racism and the broader discourses of anti-Semitism? How are these treated in the public, scholarly, and national discourses? This paper traces the relationship between racism and anti-Semitism in France from the aftermath of World War II through the the turn of the century. I suggest that though nominally grouped together, these discourses went through a slow and steady separation such that by the turn of the century racism and anti-Semitism were conceived of almost entirely apart from one another. This paper outlines that evolution and explores some of the consequences that have resulted from this split.