AP/JWST 3829 3.00

A Convenient Hatred: Antisemitism Before, During and After the Holocaust

The origins of modern antisemitism can be traced to pagan hostility toward the Jews, Christian anti-Judaism, and the popular demonization of the Jews by the Middle Ages. The emergence of ideologies supported by pseudo-science to justify the exclusion and removal of the Jews from European society and their eventual extermination is very much a result, however, of intellectual, socioeconomic, and political developments that came about around the time of the Enlightenment. This course surveys the evolution of anti-Jewish thought and behavior since antiquity but its emphasis is on the emergence of arguably new forms of fear and hostility directed at Jews that emerged in the modern era. After examining debates concerning the emancipation and integration of the Jews into European society in the late 18th century, the course focuses on the role of antisemitism in shaping 19th and 20th century society and Jewish life within it. By searching for continuities and discontinuities in the ways Jews have been perceived, imagined, defined, and treated (by themselves and others) in different time periods and contexts, it seeks, ultimately, to understand the context in which the Holocaust was both conceivable and possible. Finally, it looks for patterns of recurrent antisemitism in the contemporary world.