Kim Stern
The tenacity of anti-Semitic ideas requires explanation. Despite cries of ‘never again’ following the Holocaust, and the eradication of Jewish oppression in much of the West over the past 50 years, an anti-Semitic far right politics has again reared its ugly head. The new ‘alt-right’ and global fascist movements are obsessed with the so-called ‘Jewish Question’, mirroring Nazi conspiracy theories about Jewish business elites in league with Jewish socialism and anti-fascism. At the same time, cynical mainstream attempts to undermine the left’s solidarity with Palestine often raise false charges of anti-Semitism. Making sense of the growth of a violent, fascistic anti-Semitism alongside this latter phenomenon will be the subject of this session.