In the immediate post-war era the struggle against antisemitism was central to anti-racist politics. Leading scholars writing at the time, among them W.E.B. Du Bois and Hannah Arendt, viewed antisemitism as a key form of racism. In recent decades, however, there has been a ‘parting of the ways’ between anti-antisemitism and anti-racism. Scholarship on antisemitism – now often situated within Jewish studies – has little dialogue with scholarship on racism in general. In this lecture, Ben Gidley argues that we need to move past the parting of the ways, and develop a more relational or multi-directional understanding. He proposes that an understanding of antisemitism can enrich anti-racist scholarship and a stronger dialogue with critical race scholarship will also enrich the study of antisemitism.
More content from this blog
- Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism, by Eric K. Ward – 29 June 2017
- Name-Calling in Myanmar: On Protocols, by Andrew Selth – 26 February 2025
- Charting Myanmar Strongman Ne Win’s Tragic Legacy, by Mon Mon Myat – 18 July 2024
- Dossier on the Trump 2.0 Tariffs, by the Heatwave Media Collective – 3 June 2025
- Report accuses Ecuador of ‘forced disappearances.’ It couldn’t come at a worse time for Noboa, by Joshua Collins – 24 September 2025