A Convenient Hatred

With some 1,000 books currently in print on the subject, does the world desperately need another tome on anti-Semitism? What difference will it make, when anti-Israelism provides only the latest justification for Europe's persistent prejudice against Jews and anti-Semitic views are shared by 15 percent of Americans and 90 percent of Muslims worldwide?

The British Strain  Anthony Julius,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  The author of the magnum opus Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England speaks with Elliot Jager.  SAVE

Back to the Future  Robert Wistrich,  Jerusalem Post.  Can rational refutations of false arguments play an effective role in combating "apocalyptic anti-Semitism?" Interview by Ruthie Blum. (PDF)  SAVE

The New Anti-Semitism  Josef Joffe,  Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism.  Post-Holocaust, anti-Semitism is taboo—which means that people repress and conceal it even from themselves. (PDF)  SAVE

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English translation (1934).

Evil Genius

Very little anti-Semitic literature is new; most of its tropes seem ageless, continually recombined and updated by haters reacting only dimly to their actual circumstances. Few anti-Semitic works exhibit literary or lesser, sociological gifts. The one exception is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Myth of the Jewish Menace  Lucien Wolf,  Macmillan.  As early as 1921, English journalist and historian Lucien Wolf tried to debunk the forged Protocols.  SAVE

The Protocols in Arabia  Middle East Media Research Institute.  Collected reports on the appearance of the Protocols in Islamic media today.  SAVE

Among the Truthers  James Kirchick,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  With the democratization of the media, conspiracy theories are becoming more prevalent. And while not all conspiracy theorists are anti-Semitic, all conspiracy movements attract anti-Semites.  SAVE

Treacherous Texts  Benjamin Balint,  Haaretz.  The amazing and enduring power of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has little to do with the mind of its forgers and everything to do with the avidity of its consumers.  SAVE

Back to the Future  Ruthie Blum,  Jerusalem Post.  In a 2007 interview, Robert Wistrich describes the return of apocalyptic anti-Semitism, its perpetrators, its enablers and fellow-travelers, and its global implications. (PDF)  SAVE

Eco Chamber  Paula Marantz Cohen,  Smart Set.  With The Prague Cemetery's virulently anti-Semitic protagonist, Umberto Eco may have joined those famous authors whose "editors grew afraid to edit them even as reviewers grew unwilling to pan them."  SAVE

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Hear, O Friends of Israel

In 1987, exactly a quarter-century ago, the appearance of a work of Jewish history caused a stir. For one thing, the author was not Jewish; for another, the book was unashamedly supportive of the State of Israel, which even then was enough to provoke hostility, especially on the Left.

The Miracle  Paul Johnson,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  The creation of Israel was the quintessential event of the last century, and the only one that can fairly be called a miracle.  SAVE

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Bloomsbury's Rabbi

A translator stands between two languages and between the two worlds that the languages represent. If he does his job well, he may belong in neither place. Such was the fate of Samuel Koteliansky, an emigré Russian Jew who translated Chekhov, befriended D.H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield, and circulated on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group.

Bloomsbury Recalled  Quentin Bell,  Columbia University Press.  Bell's memoir of his parents and their friends—Woolf, Forster, Strachey—who made up the dazzling, dated Bloomsbury group.  SAVE

D.H. Lawrence and Kangaroo  George Simmers,  Great War Fiction.  In Lawrence's World War I novel, the "really ugly" character based on Koteliansky was a minor player, much like Kot in Bloomsbury.  SAVE

Leonard Woolf's Complexity  Claire Messud,  New York Times.  Leonard Woolf—"the Jew," to Virginia and her friends—was "noble, engaged, and quietly passionate."  SAVE

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2011: A Year in Books

The holidays are over, the coffee-table books have all been unwrapped and set aside, and winter isn't going anywhere for a while. In short, it's time to settle in for some good reading. The literary critic D. G. Myers here presents the 38 best Jewish books of 2011, all of which merit your attention.

2010: A Year in Books  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  From the popular to the scholarly, a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best books of 2010.  SAVE

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A historical symposium of some neglected classics, and an introduction to the avot and imahot of American Jewish writing.  SAVE

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