This three-volume anthology comprises diverse intellectual responses to the Hamas-organised day of murder, sexual violence and kidnapping.
Responses to 7 October: Antisemitic Discourse focuses on the ideology that motivated it and the antisemitism that shaped many responses to it. It examines the provenance of the Jew-hatred, from English history to Palestinian Islamism; from toxic 19th century ‘Jewish Question’ rhetoric to the perversion of the Trotskyist tradition that allowed parts of the left to embrace antisemitism. It includes Howard Jacobson’s lecture of 22 October on antisemitism and it focuses on what was significant about this attack. There is discussion from Britain, Germany, Poland and Norway; and a linguistic account of responses.
Responses to 7 October: Law and Society begins with a legal, and a genocide studies critique of the claim that Israel is genocidal; another reflects on the absence of an understanding of antisemitism in international legal discourse. There are reflections on experiences in the Palestine solidarity movement and on the twists that discourse there takes. Contributions draw on Judaism, feminism and sociology to face what happened and to trace how Israelis were transported back to a quintessentially pre-Israel Jewish experience. Others survey reports of antisemitism around the globe in the wake of 7 October, including pieces about Britain and Germany.
Responses to 7 October: Universities focuses on the heartland of contemporary antisemitic thinking, which is scholarship; and its reflection in student discourse on campus. Contributions go back to Sartre and to debates of Marx’s time; another looks at the New Left forged in the civil rights movement, and shows how antisemitic responses to the 2023 violence were anticipated by some of the responses to the 1967 Arab League aggression. The feminist movement and ‘progressives’ more generally come under scrutiny, and there is analysis of antisemitism on campus after 7 October, showing how it is tolerated and protected there; including in archeological attempts to deny that there is an ancient Jewish history in Israel.
As a set or individually, these important volumes will appeal to scholars, students and activists with an interest in antisemitism, Jewish studies and the politics of Israel.
Responses to 7 October: Antisemitic Discourse
Introduction
Rosa Freedman and David Hirsh
Editor’s Note
1. What has changed?
Anthony Julius
2. 7 October and the precariousness of being Jewish
David Hirsh
3. Introduction to Howard Jacobson’s chapter
David Hirsh
The text of Howard Jacobson's LCSCA Robert Fine Memorial Lecture, 22 October 2023
Howard Jacobson
4. The Ideology of Mass Murder
Jeffrey Herf
5. Echoes of the Past: Understanding Today's Antisemitism Through a Medieval Lens
Flora Cassen
6. Where are Jews at home?
Robin Douglas
7. Disenchanting Palestine: Moralism and Hyperpolitics in the aftermath of October 7th
Matthew Bolton
8. ‘Little Short of Lunatics’: Post-Trotsky Trotskyism and the radical Left’s degenerate response to 7 October
Alan Johnson
9. October Reflections: Antisemitism, Antizionism and the Jewish Question
David Seymour
10. The German Press, Israel, and October 7, 2023: Initial research findings on reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Jonas Hessenauer and Lukas Uwira
11. The King’s “No”: Anti-Israelism and antisemitism in Norway after the 7 October massacre
Torkel Brekke
12. A View from the “Second World”: Holocaust and Colonialism in Contemporary Contexts of Eastern Europe
Anna Zawadzka
13. ‘It’s all about context’: Antisemitism in the discursive space post 7 October
Yaron Matras
Responses to 7 October: Law & Society
Foreword: 'My grandmother was killed in a pogrom. Then my daughter was, too'
Ilan Troen
Introduction
Rosa Freedman and David Hirsh
Editor’s Note
1. International Law and the Conflict in Gaza
Robbie Sabel
2. The Holocaust, Genocide, and October 7th
Philip Spencer
3. International Law Is Not Antisemitism-Proof
Ulf Haeussler
4. ‘But Israel claims to be a democracy!’ – Hypocrisy, double standards, and false equivalences
Eric Heinze
5. A Visit to Kibbutz Kfar Azza, November 28, 2023: Reflections on the Jewish Present and the Jewish Past
John Strawson
6. From the River to the Sea
Jeffrey Herf
7. Indecent Jewish theology, post October 7th: the G-d of the bathroom floor
Yehudis Fletcher
8. Collective Trauma and Resilience for the Jewish People in the Aftermath of 7th October
Leslie Morrison Gutman and Samuel D. Landau
9. After the Pogrom: A shift in the Jewish Configuration
Danny Trom and Bruno Karsenti
10. Global Leaders, Experts Must Reject Surging Antisemitism and Affirm Jews’ Equal Rights
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
11. Antisemitic Reactions to October 7: The German Case
Julius Gruber, Bianca Loy, Daniel Poensgen
12. The worst month in my lifetime for UK antisemitism
Jack Omer-Jackaman
Responses to 7 October: Universities
Introduction
Rosa Freedman and David Hirsh
Editor’s Note
1. ‘A Tool to Advance Imperial Interests’: Leftist Self-Scrutiny and Israeli Wrongdoing
Eric Heinze
2. Thinking with and against Sartre about Reactions to the October 7th Pogrom
Chad Alan Goldberg
3. The rise and rise of the ‘Israel Question’
Daniel Chernilo
4. Jewish “Whiteness” and its Effects in the Aftermath of October 7
Linda Maizels
5. A History of Feminist Antisemitism
Kara Jesella
6. The Return of the Progressive Atrocity
Susie Linfield
7. Rain of Ashes Over Elite American Universities
Günther Jikeli
8. The Professors and the Pogrom: How the theory of ‘Zionist Settler Colonialism’ reframed the 7 October massacre as ‘Liberation’
Derek Spitz
9. October 7 and the Antisemitic War of Words
Cary Nelson
10. Ancient Historians Embrace Debunked Conspiracy Theories Denying that Jews are Indigenous to Israel
Brett Kaufman
11. From Eighteenth-Century Germany to Contemporary Academia: Combating the Conspiracy Theory of Antisemitism in Scholarship
Rebecca Cypess
Biography
Rosa Freedman is Professor of Law at the University of Reading, and Research Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, UK.
David Hirsh is the Academic Director and CEO of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
‘I was brought up believing it’s a good thing Israel exists, to stop those who would push all Jews into the sea. Anti-Israel hysteria made me re-examine whether subconscious bias had left me blind to its evil. Facts, context and history tell me no, and such confident yet malicious accusations raise alarm bells. Anthologising this phenomena is vital work.’
Rachel Riley MBE, TV presenter, activist against antisemitism and advocate for women and girls in STEM
‘Essential and compelling reading on the 7 October attacks by a distinguished array of historians, lawyers, feminists, novelists and sociologists, who debate the significance of the Hamas kill-raid against Israel and analyse the denial, glorification and trivialisation that followed.’
Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian, author of Jerusalem: the biography
‘Absolutely and heartbreakingly necessary: some of the greatest thinkers of our day addressing the worst Jewish trauma in most people's living memory.’
Hadley Freeman, journalist
‘We were promised “Never Again.” As shocking as was the pogrom of October 7, 2023, no less distressing is how the public square and academy resonated with the cacophony of sympathizers. These essential volumes of reflections and analyses will long stand as a landmark in understanding this contemporary outrage.’
Ilan Troen, Professor Emeritus of Israel Studies at Brandeis University and Modern History at Ben-Gurion University, and Founding Editor of Israel Studies
‘Following the horrifying blow of the atrocities of October 7th came the additional shock that virulent antisemitism had actually intensified in its aftermath. In this upside down moral universe feeling has sometimes overwhelmed reflection. But this magnificent collection of essays, at once deeply felt and sharply thought, is an anchorage for the intellect to confront the poisoned madness of this moment. It ought to be compulsory reading.’
Simon Schama, historian
