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.      Murder and Moral Responsibility: 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