Antisemitism on the Rise: The 1930s and Today

We live in uncertain and unsettling times. Tragically, today’s global culture is rife with violent bigotry, nationalism, and antisemitism. The rhetoric is not new; it is grounded in attitudes and values from the 1930s and the 1940s in Europe and the United States.

Antisemitism on the Rise is a collection of essays by some of the world’s leading experts, including Joseph Bendersky, Jean Cahan, R. Amy Elman, Leonard Greenspoon, and Jürgen Matthäus, regarding two key moments in antisemitic history: the interwar period and today. Ari Kohen and Gerald J. Steinacher have collected important examples on this crucial topic to illustrate new research findings and learning techniques that have become increasingly vital with the recent rise of white supremacist movements, many of which have a firm root in antisemitism.

Part 1 focuses on the antisemitic beliefs and ideas that were predominant during the 1930s and 1940s, while part 2 draws comparisons between this period and today, including examples of ways to teach others about contemporary antisemitism. The volume seeks to inform readers about the historical progression of antisemitism and in doing so asks readers to think about what is at stake and how to bridge the gap between research and teaching.

 

Ari Kohen is a professor of political science, Schlesinger Professor of Social Justice, and director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the coeditor (with Gerald J. Steinacher) of Unlikely Heroes: The Place of Holocaust Rescuers in Research and Teaching (Nebraska, 2019) and the author of In Defense of Human Rights: A Non-Religious Grounding in a Pluralistic World. Gerald J. Steinacher is the James A. Rawley Professor of History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust.