Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism An End to Antisemitism! Edited by Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, and Lawrence H. Schiffman Volume 1 Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism A Multi-Faceted Approach Edited by Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, and Lawrence H. Schiffman ISBN 978-3-11-063246-0 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-061859-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-061141-0 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 Licence. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019948124 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H. Schiffman, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover image: Illustration by Tayler Culligan (https://dribbble.com/taylerculligan). With friendly permission of Chicago Booth Review. Printing & binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com XI I Introduction to Combating Antisemitism Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H. Schiffman General Introduction “ An End to Antisemitism! ” 3 Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H. Schiffman Executive Summary 13 II Leadership Talks Sebastian Kurz Leadership Talk by the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2017 – 2019) 21 Heinz Faßmann Leadership Talk by the Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research (2018 – 2019) 23 Christian Kern Leadership Talk by the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2016 – 2017); Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (2016 – 2018) 29 Raya Kalenova Leadership Talk by the Executive Vice-President and CEO of the European Jewish Congress 35 Katharina von Schnurbein Leadership Talk by the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism 41 Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Greetings XI X Andrew Baker Leadership Talk by the AJC Director of International Jewish Affairs; Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism 53 Irwin Cotler Leadership Talk by the Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights 61 Natan Sharansky Leadership Talk by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel (2009 – 2018) 79 Ana Luiza Massot Thompson-Flores Leadership Talk by the Director of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice 89 Michael Bünker Leadership Talk by the Bishop of the Protestant Church of Austria (2008 – 2019) 99 Arie Folger Leadership Talk by the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Austria (2016 – 2019) 103 Hassen Chalghoumi Leadership Talk by the Imam of the municipal Drancy mosque Seine-Saint-Denis 115 Abraham Skorka Leadership Talk by the Rector of the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano Buenos Aires 123 III Religion Contributions Armin Lange and Maxine L. Grossman Jews and Judaism between Bedevilment and Source of Salvation: Christianity as a Cause of and a Cure against Antisemitism 133 VI Table of Contents Esther Webman Redeeming Humanity from the Evil of the Jews: Islamist Rationalization of Antisemitism 165 Lawrence H. Schiffman Scrolls, Testament and Talmud: Issues of Antisemitism in the Study of Ancient Judaism 193 Recommendations Recommendations regarding Religious Groups and Institutions 211 IV Culture, Education, Research Contributions Julius H. Schoeps Contemporary Philosophical and Ethical Fights over Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel 235 Eliezer Ben-Rafael Antisemitism: Sociological Perspectives 247 Florette Cohen Abady The Psychology of Modern Antisemitism: Theory, Research, and Methodology 271 Klaus S. Davidowicz The Demonization of Judaism 297 Monika Schwarz-Friesel “ Antisemitism 2.0 ”— The Spreading of Jew-hatred on the World Wide Web 311 Martin Rothgangel Combatting Antisemitism: An Interdisciplinary Approach 339 Table of Contents VII Recommendations Recommendations regarding Cultural Organizations and Institutions 363 Recommendations regarding the Internet, its Influencers and its Users 379 Recommendations regarding Academic Organizations and Institutions 387 Recommendations regarding Educational Organizations and Institutions 393 V Politics, Business and Jurisprudence Contributions Benjamin Isaac Jews and Non-Jews in Ancient Cities: Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, Rome 413 Evyatar Friesel Jews against Zionism/Israel: On the Ambivalences of Contemporary Jewish Identity 427 Stephan Grigat The Fight against Antisemitism and the Iranian Regime: Challenges and Contradictions in the Light of Adorno ’ s Categorical Imperative 441 Mark Weitzman The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism 463 Dina Porat The Working Definition of Antisemitism — A 2018 Perception 475 Aleksandra Gliszczy ń ska-Grabias Counteracting Antisemitism with Tools of Law: An Effort Doomed to Failure? 489 VIII Table of Contents Wolfgang Wieshaider Equal Treatment, not just Religious Freedom: On the Methods of Slaughtering Animals for Human Consumption 503 Recommendations Recommendations regarding Organizations and Institutions of the Business World 519 Recommendations regarding Governments, Political Organizations, and Institutions 529 VI IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism 565 VII Editorial Board and List of Contributors Editorial Board 569 List of Contributors 571 Acknowledgements 573 Table of Contents IX Preface and Acknowledgements Eighty years after the 1938 pogroms and more than seventy years after the liber- ation of the Nazi concentration and death camps, yet again, attacking and killing Jews, regularly slandering and denigrating them have become a sad reality in Eu- rope and in other parts of the world. This, together with calls to boycott the Jew- ish state and denying its right even to exist, can have grave implications for both Jews and society in general. The situation is not new. World history does not lack examples of Jew-hatred and persecution either. Consider Tacitus, Augustine, and Justinian, the expulsion of the Jews from Medina at the time of Mohammed, the Crusades, the Granada massacre, Martin Luther, the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms, Henry Ford, the Ku Klux Klan, the 1941 pogrom in Bagdad, Adolf Hitler and the Shoah. These are just a few names and events from only a few parts of the world. Today, Jew-hatred is no lon- ger restricted to the extreme right and radical Islam but has spread across parts of the left and center of the political spectrum, as well as mainstream Christian and Muslim groups. Given this unacceptable reality, from February 18 th through 22 nd of 2018, approximately 1,000 scholars, activists, decision makers and influ- encers met in Vienna at the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” The conference was jointly organized by the European Jewish Congress, New York University, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Vienna to study antisemitism with an unprecedented interdisciplinary breadth but also with his- torical depth. Over one-hundred and fifty presentations from all over the world engaged with all forms of antisemitism from antiquity until today from the per- spective of numerous fields. To each field, a separate panel was dedicated which was organized and headed by leading experts. – Ancient History (Benjamin Isaac, Tel Aviv University) – Medieval History (Simha Goldin, Tel Aviv University) – Modern History (Klaus S. Davidowicz, Vienna University) – Contemporary History (Dina Porat, Tel Aviv University) – Bible, Christianity, and Antisemitism (Karin Finsterbusch, University of Koblenz-Landau and Armin Lange, Vienna University) – Islam and Antisemitism (Esther Webman, Tel Aviv University) – Judaism, Jewish Studies, and Antisemitism (Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University) – Israel Studies (Evyatar Friesel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) OpenAccess. © 2019, Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H. Schiffman, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 License https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110618594-001 – Philosophy and Ethics (Julius H. Schoeps, Moses Mendelssohn Center for Eu- ropean Jewish Studies) – Sociology and Social Sciences (Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Tel Aviv University) – Psychology (Florette Cohen Abady, CUNY College of Staten Island) – Pedagogy (Martin Rothgangel, University of Vienna) – Media Studies, Journalism, and Visual Cultures (Frank Stern, University of Vienna) – Internet and Antisemitism (Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Technical University of Berlin) – Jurisprudence (Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias, Institute of Law Studies Polish Academy of Sciences) – Political Studies (Karin Stögner and Stephan Grigat, University of Vienna, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) All of these scholars and two additional colleagues serve the editorial board of these proceedings, aiding the editors in their work. For their work, suggestions, and support we are indebted to all of them. The initial motivation for the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” was the need of Jewish organizations for strategic guidelines to combat antisemitism suc- cessfully. This is because the recent staggering increase of antisemitism has pro- ven that existing strategies were limited in their success. The approach of the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” was to combine the practical experience of decision makers and stakeholders with the input of academic specialists. Our approach might therefore be described as applied humanities and applied social sciences. This new approach to the fight against antisemitism resulted into two major outputs of the conference ’ s research. Therefore, the first volume of the con- ference proceedings publishes, on the one hand, keynote lectures based on prac- tical experience and academic research as well as, on the other hand, policy rec- ommendations regarding how to combat antisemitism distilled out of both practical and academic contributions to the conference. It is in the nature of aca- demic research that new insights are gained by a contradictory discourse. Hence, some of the presentations published in the present volume might disagree in some aspects with its policy recommendations. The present volume of the con- ference proceedings is structured to mirror this initial motivation of the confer- ence “ An End to Antisemitism! ” by grouping the academic research of the key- note lectures together with the corresponding recommended policies how to combat antisemitism. 1. A general audience, including decision makers and stakeholders in partic- ular, is addressed by a catalogue of policy recommendations explaining how to XII Preface and Acknowledgements combat antisemitism. ¹ Together, its policy recommendations are an original ef- fort to take the fruits of our conference ’ s scholarly research and turn them into a document of practical impact. While some of these policies are almost di- rect quotes of conference participants, others represent conclusions based on the combined research of the conference. We hope that the recommendations of this catalogue of policies combating antisemitism can be applied to help to eradicate and suppress antisemitism in all its forms globally. It is in the nature of research to gain new insights by constructive disagreement. Therefore, the policy recom- mendations this catalogue proposes will in some cases contradict the views of some presenters of the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” and will find the support of others. Even those with whom we disagree were of great help as their arguments helped us to improve the policies regarding how to combat antisemitism. 2. An academic audience is addressed by the present conference proceed- ings, which will include both the recommendations of the catalogue of policies combating antisemitism as well as the research leading to them. The presenta- tions of the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” will be published in a total of five volumes. The first volume will include the published versions of all pre- sentations and greetings by dignitaries, decision makers, and stake holders as well as all plenary presentations by scholars. The volumes following the present first volume will include the published versions of the presentations given at the sixteen panels of our conference. 1. Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism: A Multi-Faceted Approach 2. Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives of Christianity, Islam and Ju- daism 3. Confronting Antisemitism through the Ages — A Historical Perspective 4. Confronting Antisemitism from Perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences 5. Confronting Antisemitism in Modern Media, the Legal and Political Worlds The present first volume consists of five parts. An introduction reflecting the na- ture of antisemitism and strategies to combat it (I) is followed by the contribu- tions of those political and religious decision makers who described their expe- riences in combating antisemitism at our conference. Cf. A. Lange, A. Muzicant, D. Porat, L. H. Schiffman, and M. Weitzman, An End to Antisemit- ism! A Catalogue of Policies to Combat Antisemitism (Brussels: European Jewish Congress, 2018). Preface and Acknowledgements XIII II Leadership Talks by Decision Makers and Stakeholders These practical experiences of decision makers and stakeholders form one im- portant component of our endeavor to develop academically guided policy rec- ommendations regarding how to combat antisemitism. The other component is the contributions of academics from a broad range of different specializations. At the conference, for each of the program units a keynote lecture was presented to set the tone for the overall discussion. The keynote lectures of each of the six- teen panels published in this volume represent this academic component. Only the combined approach of both components allowed us to develop policy recom- mendations regarding how to combat antisemitism. The published versions of the keynote lectures are structured into three parts. III Religion IV Culture, Education, and Research V Politics, Business, and Jurisprudence In these three parts, each set of keynote lectures is followed by the policy recom- mendations that thematically correspond to them. Antisemitism has a history of more than 2,000 years. Combating antisemit- ism is complicated, and there are no easy solutions to it. The complexity of antisemitism requires complex answers to combat it successfully. The contribu- tions to this volume and the policy recommendations regarding how to combat antisemitism reflect this complexity and do not attempt to give easy answers. Only a combined approach as outlined above holds promise of successfully com- bating this age-old hatred. The first volume of our conference proceedings as well its policy recommen- dations as to how to combat antisemitism not only aim at reaching the attention of decision and opinion makers as well as stakeholders in many fields worldwide but also address a general interested public. While the contributions and policy recommendations of the present volume concern only antisemitism, we as edi- tors and authors are fully aware that antisemitism as a unique cultural and reli- gious category exists alongside a host of other hatreds and phobias, directed against a long list of minorities and victimized groups. We are well aware that Jews are not the only target of hatred but that they are the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, we hope that beyond the fight against antisemitism, this present vol- ume combining practical and academic contributions with policy recommenda- tions might serve as a model of how to combat these other forms of hatred or even be a starting point from which the work to eradicate other wrongs will con- tinue. XIV Preface and Acknowledgements We would like to express our deepest gratitude to a long list of dignitaries, decision makers, and stakeholders without whose support and contributions our conference, its proceedings, and its catalogue of policies combating antisemit- ism would not have been possible. They contributed financial, political, and re- ligious support and spoke at our conference. We are indebted to His Holiness Pope Francis I and to Alexander Van der Bellen, Federal President of the Republic of Austria, for their greetings and encour- agement. To Christian Kern, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2016 – 2017), and Sebastian Kurz, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2017 – 2019), for the financial support Austria ’ s Chancellery provided us with and for their presentations and contributions to our conference and its proceedings. Researching antisemitism and developing policy recommendations regard- ing how to combat it requires funds which are often surprisingly difficult to raise. It is therefore more than a pleasant obligation to express our gratitude to the main sponsor of the conference “ An End to Antisemitism! ” Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress. Moshe Kantor did not only provide much needed financial support but also gave a most inspiring talk at the confer- ence and contributed to the present proceedings. We are most grateful for the financial support of the Salo W. Baron and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation and the Knapp Family Foundation made possible by Charles Knapp. We would also like to thank Alan and Carol Silberstein for their generous support. A particular gratitude is also due to the public institutions of the Federal Re- public of Austria, to the federal States of Austria — in particular the Federal State of Vienna — and to long list of universities worldwide including the organizing academic institutions, University of Vienna, New York University, and Tel Aviv University. At the same time, we would also like to take the opportunity to convey words of thanks to all other sponsors as listed on pages 573 – 4. Furthermore, we would like to express our gratitude to Heinz Faßmann, Aus- trian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research (2018 – 2019), and Talya Lador-Fresher, Ambassador of Israel to Austria (2015 – 2019), for their pre- sentations and contributions to our proceedings, and to Heinz Engl, Rector of the University of Vienna, for his role model support of our conference and his greet- ing and contribution. We are deeply indebted to Michael Häupl, former Mayor of the City and Federal State of Vienna, and Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, former City Councilor for Culture, Science and Sports of the City of Vienna for the city ’ s sup- port of our conference and its cooperation with the opening event of the confer- ence. Preface and Acknowledgements XV We would also like to extend warm words of thanks to the members of the conference ’ s advisory board as listed on page 569. We are much indebted to their counsel. Further words of thanks are due for the wonderful support of our conference staff, Dara Fischer, Maria Hartmann, Denise Saskia Landau, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Yael Müller, Milli Segal, Marie Pauline Wiebe, and of the many people at the Eu- ropean Jewish Congress, New York University, Tel Aviv University, the University of Vienna, and at many other institutions who aided us in our work. The work on the policy recommendations regarding how to combat antisem- itism was guided by the support and advice of many colleagues and activists to whom we are indebted. We would like to express our gratitude to those who fa- cilitated policy recommendations regarding how to combat antisemitism: Mehnaz Afridi, Raya Kalenova, Ariel Muzicant, Sara Rembiszewski, Johanan Seynave, Marlene Schiffman, Mark Weitzman, Wolfgang Wieshaider, and Ariella Woitchik. We want to mention in particular the good advice and support of Ariel Muzicant who, as the political spiritus rector of our project, was instrumental to its success on more than one level. Special gratitude is also due to Klaus S. Davidowicz who was one of the conferences co-organizers, to Father Norbert Hofmann of Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews for fa- cilitating our co-operation with the Catholic Church, and to Daniel Löcker from the administration of City of Vienna for cooperation in preparing the opening event of our conference. We are grateful to De Gruyter Publishers for accepting our five volumes of the conference proceedings for publication and for the exemplary support that Albrecht Döhnert, Sophie Wagenhofer, and Alice Meroz from De Gruyter gave us in preparing these mammoth proceedings for publication. The same gratitude is due to Anna Cwikla for her enormous effort in copyediting our proceedings and to Ursula Riezinger for her support with French-English translations. The other editors are especially grateful to Kerstin Mayerhofer for taking the lead in editing our proceedings. Her commitment has been unparalleled and without her, none of the conference ’ s outcomes would exist. Furthermore, we are indebted to the European Jewish Congress for allowing us to include the recommendations of our Catalogue of Policies to Combat Antisemit- ism in the first volume of our conference proceedings. ² See footnote 2. XVI Preface and Acknowledgements Our final word of gratitude regards all speakers at our conference and all contributors to the five volumes of our conference proceedings as listed on pages 571 – 2. All would have come to naught without their input. New York, Tel Aviv, and Vienna, May 21, 2019 Armin Lange Kerstin Mayerhofer Dina Porat Lawrence H. Schiffman Preface and Acknowledgements XVII Greetings