Brandeis professors on anti-Semitism

After a gunman shot and killed 11 members of a Pittsburgh synagogue on Oct. 27, two prominent scholars of Jewish thought at Brandeis published opinion pieces looking at current themes in anti-Semitism.

Yehudah Mirsky, Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, published in The American Interest. In his article "The new Jewish question and the new Jew hatred," he wrote: "Anti-Semitism of the Left and the Right has each seized on one piece of the equation. Right/Trumpist anti-Semitism despises universalism, loves nationalism. Left/Corbyn anti-Semitism despises nationalism, loves universalism. The Jews stand to get it in the neck from both directions."

Len Saxe, the Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, published in The Conversation. He wrote in his article Pittsburgh’s lesson: Hatred does not emerge in a vacuum: "As a social scientist who studies the relationship among religious and ethnic groups, and issues such as anti-Semitism, it is clear that along with accepting responsibility for our fellow citizens, we need to find different ways to talk with others. There are ways to debate and elucidate rather than negate."