Antisemitism - APOV30374
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Is antisemitism “the longest hatred of mankind” or, rather, a modern ideology that emerged in the last decades of the 19th century? Accepting the latter answer the course will trace its pre-conditions in the mediaeval Christianity and, then, focus on its birth and development in the last two centuries. Two watersheds in the history of antisemitism will be pointed out. World War I as the catalyst of the upsurge of antisemitism (that had not had any major political success in the years before the war) and the Nazi genocide of the Jews followed by the establishment of the state of Israel. If WWI contributed to the development of a particularly malignant form of antisemitism, i.e. Nazism, the fulfilment of the Zionist dream in Palestine to the detriment of the indigenous population contributed to the transfer of antisemitism from Christian Europe to the Muslim Middle East. At the same time, the Holocaust Memory, that shifted to the center of Israeli identity in the wake of the Israeli-Arab wars of 1967 and 1973, made virtually impossible to reach a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since it made the Israelis understand anti-colonial enmity of Palestinians as an expression of antisemitic urge to kill the Jews. Simultaneously, Israeli governments began to explain the criticism of their continued occupation and settlement of all Palestine by the public opinion of the Global South and the Western Left as antisemitism. Hence, the last classes will be devoted to the question whether and how we can distinguish a legitimate criticism of Israel from an expression of anti-Jewish hatred. Poslední úprava: Barša Pavel, prof. Dr., M.A., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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Steven Beller, Antisemitism. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press 2007
Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites. An Inquiry into conflict and prejudice, W. W. Norton and Company 1987
Mark Mazower, On Antisemitism. A Word in History, Penguin Press 2025 Poslední úprava: Barša Pavel, prof. Dr., M.A., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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Participation in class discussions on the basis of weekly readings, at least one oral presentation thereof and – for those students who want to be graded – final oral examination. Poslední úprava: Barša Pavel, prof. Dr., M.A., Ph.D. (04.02.2026)
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