Antisemitism(s) – Local to Global
Malachi Haim Hacohen (Duke University)

Date: May 25, 2023
Time: 6pm – 8pm
Place: VG 2.103

Abstract:
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Antisemitism occupies a unique place among minority hatreds, weighing on historians’ conscience and challenging historical faculties. The variety, local contexts, and divergent character of antisemitism present a major challenge for historical explanation  Yet, as globalization progresses, there is a convergence toward a global antisemitic discourse, crossing continents from Europe to Asia to the Americas. The lecture will seek to demystify antisemitism by projecting it against the growth of an ever changing Jewish Diaspora and provide a framework for understanding its transformation from local and diverse antisemitism to a more uniform global discourse.

Speaker:

Malachi Haim Hacohen is Professor of History, Jewish Studies and Religion at Duke University, and Director of the Religions and Public Life Program. His research interests focus on Central Europe and include social theory, political philosophy, and rabbinic culture. His Karl Popper – The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna (Cambridge, 2000) won the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the AHA and Austria’s Victor Adler State Prize. His Jacob & Esau: Jewish European History Between Nation and Empire (Cambridge, 2019) won the Center for Austrian Studies’ Biannual Book Prize. He has published on the European Jewish intelligentsia, Cold War liberalism, and cosmopolitanism and Jewish identity in leading professional journals. He was a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, and the IFK in Vienna. He is presently Leibniz Professor in Leipzig for Summer 2023.