Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism: Israel, Racism, and Post-Holocaust Judeophobia

Jonathan Judaken is the Spence L. Wilson Chair in Humanities, Professor of History at Rhodes College. His research focuses on how intellectuals represent Jews and Judaism and race and racism. He seeks to understand the patterns that underpin race thinking as well as those that lead to respect and responsibility for others. Judaken’s work ranges across the history of existentialism, the critical philosophy of race (anti-Jewish and anti-black), critical theories of anti-Semitism, and post-Holocaust French Jewish thought.

Judaken will discuss how Anti-Semitism, or what Judaken prefers to term “Judeophobia” is a deeply under-theorized field. Exploring at once the history and ways in which discussions of Judeophobia are straightjacketed, most directly by the shadow of the Holocaust and the politics of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Judaken will make a plea for mining the resources of critical theory to explore post-Holocaust Judeophobia.

Sponsored by the program in Jewish Studies, the Bronfman Fund, and the Wiener Lecture Fund. Co-sponsored by the W. Ford Schumann ’50 Program in Democratic Studies as part of a year-long series on Race and Democracy.