How is Anti-Semitism Used in the American Jewish Conversation

American Jews have always been anxious about anti-Semitism, even in times when occurrences of anti-Semitism are quite low. We are nervous when anti-Semitism exists and we are nervous when it doesn’t. What are we really talking about when we talk about anti-Semitism? How do we define it? In America is it distinct from bigotry more generally? Is it sui generis? What role does Israel play in contemporary discussion about anti-Semitism in America?

About Professor Shaul Magid

Professor Shaul Magid is The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies Professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies at Indiana University. His teaching focuses primarily on Kabbala, Hasidism, Judaism and gender, Israel/Palestine, and American Jewish thought and culture. Areas of interest and research for Professor Magid include sixteenth-century Kabbala, Hasidism, American Judaism, and contemporary conceptions of Jewish religiosity.