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UID:434@chaimitzvah.org
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T200000
DTSTAMP:20260211T143309Z
URL:https://www.chaimitzvah.org/events/secular-and-religious-forms-of-anta
 gonism-to-israel-nazis-soviets-islamists/
SUMMARY:Secular and Religious Forms of Antagonism to Israel: Nazis\, Soviet
 s\, Islamists
DESCRIPTION:This lecture is part of Antizionism: The History of an Ideology
 \, a six-part series hosted by Chai Mitzvah. The series examines the histo
 rical origins\, evolution\, and contemporary manifestations of antizionism
 . Sponsored by the Institute for the Critical Study of Antizionism.\n\n“
 Antizionism” is a shorthand for the belief that the state of Israel does
  not have moral or political legitimacy\, and that its existence\, not onl
 y its policies\, should end. Some antizionists seek to destroy Israel by f
 orce of arms\, while others hope decades of hostile propaganda will isolat
 e Israel and erode the willingness of its people to support it. In this pr
 esentation\, I discuss the secular and religious sources of this antagonis
 m. The core of antizionism lays in the reactionary interpretation of the s
 acred books of Islam by "Islamists" since the 1930s\, and then their colla
 boration with Nazi Germany during World War II and the Holocaust\, whose a
 ntizionism was as prominent as their antisemitism. The antizionist impulse
  achieved much broader legitimacy in world politics due to the policies of
  the Soviet Union and the secular global radical left\, especially since t
 he 1960s. This talk examines the confluence of these secular and religious
  antagonisms\, which together have nurtured the long ideological and at ti
 mes armed campaign to destroy Israel. It addresses the paradox that a reac
 tionary tradition\, evident in Hamas\, has oddly found sympathy or at leas
 t an absence of criticism in parts of Western universities.\nRegister Here
 \nProfessor Jeffrey Herf\, a historian of modern European\, especially Ger
 man\, history\, is Distinguished University Professor\, Emeritus at the Un
 iversity of Maryland\, College Park. He graduated from the University of W
 isconsin\, Madison\, in 1969\, and received his PhD from Brandeis Universi
 ty in 1981. Before coming to Maryland\, he taught at Harvard\, and at Ohio
  University.\n\nHis publications include The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda
  during World War II and the Holocaust (Harvard U.P.\, 2006)\, Nazi Propag
 anda for the Arab World (Yale U.P.\, 2009)\, Undeclared Wars with Israel: 
 East Germany and the West German Far Left\, 1967-1989 (Cambridge U.P\, 201
 6)\, Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establ
 ishing the Jewish State\, 1945-1949 (Cambridge UP\, 2022). and Three Faces
  of Antisemitism: Right\, Left and Islamist (Routledge\, 2024).\n\nBefore 
 and since the Hamas attack of October 7\, 2023\, he has published essays o
 n Israel\, Hamas\, and responses to the attack of October 7 in journals of
  opinion including The New York Review of Books\, Persuasion/American Purp
 ose\, Quillette\, Sapir\, Times of Israel\, The Israel Journal of Foreign 
 Affairs\, and The Washington Post. See\, for example\, “The Ideology of
  Mass Murder\,” (October 10\, 2023) in Quillette\, and “The Genocide A
 ccusation and Hamas’ Disappearing Responsibility\,” Times of Israel (J
 uly 22\, 2025).
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CATEGORIES:Scholars Circle
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