Rising levels of antisemitism are a focus of considerable concern in France today. Are we witnessing a reemergence of forms of antisemitism that date back to the Dreyfus Affair and that took a devastating turn in Vichy France? Or is this a new antisemitism grounded more in current conflicts around Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East? Or both? Pierre Birnbaum analyzes the current crisis and situates it within its historical context and within today’s domestic and international political context.
Pierre Birnbaum is a political sociologist and historian, emeritus professor at the Université de Paris I, and a leading expert on the history of French Jews and French antisemitism. He has published more than a dozen books including The Jews of the Republic: An History of State Jews from Gambetta to Vichy; Paths for Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship; and, most recently,Sur un nouveau moment antisémite: “Jour de colère” (Fayard, 2015) and Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist (Yale UP, 2015).
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