History of Antisemitism

Queens College, City University of New York (Fall 2008)

reflections:

In September 2008, Professor Benny Kraut tragically died of a heart attack while playing baseball. At CUNY Queens, he taught classes on the history of Antisemitism and the Holocaust (amongst other things). When he died, it was the third week of the semester, and the History Department sent out a notice asking if anyone knew anyone who could take over Professor Kraut's courses. And so it is that I came to teach Professor Kraut's course on the history of Antisemitism. Despite the odd and slightly awkward situation, I really enjoyed teaching this course. I know that the students deeply missed Professor Kraut, but they were open, friendly and quite engaged.

When I told my father that I was teaching this course, he responded, "So what?! You're going to teach them how to hate the Jews?!?" Ha ha.

But seriously, it is an odd thing to read and re-read all these antisemitic texts. As I said to my students: given that we know that much of what these texts describe is entirely fictitious and odious, and given that we know horrible things have ensued at least partly as a result of these texts, why do we continue to read them? When is enough enough?

It is also odd that many students take this course (or the course on the Holocaust) to learn about Jews, Jewishness and Judaism. Rather than learning about all the ways in which the Jews conceive of themselves-- how they describe themselves, how they construct their mythical origins, how they maintain and create traditions-- the students are learning all the reasons (the why's and how's) that people have hated the Jews: how they have been villified and oppressed and murdered and so on. Odd, no? I think so.

Odd, yes, but it is not entirely unrelated to Jews' self-conceptions. That is, it may be entirely impossible for Jews (or any other hated minority) to conceive of themselves entirely separately from the ways in which they are perceived (or conceived) by "outsiders." Food for thought...