Antisemitism - the Generic Hatred Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal believed not in vengeance but in justice for the victims and played a pre-eminent and, at times, lonely role in tracking down individual criminals and bringing them to trial. But he knew that was not enough. The contributors to this memorial volume, representing a range of cultural, religious and disciplinary perspectives, share that view. They know that so long as the Jewish stereotype is vested with legitimacy, the fight against antisemitism can never be won. Nor can it be defeated so long it is fuelled by crisis in the Middle East, which has allowed some people to give expression to their antisemitism while denying it, by treating the State of Israel not as a state, with its own particular problems and shortcomings, but as a kind of reified Jew. These are some of the issues addressed by the authors of the essays presented here, along with others, such as antisemitism as a determinant of Jewish identity and the possibility of forgiveness for the perpetrators of genocide. The book thus seeks to understand and learn from this particular paradigm of hatred and to suggest ways of countering it, in the name of the core values of a common humanity. Michael Fineberg is a former UNESCO official, and now works for the United Nations, New York. Shimon Samuels is the Director for International Relations, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Paris. Mark Weitzman is the Director, National Taskforce on Hate, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, New York.Fineberg, Michael is the author of 'Antisemitism - the Generic Hatred Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal', published 2007 under ISBN 9780853037460 and ISBN 0853037469.