Decoding Antisemitism

Matthias J Becker is Project Lead on the “Decoding Antisemitism” project and a postdoctoral researcher at the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung (ZfA) at TU Berlin, Germany. Hagen Troschke conducts interdisciplinary research on current developments of antisemitism. His fields of activity include the history, language and iconography of antisemitism, hate speech, racism, and far-right ideologies. Matthew Bolton is Co-Lead on the UK team of the “Decoding Antisemitism” project. He was awarded his PhD in Philosophy by the University of Roehampton, UK in 2020.

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION.- TAXONOMY OF KEY LINGUISTIC TERMS.- 1. Tropes (classic/canonical).- 1.1. Jews as foreign/the other (Laura Ascone).- 1.2. Evil/Devil (Matthew Bolton).- 1.3. Child murder/Blood libel (Karolina Placzynta).- 1.4. Racist tropes/Dehumanisation.- 1.5. Immorality/Amorality (Jan Krasni).- 1.6. Lie (Hypocrisy/Mendacity) / Deceit (Matthias J Becker).- 1.7. Vengefulness (Jan Krasni).- 1.8. Disloyalty/Dual Loyalty (Hagen Troschke).- 2. Tropes of (political or financial) power.- 2.1 Greed/Exploitation/Identification with capitalism (Matthew Bolton, Chloe Vincent, Alexis Chapelan).- 2.2 Influence on public opinion, politics, economy (& servility) (Matthias J Becker).- 2.3 Conspiracy (Alexis Chapelan).- 2.4 Disintegration (Marcus Scheiber).- 2.5 Self-victimisation (Alexis Chapelan).- 3. Secondary Antisemitism.- 3.1 Clean break (Hagen Troschke).- 3.2 Rejection of guilt (Hagen Troschke).- 3.3 Relativisation/Distortion/ Denial of the Holocaust (Hagen Troschke).- 3.4 Relativisation & Denial of Antisemitism (Marcus Scheiber).- 3.5 Instrumentalisation of the Holocaust (Matthias J Becker).- 3.6 Instrumentalisation of Antisemitism (Matthias J Becker).- 3.7 Nazi-Jewish collaboration (Jan Krasni).- 3.8 Admonisher (Marcus Scheiber).- 3.9 Taboo of Criticism (Alexis Chapelan).- 3.10 Victim-Perpetrator reversal (Hagen Troschke).- 3.11 Jews have not learned from the past (Karolina Placzynta).- 4. Further Post-Holocaust concepts.- 4.1 Blame for Antisemitism (Marcus Scheiber).- 4.2 Holding Jews collectively responsible for IL's actions (Karolina Placzynta).- 4.3 Privilege & Free Pass (Karolina Placzynta).- 4.4 Affirmation of Hitler/Nazis/Holocaust (Jan Krasni).- 5. Attacks on Israel's legitimacy/statehood.- 5.1 Nazi Analogy (Matthias J Becker).- 5.2 Apartheid Analogy/ Racist state (Matthew Bolton).- 5.3 Colonialism Analogies (Laura Ascone).- 5.4 Terrorist state (Matthew Bolton).- 5.5 Genocide (Matthew Bolton).- 5.6 Double Standards (Chloe Vincent).- 5.7 Denial of IL's right to exist (Chloe Vincent).- 5.8 BDS/Boycott (Matthew Bolton/Hagen Troschke).- 5.9 Israel's sole guilt in the conflict (Chloe Vincent).- 6. Self-positioning in speech acts.- 6.1 Insults (Laura Ascone).- 6.2 Threats (Laura Ascone).- 6.3 Curses (Marcus Scheiber).- 6.4 Death wishes (Karolina Placzynta).- 6.5 Affirming, calling for, desiring violence (Laura Ascone).