Reconsidering antisemitisms

Abstract This essay aims to do two things: first, to identify different forms of antisemitism and suggest that “antisemitisms” is a more apt term, and second, to describe some distinctive aspects of antisemitism in our particular moment. In pursuing these aims, it draws on works by Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno that grapple, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, with different antisemitisms. Arendt is particularly interested in the forms of antisemitism that preceded and then crystalized into Nazi ideology. Adorno devotes more attention to the different kinds and structures of antisemitisms that remained often just under the surface of public life in Germany after the end of World War Two. Using the insights of these two twentieth-century thinkers, this essay considers how we might grapple with the antisemitisms of our contemporary moment and argues that understanding their multiple forms and venues, the ways antisemitisms change over time and in response to different historical circumstances, and their different contexts, media forms, and social and political locations, will better help us to be more effective in working against them in ways that truly focus on maintaining the safety, dignity, and rights of Jews, whoever and wherever they might be.