The Problem of Antisemitism Studies: Towards a New Paradigm

In this paper, locating myself in a tradition of critical race studies, I try to identify the problems I observe within the field of antisemitism studies. Departing from observations from the European Sociological Association conference held in Porto, Portugal, in August 2024, where leading antisemitism researchers in Europe stated that “antisemitism is at the core of Palestinian identity” and “postcolonialism is connected to Nazism, because they both oppose the British empire” I point at the gap between, on the one hand, critical race and postcolonial studies, and on the other hand antisemitism studies. While there have been important and valuable attempts to bridge to two fields, mostly within the disciplines of history and history of ideas, and to a lesser extent within the social sciences, I identify three fundamental problems that today largely characterize the field of antisemitism studies: (1) its eurocentrism and its reluctance to acknowledge the relationality of antisemitism and other racisms, (2) its reliance on sociopsychological modes of making sense of antisemitism, which obscures the power relations at play, and (3) its overpolitization through an excessive focus on Israel-Palestine, combined with colonial and anti-leftist ideological underpinnings. In identifying these problems, I also point at possible ways toward a possible new paradigm of antisemitism studies.