In eleven contributions, Visual Antisemitism in Central Europe, Imagery of Hatred deals with visual manifestations of antisemitism in Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day. The publication, which presents heretofore largely unknown materials, seeks responses from diverse perspectives to the question of the role of visuality in the development of antisemitic moods and political agendas that encouraged hatred towards Jews. The scope of visual anti-Judaism and antisemitism always was and still is very wide: from stereotypical depictions that can conceal an underlying message through humorous content, to clearly formulated assaults that aim to escalate animosity towards an imaginary collective enemy. The goal in both these cases is the exclusion of Jews from the majority society imagined as a monolithic whole, and the reification of a dividing line between "us" and "them". With its wide thematic and methodological range, this book offers a comprehensive image of the phenomenon of visual anti-Judaism and antisemitism and provides rich comparative material for the entire Central European region.

A fascinating look at key aspects of visual culture in modern Jewish history

Antisemitic caricatures had existed in Polish society since at least the mid-nineteenth century. But never had the devastating impacts of this imagery been fully realized or so blatantly apparent than on the eve of the Second World War. In Cartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland, scholar Ewa Stańczyk explores how illustrators conceived of Jewish people in satirical drawing and reflected on the burning political questions of the day. Incorporating hundreds of cartoons, satirical texts, and newspaper articles from the 1930s, Stańczyk investigates how a visual culture that was essentially hostile to Jews penetrated deep and wide into Polish print media. In her sensitive analysis of these sources, the first of this kind in English, the author examines how major satirical magazines intervened in the ongoing events and contributed to the racialized political climate of the time. Paying close attention to the antisemitic tropes that were both local and global, Stańczyk reflects on the role of pictorial humor in the transmission of visual antisemitism across historical and geographical borders. As she discusses the communities of artists, publishers, and political commentators who made up the visual culture of the day, Stańczyk tells a captivating story of people who served the antisemitic cause, and those who chose to oppose it.

This volume offers a comprehensive perspective on the relationship between the art scene and agencies of the state in countries of the region, throughout four consecutive yet highly diverse historical periods: from the period of state integration after World War I, through the communist era post 1945 and the time of political transformation after 1989, to the present-day globalisation (including counter-reactions to westernisation and cultural homogenisation). With twenty-three theoretically and/or empirically oriented articles by authors from sixteen countries (East Central Europe and beyond, including the United States and Australia), the book discusses interconnections between state policies and artistic institutions, trends and the art market from diverse research perspectives. The contributors explore subjects such as the impact of war on the formation of national identities, the role of artists in image-building for the new national states emerging after 1918, the impact of political systems on artists’ attitudes, the discourses of art history, museum studies, monument conservation and exhibition practices. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural politics, cultural history, and East Central European studies and history.

In Visual Cultures of Death in Central Europe, Aleksandra Koutny-Jones explores the emergence of a remarkable cultural preoccupation with death in Poland-Lithuania (1569-1795). Examining why such interests resonated so strongly in the Baroque art of this Commonwealth, she argues that the printing revolution, the impact of the Counter-Reformation, and multiple afflictions suffered by Poland-Lithuania all contributed to a deep cultural concern with mortality. Introducing readers to a range of art, architecture and material culture, this study considers various visual evocations of death including 'Dance of Death' imagery, funerary decorations, coffin portraiture, tomb chapels and religious landscapes. These, Koutny-Jones argues, engaged with wider European cultures of contemplation and commemoration, while also being critically adapted to the specific context of Poland-Lithuania.

Antisemitism on Social Media is a book for all who want to understand this phenomenon. Researchers interested in the matter will find innovative methodologies (CrowdTangle or Voyant Tools mixed with discourse analysis) and new concepts (tertiary antisemitism, antisemitic escalation) that should become standard in research on antisemitism on social media. It is also an invitation to students and up-and-coming and established scholars to study this phenomenon further. This interdisciplinary volume addresses how social media with its technology and business model has revolutionized the dissemination of antisemitism and how this impacts not only victims of antisemitic hate speech but also society at large. The book gives insight into case studies on different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram. It also demonstrates how social media is weaponized through the dissemination of antisemitic content by political actors from the right, the left, and the extreme fringe, and critically assesses existing counter-strategies. People working for social media companies, policy makers, practitioners, and journalists will benefit from the questions raised, the findings, and the recommendations. Educators who teach courses on antisemitism, hate speech, extremism, conspiracies, and Holocaust denial but also those who teach future leaders in computer technology will find this volume an important resource.

Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader provides an overview of historical and contemporary debates in this vital and ever-evolving field of scholarship and research. Combining contributions from seminal thinkers, leading scholars and emergent voices, this reader provides a critical reflection on key trends and developments in the field. The contributions to this reader provide an overview of key areas of scholarship and research on questions of race and racism. It provides a novel perspective by bringing together readings on the key theoretical and historical processes in this area, the development of diverse theoretical viewpoints, the analysis of antisemitism, the role of colonialism and postcolonialism, feminist perspectives on race and the articulation of new accounts of the contemporary conjuncture. The contributions to this reader include classic works by the likes of W.E.B. DuBois, Stuart Hall and Frantz Fanon as well as timely pieces by contemporary scholars including Orlando Patterson, Patricia Hill Collins and Paul Gilroy. By bringing together a broad range of diverse accounts, Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader engages with various key areas of interest and is an invaluable guide for students and instructors seeking to explore issues of race and racism.

The racism and antisemitism of Fascist Italy have often been described as ‘mild’, ‘cultural’, ‘spiritual’, and essentially non-violent, especially in comparison with the racial ideology of Nazi Germany. This book challenges this simplistic interpretation with a thorough analysis of the texts and images of the magazine La Difesa della razza (Defence of the race), the principal public voice of Fascist biological racism, which appeared fortnightly between 1938 and 1943 under the editorship of Telesio Interlandi, Mussolini’s ‘unofficial mouthpiece’, with governmental financial support. A negative icon of the propaganda of Fascist racism, La Difesa della razza first appeared in August 1938 shortly before the passing of Italy’s Racial Laws, but had a long gestation. It was the expression of a Fascist cultural milieu – journalists, writers, artists, and architects – headed by Interlandi, whose racism and antisemitism dated back to the end of the First World War. By placing the magazine’s emergence in this longer timescale, and exploring the interrelationships of political action, ideological discourse, and imagery, this book also demonstrates how the project of ‘anthropological revolution’ – building the New Man – was a central element of Italian Fascism, from the very beginning to the deportation of Italian Jews. This new English edition has been thoroughly revised and updated.

“Masterful...An indispensable warning for our own time.” —Samuel Moyn “Magisterial...Covers this dark history with insight and skill...A major intervention into our understanding of 20th-century Europe and the lessons we ought to take away from its history.” —The Nation For much of the last century, Europe was haunted by a threat of its own imagining: Judeo-Bolshevism. The belief that Communism was a Jewish plot to destroy the nations of Europe took hold during the Russian Revolution and quickly spread. During World War II, fears of a Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy were fanned by the fascists and sparked a genocide. But the myth did not die with the end of Nazi Germany. A Specter Haunting Europe shows that this paranoid fantasy persists today in the toxic politics of revitalized right-wing nationalism. “It is both salutary and depressing to be reminded of how enduring the trope of an exploitative global Jewish conspiracy against pure, humble, and selfless nationalists really is...A century after the end of the first world war, we have, it seems, learned very little.” —Mark Mazower, Financial Times “From the start, the fantasy held that an alien element—the Jews—aimed to subvert the cultural values and national identities of Western societies...The writers, politicians, and shills whose poisonous ideas he exhumes have many contemporary admirers.” —Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

Surviving photographs of Jewish Viennese men during the fin-de-siècle and interwar periods – both the renowned cultural luminaries and their many anonymous coreligionists – all share a striking sartorial detail: the tailored suit. Yet, until now, the adoption of the tailored suit and its function in the formation of modern Jewish identities remains under-researched. Jews in Suits uses a rich range of written and visual sources, including literary fiction and satire, 'ego-documents', photography, trade catalogues, invoices, and department store culture, to propose a new narrative of men, fashion, and their Jewish identities. It reveals that dressing in a modern manner was not simply a matter of assimilation, but rather a way of developing new models of Jewish subjectivity beyond the externally prescribed notion of 'the Jew'. Drawing upon fashionable dress, folk costume, religious dress, avant-garde, oppositional dress, typologies which are often considered separate from one another, it proposes a new way of reading men and clothing cultures within an iconic cultural milieu, offering insights into the relationship of clothing and grooming to the understanding of the self.