Holocaust Memorial Day Lecture

Facing Antisemitism: Rebuilding Anti-Racism

Dr Ben Gidley, Birkbeck College

"This talk looks at antisemitism, the primary motivator of the Holocaust, and calls for a way of confronting it that locates it within the larger global history of racism. In particular, I will draw out some of the ways that anti-Jewish racism and anti-Muslim racism have historically been related to each other. Looking at antisemitism in this relational way can enable stronger anti-racist responses to antisemitism, as part of the challenge of standing together across communities."

Dr Gidley's research interests focus on British Jews, both in relation to wider diaspora formations and in relation to the history and politics of British multiculture. His book ‘Turbulent Times’ was the first sociological monograph on British Jews for several decades and his book ‘Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe’, edited with James Renton, explores how Muslims and Jews have been racialized in Europe from the Crusades to the present.

You can book a place at this lecture via Eventbrite.