David Hirsh

Last updated

David Hirsh (born 29 September 1967) is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and co-founder of Engage, a campaign against the academic boycott of Israel. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Hirsh was raised in a Jewish family in Highgate, London and attended Highgate School until he was 15, when he persuaded his parents to allow him to transfer to Woodhouse Grammar School. [2] [3] For several years, he was a member of the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers' Liberty and, during the 1980s, a leading activist in the National Organisation of Labour Students. [2] He briefly studied Physics at Sheffield University, then worked as a driver for several years. [2] He is a graduate of City University, London and holds an M.A. in Philosophy and Social Theory and a PhD from the University of Warwick, writing his dissertation on Crimes Against Humanity and International Law. [4]

Career

Hirsh won the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best first book in sociology for 2004, for his book Law Against Genocide: Cosmopolitan trials. [5] The book, on the significance of "cosmopolitan law", contains an account of the 1999 British trial of Anthony Sawoniuk for Holocaust-related crimes committed in Belarus in 1942.

In 2005, he co-founded the Engage website, a resource for those working to oppose the boycott of Israel. [4] Hirsh took a leading role during 2005-07 in opposing boycotts of Israeli universities proposed by British academics. [6] [7] Hirsh told The Guardian , "It may not have anti-semitic motivations, but if you organise an academic boycott of Israeli Jewish academics but no-one else in the world, that is an anti-semitic policy". [8]

His 2017 book, Contemporary Left Antisemitism, which combined narrative and case study with sociological analysis and theory to understand the controversial and contested phenomenon of antisemitism on the left, was published in 2017. [3]

He developed, with Daniel Allington, the AzAs (Antizionist Antisemitism) Scale, for quantitatively measuring antisemitism as expressed in relation to Israel and its supporters. [9]

He is the founder of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, which promises to "challenge the intellectual underpinnings of antisemitism in public life". [10]

Published works

Related Research Articles

Soviet anti-Zionism is an anti-Zionist and pro-Arab doctrine promulgated in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. While the Soviet Union initially pursued a pro-Zionist policy after World War II due to its perception that the Jewish state would be socialist and pro-Soviet, its outlook on the Arab–Israeli conflict changed as Israel began to develop a close relationship with the United States and aligned itself with the Western Bloc.

New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.

David Ian Cesarani was a British historian who specialised in Jewish history, especially the Holocaust. He also wrote several biographies, including Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilad Atzmon</span> British jazz saxophonist, political activist, and writer (born 1963)

Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-hating Jew</span> Pejorative towards Jews

The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew", and "auto-antisemite" are pejorative terms used to describe Jewish people whose viewpoints, especially favoring Jewish assimilation, Jewish secularism, limousine liberalism, anti-Judaism or anti-Zionism, are perceived as reflecting self-hatred.

The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism is a research institute at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Anthony Robert Julius is a British solicitor advocate known for being Diana, Princess of Wales' divorce lawyer and for representing Deborah Lipstadt. He is the deputy chairman at the law firm Mishcon de Reya and honorary solicitor to Foundation for Jewish Heritage. He is a trustee for the Institute of Jewish Studies.

Engage is a British website, and briefly an online journal, that aims to help people counter the boycott Israel campaign. Engage describes its mission as to "challenge left and liberal antisemitism in the labour movement, in our universities and in public life."

Charles Asher Small is a Canadian intellectual, the founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy the first international interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying antisemitism with a contemporary focus.

Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.

Antony Lerman is a British writer who specialises in the study of antisemitism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in society. From 2006 to early 2009, he was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a think tank on issues affecting Jewish communities in Europe. From December 1999 to 2006, he was Chief Executive of the Hanadiv Charitable Foundation, renamed the Rothschild Foundation Europe in 2007. He is a founding member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights, and a former editor of Patterns of Prejudice, a quarterly academic journal focusing on the sociology of race and ethnicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of Israel</span> Disapproval towards the Israeli government

Criticism of Israel is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. Israel has faced international criticism since its establishment in 1948 relating to a variety of issues, many of which are centered around human rights violations in its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and music critic. He is an honorary research fellow and senior lecturer at Birkbeck College and an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University and College Union</span> British trade union

The University and College Union (UCU) is a British trade union in further and higher education representing over 120,000 academics and support staff.

<i>Zionism in the Age of the Dictators</i> 1983 book by Lenni Brenner

Zionism in the Age of the Dictators is a 1983 work by the American free-lance journalist, outspoken pro-Palestinian activist, Trotskyist and Jewish author Lenni Brenner. The book makes the argument that Zionist leaders collaborated with fascism, particularly in Nazi Germany, in order to build up a Jewish presence in Palestine.

<i>The Lefts Jewish Problem</i> 2016 book by Dave Rich

The Left's Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti‑Semitism is a 2016 book by Dave Rich. The book argues that new antisemitism is "masked as anti-Zionism" in left-wing politics.

The claim that there was a Jewish war against Nazi Germany is an antisemitic conspiracy theory promoted in Nazi propaganda which asserts that the Jews, framed within the theory as a single historical actor, started World War II and sought the destruction of Germany. Alleging that war was declared in 1939 by Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, Nazis used this false notion to justify the persecution of Jews under German control on the grounds that the Holocaust was justified self-defense. Since the end of World War II, the conspiracy theory has been popular among neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism</span> Guide on antisemitism

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) is a document meant to outline the bounds of antisemitic speech and conduct, particularly with regard to Zionism, Israel and Palestine. Its creation was motivated by a desire to confront antisemitism and by objections to the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, which critics have said stifles legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and curbs free speech. The drafting of the declaration was initiated in June 2020 under the auspices of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem by eight coordinators, most of whom were university professors. Upon its completion the declaration was signed by about 200 scholars in various fields and released in March 2021.

The exploitation of accusations of antisemitism for political purposes, especially to counter anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel, may be described variously as weaponization of antisemitism, instrumentalization of antisemitism, or playing the antisemitism card. Such bad faith accusations have been criticized as a form of smear tactics. Some writers have compared this to playing the race card.

Antisemitism studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of antisemitism and anti-Jewish prejudice. Antisemitism studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of Jewish studies, social sciences, history, public policy, psychology, and law.

References

  1. Rocker, Simon (24 April 2008). "Union bans anti-boycott activist". The Jewish Chronicle . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Patrikarakos, David (4 September 2018). "An Expert on Anti-Semitism Fears for the Future in Britain". Tablet (magazine). Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  3. 1 2 Lipman, Jennifer (1 September 2017). "Ex-cabbie who took on the left". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  4. 1 2 "David Hirsh, BSc MA PhD". Goldsmiths, University of London . Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  5. "Philip Abrams Memorial Prize Archive". British Sociological Association. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  6. Hodges, Lucy, "The rebellion begins.", The Independent , 5 May 2005.
  7. Frankel, Glenn. "British Academics Repeal Israel Boycott", The Washington Post , 27 May 2005.
  8. Joffe-Walt, Benjamin (30 May 2006). "Lecturers back boycott of Israeli academics". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  9. Allington, Daniel; Hirsh, David (1 August 2019). "The AzAs (Antizionist Antisemitism) Scale: Measuring Antisemitism as Expressed in Relation to Israel and Its Supporters". Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. 2 (2): 43–52. doi:10.26613/jca/2.2.32. ISSN   2472-9906. S2CID   213804306.
  10. "London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism". London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  11. Miciks, David (27 October 2017). "Progressive Anti-Semitism and Putin In 'Contemporary Left Antisemitism,' David Hirsh compellingly traces a newly resurgent form of disinformation to its surprising enablers (book review)". Tablet . Retrieved 2 May 2019.