Kenneth S. Stern is an American attorney and an author. He is the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate,[1] a program of the Human Rights Project at Bard College. From 2014 to 2018 he was the executive director of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation. From 1989 to 2014 he was the director of antisemitism, hate studies and extremism for the American Jewish Committee. In 2000, Stern was a special advisor to the defense in the David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt trial.[2] His 2020 book, The Conflict Over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate,[3] examines attempts of partisans of each side to censor the other, and the resulting damage to the academy.
In 2001 he was an official member of the United States delegation to the Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance. Stern was one of the drafters of a Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been adopted, starting in January 2005, by various international bodies tasked with monitoring antisemitism.[4][5]
Before coming to AJC in 1989, Stern was managing partner of the Oregon law firm Rose and Stern. Stern was trial and appellate counsel for American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks, and argued on his behalf before the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Loud Hawk et al. Among his other notable cases was his representation of Portland's homeless community in a federal lawsuit against an anti-camping ordinance, and as co-counsel in a defamation suit against Patricia Hearst, representing Jack and Micki Scott. His book about the Dennis Banks case, Loud Hawk: The United States vs. the American Indian Movement (1994), won the Gustave Myers Center Award as outstanding book on human rights.[citation needed]
Stern's other books are Holocaust Denial (1993) and Antisemitism Today (2006).[citation needed]
Stern is also active in the effort to establish an interdisciplinary academic field of Hate Studies. He previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Hate Studies, and is a longtime member of the director's advisory board for the Gonzaga University Institute for Hate Studies.[citation needed]
Views
In his article Holocaust education alone won't stop hate, Stern proposes ways to combat persisting hatred of Jews:
Human rights organizations must be challenged when they do not sufficiently assert that freedom from anti-Semitism is a human right.
Governments must be engaged to ensure that they investigate and prosecute anti-Semitic hate crimes fully.
Monitoring groups must catalog not only the old-fashioned forms of religious and racial anti-Semitism, but also the more contemporary forms that treat the Jewish state in the same bigoted manner that traditional anti-Semitism regards the individual Jew. Campus administrations need to uphold the highest academic standards and make certain that while heated debate is encouraged, intimidation is prohibited.[6]
In an open letter, coauthored with Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, Stern wrote that some of the complaints about anti-Semitism on campus under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "simply seek to silence anti-Israel discourse and speakers. This approach is not only unwarranted under Title VI, it is dangerous."[7] Stern's letter was disavowed by AJC executive director David Harris, who called the letter "ill-advised."[8] In 2017 Stern testified before the House Judiciary Committee against legislation that would have used a definition of antisemitism, of which he was the lead drafter, as a de facto hate speech code on campus.[9]
In his 2006 book Antisemitism Today, Stern wrote:
"Today’s main practitioners of race-based antisemitism in the U.S. are neo-Nazis, skinheads, Christian Identity adherents (who believe that people of color are subhuman and that Jews are the offspring of Satan), and various other white supremacists and white nationalists. While there are important ideological and theological differences among these groups, they all hate nonwhites. They also see Jews as responsible for opening the door to equal rights and opportunity for nonwhites, as part of a nefarious plot to destroy “white America" through immigration, affirmative action, control of the media, and other alleged schemes. While we think of white supremacists as essentially anti-people-of-color with some antisemitism thrown in, antisemitism is actually the ideological (as opposed to emotional) anchor for their movement. If blacks and other minorities are, in their view, unquestionably inferior, how could the superior whites be "losing" the battle? The white supremacists believe it is because of the secret, cabalistic hand of the Jew, pulling the strings behind the scenes. It is because of ZOG (the Zionist Occupied Government). While race-based antisemitism is at a low point, and has been for many decades, there are reasons to be concerned about its possible growth in the decades to come, particularly because demographic projections indicate that the United States will be a majority nonwhite country by the middle of this century. The race-based antisemitism which is at the core of white supremacy may prove an ideological magnet for people who fear this change."[10]
In his book A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, Stern links Oklahoma City bomberTimothy McVeigh with the American militia movement. In a review in Reason,Dave Kopel concludes that he "does not come remotely close to showing that militia members encouraged McVeigh to do anything illegal", but uses circumstantial evidence, guilt by association and undocumented quotes that turn out to be false. Not only militias, but all critics of big government are excoriated in the book. After the 1994 elections, Stern found that "the vitriolic antifederal sentiments of some of these newly elected officials" differed "in detail but not in flavor" from the ideas of racist gangs. Kopel considers his use of charges of antisemitism and racism as a way of vilifying opponents and delegitimizing political stands he does not like.[11] But Patsy Sims, writing in The New York Times, noted:
"The underlying ideology that links the individual groups, Mr. Stern says, is a shared conviction that the United States is being taken over by outside forces with the help of Government insiders. In this scenario, militia members see gun control as the first step in an elaborate plot to take away their weapons, then their rights and finally their freedom."[12]
In December 2019, Stern, who has previously served as the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, expressed concerned that right-wing Jewish groups and national governments were using the document to silence what he regarded as legitimate criticisms of Israel.[13] Stern also claimed that the US President Donald Trump's 2019 Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism would stifle Palestinian free speech rather than protecting Jewish students.[14] In December 2020, Stern urged the incoming Biden administration not to adopt the IHRA Working Definition, claiming that it had been weaponized by pro-Israel lobby groups to silence criticism of Zionism.[15]
Loud Hawk: The United States Versus the American Indian Movement (1994) University of Oklahoma Press, 2002: ISBN0-8061-3439-9
The Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (Simon & Schuster, 1996) (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997: ISBN0-8061-2926-3)
Antisemitism Today: How It Is the Same, How It Is Different and How to Fight It (American Jewish Committee, 2006): ISBN978-0-87495-140-0
Articles and other publication
Skinheads: Who They Are and What to Do When They Come to Town (The American Jewish Committee, 1990)
Anti-Zionism, the Sophisticated Anti-Semitism (AJC, 1990).
on Campus: A Planned Response, 1990
Dr. Jeffries and the anti-Semitic branch of the Afrocentrism movement, 1991
David Duke: A Nazi in politics, 1991
Hate on talk radio, 1991
Politics and bigotry, 1992
Farrakhan and Jews in the 1990s (AJC, 1992, 1994).
Crown Heights: A case study in anti-Semitism and community relations, 1992
Demjanjuk: An analysis of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Demjanjuk v. Petrovsky, et al., 1993
Liberators: A background report, 1993
Militias, a growing danger (An American Jewish Committee background report, 1995)
A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, 1996
The McVeigh trial 1997
Militias and the religious right Freedom Writer, October 1996. (Institute for First Amendment Studies, 1998)
Hate and the Internet (AJC)
Lying About the Holocaust (SPLC Intelligence Report, Fall 2001)
Hate MattersArchived February 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine A condensed version of Stern's keynote speech at the First Conference to Establish the Academic Field of Hate Studies
Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
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.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to The New York Times, is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish organizations". As of 2009, AJC envisions itself as the "Global Center for Jewish and Israel Advocacy".
The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew", and auto-antisemite are antisemitic pejorative terms used to describe a Jew whose viewpoints on a specific matter, especially issues relating to Israel, are perceived as antisemitic.
Manfred Gerstenfeld was an Austrian-born Israeli author and chairman of the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He founded and directed the center's post-Holocaust and anti-Semitism program.
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.
Antisemitic tropes or antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since as early as the 2nd century, libels or allegations of Jewish guilt and cruelty emerged as a recurring motif along with antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Different opinions exist among historians regarding the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism contrasted with its European counterpart. In contrast to the horrors of European history, John Higham states that in the United States "no decisive event, no deep crisis, no powerful social movement, no great individual is associated primarily with, or significant chiefly because of anti-Semitism." Accordingly, David A. Gerber concludes that antisemitism "has been a distinctly minor feature of the nation's historical development."
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Canada's Jewish community was established in the 18th century.
" 'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism" is a 2006 essay written by Alvin Hirsch Rosenfeld, director of Indiana University's Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and professor of English and Jewish Studies. It was published by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) with an introduction by AJC executive director David A. Harris. The essay claims that a "number of Jews, through their speaking and writing, are feeding a rise in virulent antisemitism by questioning whether Israel should even exist".
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Kenneth L. Marcus in 2012 with the stated purpose of advancing the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promoting justice for all peoples. LDB is active on American campuses, where it says it combats antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
There have been instances of antisemitism within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) since its establishment. Notable occurrences include canards about "Jewish finance" during the Boer War and antisemitic remarks from leading Labour politician Ernest Bevin. In the 2000s, controversies arose over comments made by Labour politicians regarding an alleged "Jewish lobby", a comparison by London Labour politician Ken Livingstone of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, and a 2005 Labour attack on Jewish Conservative Party politician Michael Howard.
The working definition of antisemitism, also called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism or IHRA definition, is a non-legally binding statement on what antisemitism is, that reads: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." Accompanying the working definition, but of disputed status, are 11 illustrative examples whose purpose is described as guiding the IHRA in its work, seven of which relate to criticism of the Israeli government. As such, pro-Israeli organizations have been advocates for the worldwide legal adoption of the definition.
The Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism, officially Executive Order 13899, is an executive order which was announced on December 10, 2019 and signed the next day by U.S. President Donald Trump. The said purpose of the order was to prevent antisemitism by making it easier to use laws which prohibit institutional discrimination against people based on race, color or national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people, including opposition to Israel uniquely as a Jewish nationstate without opposition to other nation-states. The definition of anti-Semitism which is used in the executive order was written by the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which defines anti-Semitism as, “...a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
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.
Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.
When antisemitism accusations are exploited for political purposes, especially to counter criticism of Israel, it may be described variously as a weaponization of antisemitism, instrumentalization of antisemitism, or playing the antisemitism card. Such accusations have been criticized as a form of smear tactics and an "appeal to motive". Some writers have compared this to playing the race card. When used against Jews, it may take the form of the pejorative claim of "self-hating Jew".
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