Zionism and Anti-Zionism: Beyond the Polemics

Ethan Katz is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley

Presented by the Adam Cherrick Lecture Fund and the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies

This lecture will discuss the question of when anti-Zionism can be understood as antisemitic -- both historically and at present.

The current heated debates conceals deeper polemics about the complex historical relationship between not only antisemitism and anti-Zionism, but also Zionism and colonialism, and Jews and other others. In each case, we need to shift our thinking from polemical arguments that dehumanize the other side, to empathetic analysis that illuminates complex historical problems. After unlocking these broader issues, this presentation homes in on the question of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. It traces two major strands of anti-Zionism historically, one of which seeks to avoid antisemitism and one of which often intersects with antisemitism. The talk concludes by showing how the reverberations from October 7 and the events that have followed in Israel and Gaza have made all these interrelated issues -- antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Zionism and colonialism, and Jews and other others, appear to carry existential importance.

The event is free and open to the public, and will be held in the Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall on the Danforth campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The event will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m.

Ethan Katz is a scholar of the modern Jewish experience. His research and writing covers topics such as: the history of exclusion, belonging, and inter-ethnic relations for Jews and Muslims in France and the Francophone world; the history of Jews in colonial societies; the Holocaust; and, historical and contemporary antisemitism. He is the author of The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard University Press, 2015) as well as the co-editor of Colonialism and the Jews (Indiana University Press, 2017) and Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

The Adam Cherrick Lecture Fund in Jewish Studies at Washington University was established in 1988 by Jordan and Lorraine Cherrick of St. Louis, Missouri in memory of their son. Its purpose is to advance Jewish Studies at Washington University. Since its inception, the Fund has benefited both the University community and St. Louis at large by bringing world-renowned scholars to speak on campus.