With and without Jews: Two families of antisemitism concepts

Abstract

Behind the dispute about definitions of antisemitism we can detect a deep conceptual divide. The paper outlines the development of two distinct and incommensurable families of concepts of antisemitism: substantial and abstract-formal concepts. The semantic core of substantial concepts consists in hostility towards Jews (or Judaism) as Jews (where Jews may also be replaced by substitutes like Israel). In the recent past, mediated by bridging concepts like communication latency, abstract-formal concepts of antisemitism have emerged. In certain forms of criticism towards Israel these concepts consider antisemitic they merely see a historical connection to hatred of Jews. However, hostility towards Jews is no longer a necessary property of the concept. This axiomatic divide blocks the research on and the fight against antisemitism on an analytical and ethical level. What is needed is transparency about the basis of the conversation and a recognition that these two families of concepts exist.

Keywords

• antisemitism
• definition
• working definition antisemitism
• ihra
• middle east conflict
• structural antisemitism
• israel-related antisemitism
• communication latency