Join us for a conversation with Jonathan Judaken (Professor of History, Washington University of St. Louis) on his most recent book, Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism.

From the publisher, Columbia University Press, “Despite its persistence and viciousness, antisemitism remains undertheorized in comparison with other forms of racism and discrimination. This book is at once a philosophical reflection on key problems in the analysis of antisemitism and a history of its leading theories and theorists. Jonathan Judaken explores the methodological and conceptual issues that have vexed the study of Judeophobia and calls for a reconsideration of the definitions, categories, and narratives that underpin overarching explanations. He traces how a range of thinkers have wrestled with these challenges. Judaken argues against claims about the uniqueness of Judeophobia, demonstrating how it is entangled with other racisms: Islamophobia, Negrophobia, and xenophobia. Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism not only urges readers to question how they think about Judeophobia but also draws them into conversation with a range of leading thinkers whose insights are sorely needed in this perilous moment.”

Jonathan Judaken is the Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question: Anti-antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual (2006) and a coeditor of Situating Existentialism: Key Texts in Context (2012) and The Albert Memmi Reader (2020), among other books. Professor Judaken’s research focuses on representations of Jews and Judaism, race and racism, existentialism, and post-Holocaust French Jewish thought.

This event is open to the general public and NYU Community (faculty, students and staff). All must have a valid ID and have preregistered.

Co-presented by the Remarque Institute at NYU.