What Drives Antisemitism? A Search for Its Political/Mythological Roots

This presentation will explore the defining motivations and motifs that fuel the phenomenon of antisemitism. It will focus in particular on (1) antisemitism’s claim to the word of Truth, (2) variations on the theme of blood libel and bloodshed, and (3) antisemitism’s stake in purification and redemption.

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David Patterson holds the Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitsm and Policy (ISGAP). He is a former commissioner of the former Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission and a member of the Executive Board of the Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches. He has lectured at universities on six continents and throughout the United States. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award, the Koret Jewish Book Award, and the Holocaust Scholars’ Conference Eternal Flame Award, he has published 40 books and more than 240 articles, essays, and book chapters on antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Jewish studies. His most recent books are "Judaism, Antisemitism, Holocaust: Making the Connections" (Cambridge, forthcoming), "Shoah and Torah" (Routledge, forthcoming), "Portraits: Elie Wiesel’s Hasidic Legacy" (SUNY, 2021), "The Holocaust and the Non-Representable" (SUNY, 2018), and "Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins" (Cambridge, 2015).