Deborah E. Lipstadt was surprised at how hard it was to write her latest book. A leading authority on the Holocaust, she was used to “skulking in the sewers of antisemitism and genocide.” But that was history.<\/p>\n
What made her latest work so challenging \u2014 documenting the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and America, on the right and the left \u2014 was that it was happening now.<\/p>\n
The end result was well worth it.<\/p>\n
“Antisemitism: Here and Now” is an indispensable guide to contextualizing activities as diverse as the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign, also known as BDS.<\/p>\n
And it’s about as even-handed as it could be, given the disturbing subject matter and the fact that Lipstadt’s strong self-identification as a Jew made the topic intensely personal for her.<\/p>\n
The book is structured as a series of letters between a Jewish student of hers named Abigail and a colleague named Joe at the law school at Emory University, where Lipstadt is on the faculty.<\/p>\n
They are fictional characters who are composites of many people she’s had discussions with over the past few years.<\/p>\n
The letter format gives the book an urgency that might otherwise be lacking in a scholarly work, although at times, it can seem a little contrived.<\/p>\n
Lipstadt is best known for being sued for libel by David Irving after calling him a Holocaust denier. She won the case, which was later made into the 2016 film “Denial” starring Rachel Weisz.<\/p>\n
At the outset Lipstadt expresses her hope that both sides of the political divide will be discomfited by her analysis and conclusions, and they probably will.<\/p>\n
Lipstadt wrapped up the manuscript in August 2018 after noting that pace of anti-Jewish incidents and rhetoric had made it almost impossible to finish. Sadly, she was right.<\/p>\n
Just weeks after penning her note to readers, a man gunned down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. The suspect had a history of posting anti-Semitic vitriol online.<\/p>\n