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Fathom Highlight: Paris and the new antisemitism / 12 January / 2015

‘The most acute threat to Jewish life in Europe today comes from the jihadists of al-Qaeda, ISIS and their supporters,’ wrote Dave Rich in the latest Fathom. Reviewing Ben Cohen’s book Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism, Rich identified a new threat: ‘banlieue anti-Semitism.’ After the terrible events in Paris last week, his argument is timely and urgent. We also make available Rich’s analysis in Fathom of the French antisemite Dieudonné M’bala M’bala and the political meaning of the ugly ‘quenelle’ phenomenon. Rich is the Deputy Director of Communications for the UK’s Community Security Trust.

Our Voice of the Week is Haaretz’s Ari Shavit speaking at the Limmud conference about ‘The Battle for Israel’s Soul.’

Our Image of the Week shows a woman holding a placard which translates as ‘Israel is Charlie’ during a remembrance ceremony in Jerusalem on 11 January 2015, in tribute to the 17 victims of the Paris attacks. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Book Review | Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism

by Dave Rich

First, the disclosure: Ben Cohen is a friend and comrade who was kind enough to invite me to his son’s bar mitzvah in Jerusalem this summer. Surrounded by friends and family, the proud father began his speech to celebrate his son’s moment of Jewish maturity by promising that on that special day, ‘I will not mention antisemitism.’ This was not only because so much of his professional life is spent talking, thinking and writing about antisemitism. It was because, for...

Voice of the Week

Image of the Week

The unwelcome arrival of the quenelle
by Dave Rich

When the Premier League footballer Nicolas Anelka celebrated a goal by performing a quenelle salute he touched off a storm of protest. Dave Rich examines...

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