Fathom editors are proud to launch a new longer-form publication. Each ‘Fathom Insight’ will allow writers and readers to explore in greater depth a range of key contemporary debates about Israel’s future, regional dynamics, and the global rise of the ‘new antisemitism’. In this inaugural ‘Insight’, Kenneth Waltzer – the director of the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University (MSU) – offers some urgent critical reflections on the growth of antisemitism in Europe. He argues that amidst growing economic crisis, there has been an intensifying mobilisation of populist responses against immigrants and others and against established elites – in France, Hungary, Greece and elsewhere – which is sharpening antagonisms directed also against Jews. However, the main sources of the new antisemitism in most European states are the hard anti-colonial left, which attacks America and Israel as the cornerstones of Western imperialism, and alienated segments of the growing Muslim population, especially marginal youths. Waltzer maps these developments, traces their antisemitic impacts and asks how we can begin to counter the rising danger.

Our Voice of the Week is Ayman Odeh MK, head of the Joint List, giving his maiden speech in the Knesset.

Our Image of the Week is of Jewish Ethiopians attending a memorial ceremony for those who fell on their journey from Ethiopia to Israel, 17 May 2015. Photo by Gil Yochanan/POOL.

Reflections on Contemporary Anti-Semitism in Europe

by Kenneth Waltzer | May 18, 2015