Parrhesia Talks. Anti-Anti-Semitism: Current Debates

in englischer Sprache

My talk will reflect on the current function of the discourse concerning the fight against anti-Semitism, which I call “anti-anti-Semitism”, as a guiding principle in shaping state policies and the deployment of state power and state violence. I draw on a range of current declarations, statements, and policy documents, such as the German federal parliament’s new draft resolution Nie wieder ist jetzt: Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland schützen, bewahren und stärken (Never again is now: Protecting, preserving and strengthening Jewish life in Germany), as well as on various existing definition of anti-Semitism, such as the IHRA and the JDA. The talk engages with debates concerning the meaning and problems of the contemporary political function of anti-anti-Semitism from various points of view, not least with respect to the declared goal of preventing anti-Semitism.

Elad Lapidot is Professor for Jewish Thought at the University of Lille, France. Holding a PhD in philosophy from the Paris Sorbonne university, he has taught philosophy, Jewish thought and Talmud at many universities, such as the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Humboldt Universität and Freie Univeristät in Berlin. His work is guided by questions concerning the relation between knowledge and politics. His publications include: State of Others: Levinas and Decolonial Israel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2025); Politics of Not Speaking (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming 2025); Jews Out of the Question: A Critique of Anti-Anti-Semitism (Albany: SUNY Press, 2020), the Hebrew translation with Introduction and Commentary (with R. Bar) of Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes, Vol. 1 (Tel Aviv: Resling Publishing, 2020); Heidegger and Jewish Thought. Difficult Others, edited with M. Brumlik (London/New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), and Etre sans mot dire: La logique de ‘Sein und Zeit’ (Bucarest: Zeta Books, 2010).