Co-sponsored by the Department of History and The Europe Center.
Lane History Corner, Room 307
Appeared in Stanford Report, August 29, 2014
European leaders need to speak out more strongly against the escalation of anti-Semitism, a Stanford professor says.
"They should be willing to enforce the law," said Russell Berman, a Stanford professor of German studies and of comparative literature who is affiliated with the Europe Center on campus.
In recent weeks, slogans invoking anti-Semitism have been heard during European protests against the Palestinian deaths in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In France and Germany, synagogues and Jewish community centers have been firebombed. In Britain, a rabbi was attacked near a Jewish boarding school.
"Protesters who storm synagogues should be arrested and prosecuted. Too often police have shown a blind eye when political protests have transformed into anti-Semitic mob actions," said Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
He said that European societies in the long run have to find a way to grapple with their failed immigration policies and achieve more effective integration, he said. This includes more efficiently integrating immigrants into the cultural expectations of their new societies.
"Post–World War II Europe had as a core value a rejection of the anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust. Europeans have to develop a pedagogy that can pass that value on to the new members of their communities," said Berman.
The recent eruption of anti-Semitism in Europe has multiple causes, according to Berman. The continent's lagging economy, the influx of immigrants from Muslim countries and the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian conflict are large factors.
And as last year's European parliament elections revealed, right-wing extremism has grown across Europe, he said.
"The far right is historically a home of anti-Semitism wrapped in nationalism and xenophobia. Some of this development can be attributed to the ongoing economic crisis, but some is certainly also a reaction against what is sometimes called the 'democracy deficit' in the European Union," Berman said.
Some Europeans believe their national political life has been subordinated to a "transnational bureaucracy" in the form of the European Union, Berman said. He added that this breeds resentment, and one expression of that is anti-Semitism, which is coinciding with traditional European nationalism.
Berman added, "Clearly this does not apply to all Muslims in Europe, but it has become an unmistakable feature in those population cohorts susceptible to radicalization as a response to a sense of social marginalization."
In Europe, immigrant populations are often clustered in de facto segregated neighborhoods, forming a parallel society, Berman said.
"While policies of multiculturalism have in the United States often contributed to productive integration, in Europe they have worked differently and undermined social cohesion. In that context, anti-Semitism has festered," he said.
Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have also fanned the flames of European anti-Semitism, Berman said. Meanwhile, protests did not arise in Europe when Muslims and Christians were massacred in recent months in Syria and Iraq.
"A year ago, one could still make an at least conceptual distinction between anti-Zionism [criticism of Israel] and anti-Semitism [hatred of Jews]," he said.
The events in the past months in the streets of Europe have erased that distinction, Berman said.
"The politics of criticizing Israel have been fully taken over by anti-Semites, whether from the traditional European far right, the extremist left or parts of the immigrant communities," he said.
When the European economy soured, leaving many young people unemployed at a time of surging globalism – all against a "residual" communist backdrop that still exists in parts of Europe – anti-Semitism was the result, according to Berman.
"That inherent anxiety and free-floating animosity in Europe turns into hostility to minorities," he said. "It can generate both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim prejudices, but anti-capitalism is today, as it has been historically, a particular source of anti-Semitism."
Berman calls this left-wing anti-Semitism – the targeting Jews as the symbols of capitalism – which he says has a long history. "A socialist leader of the 19th century once called anti-Semitism 'the anti-capitalism of fools,' and that's part of what we still see today," Berman said.
Amir Eshel, a professor of German studies and of comparative literature and affiliated faculty member of The Europe Center, said Europe needs to do a better job of integrating Muslim immigrants into their new societies. In particular, he said, more economic opportunities must be given to people from disenfranchised communities.
"Nothing is as important as giving people opportunities to make their lives better," said Eshel, the Edward Clark Crossett Professor in Humanistic Studies. He is also an affiliated faculty member at the Europe Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Eshel points to important roles for the media and educational systems to play in clamping down on anti-Semitism. There are programs in place – International Holocaust Remembrance Day, for example – to remind people about the evil inflicted on Jews in Europe more than 60 years ago.
"What has changed is that young people are less biographically connected to these crimes of the past," said Eshel.
"When this happens, as the Holocaust drifts further in time, a certain sensibility arises that one should not be bound by the lessons of the past," he said.
Anti-Semitism in Europe, he said, is the worst he's seen or known about since the end of World War II. He's especially worried about the large numbers of Muslims from Britain and France who have joined the jihadist movements in places like Syria and Iraq.
"It's not going to be easy to track them if they return," Eshel noted, "and it'll be a challenge for many years in Europe."
History Professor Norman Naimark said that some French Jews are leaving the country because of ongoing anti-Semitic violence.
"Germany has also experienced an ongoing problem on both the extreme left and right, but there the authorities and the Jewish community seem to have the situation under control," added Naimark, the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in Eastern European Studies.
Naimark, the director of the Stanford Global Studies Division and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, described European anti-Semitism as following an oscillating curve up and down, especially in times of Middle East crises.
"England seems particularly susceptible to these kinds of oscillations," he said.
This unit explores Korean culture, i.e., the beliefs, customs, arts, and ways of life shared by—and often unique to—people living on the Korean peninsula. How did this culture develop? How has it changed over time? How has it stayed the same? By examining these essential questions, students will come to learn that a country’s culture is both anchored in its past—in historical events that have gained special meaning and in customary beliefs and practices that have lingered and survived—and a result of adaptation to changing times.
To promote a deeper understanding of Japanese culture, history, contemporary issues, and U.S.–Japan relations, we recommend the following diverse set of teaching resources and curriculum tools to bring Japan to life in K–12 classrooms. Many others can be found on the SPICE website. In addition, SPICE offers a national distance-learning course for high school students called the Reischauer Scholars Program.
Central Conference Room, Encina Hall (2nd Floor)
Encina Hall Basement, Room E008
Abstract: Despite growing interest in the phenomenon of Third World internationalism, the post-colonial world’s contribution to modern international history is still greatly under-appreciated. Important South-South dynamics are neglected in order to privilege a North-South framework of analysis, while excessive preoccupation with the discourse of the 1955 Bandung Conference obscures the substantive and changing nature of the Third World project. However, new evidence from countries like Algeria and the former Yugoslavia now make it possible to re-examine “Third Wordlism” as a geopolitical project and diffuse ideology. This paper argues that Third Worldism evolved from a subversive transnational phenomenon into a conservative and state-centric international one. By determining the nature of decolonization—that is, the universalization of the sovereign state model—Third Worldist forces helped to reshape the entire contemporary international system. Moreover, by stoking international tensions for their own advantage (contrary to the public rhetoric of the Non-Alignment Movement), countries like Algeria played an under-appreciated role in prolonging and globalizing the Cold War.
About the Speaker: Jeffrey James Byrne studied at Yale University and the London School of Economics, and is now Assistant Professor of history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He writes on the international history of the twentieth century, with a particular interest in Africa, the Middle East, decolonization, and the connections between developing countries. His work has been published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Diplomatic History, and numerous essay collections. His first book, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria and the Third World’s Cold War, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2015.
Encina Hall (2nd floor)
Conference Agenda for Day 3, October 10, 2014:
9:00 – 10:15 AM Chair: Katherine Jolluck, Stanford University
10:30 AM – 12:15 PM Chair: Darius Staliunas, Lithuanian Institute of History
12:15 – 2:00 PM Break
2:00 – 3:15 PM Chair: Paul Roderick Gregory, Hoover Institution
3:30 – 4:15 PM Chair: Saulius Sužiedėlis, Millersville University, Pennsylvania
6:00 – 8:00 PM, Cubberley Auditorium, Education Building, 485 Lasuen Mall
Latvian film director Pēteris Krilovs will present his documentary Obliging Collaborators (2014)
Conference organizers: Professors Lazar Fleishman (Slavic Department) and Amir Weiner (History Department)
Sponsored by: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Office of the Provost, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford Global Studies Division, The Europe Center, Stanford University Libraries, Division of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Stanford Humanities Center.
Stauffer Auditorium, Hoover Institution (9:00am - 4:15pm)
Cubberley Auditorium (for film screening, 6:00pm - 8:00pm)
Conference Agenda for Day 2, October 9, 2014:
9:00-10:45 AM Chair: Magnus Ilmjärv, Тallinn University
11:00 AM – 12:15 PM Chair: David Holloway, Stanford University
12:15 – 2:00 PM Break
2:00 – 3:15 PM Chair: Norman Naimark, Stanford University
3:30 – 4:45 PM Chair: Gabriella Safran, Stanford
Conference organizers: Professors Lazar Fleishman (Slavic Department) and Amir Weiner (History Department)
Sponsored by: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Office of the Provost, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford Global Studies Division, The Europe Center, Stanford University Libraries, Division of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Stanford Humanities Center.
Stauffer Auditorium, Hoover Institution
This keynote address for the international conference on "War, Revolution and Freedom: the Baltic Countries in the 20th Century" will be given by Vaira Viķe-Freiberga, President of the Club of Madrid, and Former President of Latvia. The introduction will be made by Eric T. Wakin, Robert H. Malott Director of Library & Archives, Hoover Institution, and Norman Naimark, Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in East European Studies.
A reception will immediately follow the keynote address.
Sponsored by: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Office of the Provost, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford Global Studies Division, The Europe Center, Stanford University Libraries, Division of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Stanford Humanities Center.
Stauffer Auditorium
The Hoover Institution
CISAC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, C235
Stanford, CA 94305-6165
Norman M. Naimark is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of East European Studies, a Professor of History and (by courtesy) of German Studies, and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and (by courtesy) of the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies. Norman formerly served as the Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division, the Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program, the Convener of the European Forum (predecessor to The Europe Center), Chair of the History Department, and the Director of Stanford’s Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Norman earned his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University in 1972 and before returning to join the faculty in 1988, he was a professor of history at Boston University and a fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard. He also held the visiting Catherine Wasserman Davis Chair of Slavic Studies at Wellesley College. He has been awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1996), the Richard W. Lyman Award for outstanding faculty volunteer service (1995), and the Dean's Teaching Award from Stanford University for 1991-92 and 2002-3.
Norman is interested in modern Eastern European and Russian history and his research focuses on Soviet policies and actions in Europe after World War II and on genocide and ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century. His published monographs on these topics include The History of the "Proletariat": The Emergence of Marxism in the Kingdom of Poland, 1870–1887 (1979, Columbia University Press), Terrorists and Social Democrats: The Russian Revolutionary Movement under Alexander III (1983, Harvard University Press), The Russians in Germany: The History of The Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949 (1995, Harvard University Press), The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe (1998, Westview Press), Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing In 20th Century Europe (2001, Harvard University Press), Stalin's Genocides (2010, Princeton University Press), and Genocide: A World History (2016, Oxford University Press). Naimark’s latest book, Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The Postwar Struggle for Sovereignty (Harvard 2019), explores seven case studies that illuminate Soviet policy in Europe and European attempts to build new, independent countries after World War II.