060050 VO Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2024S)

The terrorist attack on October 7th last year led to an unprecedented explosion of antisemitism both in the Western world and in the world of Islam. This lecture class aims to trace the history of the persecution of Judaism from its beginnings to the present day and ask about its causes. Since antiquity, Jews were and are victism of persecution and violence. Today, almost eighty years after the Shoah, antisemitic violence has become frighteningly commonplace. Genocide, expulision and other forms of physical violence against Jews are but a part of the their history of persecution. They are complemented by legislative, institutional, economic, cultural, and religious forms of persecution. This lecture class does not simply want to reiterate the persecution history of Judaism but will ask what motivated and motivates antisemitic persecutions and which objectives were pursued by their means. Examples for persecutions that I will adress in my lecture class include the Shoah, the Spanish inquisition, synagogue- and Talmud-burnings, discrediting the Jewish cultural memory, and Israel boycotts.