A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad

Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Robert Wistrich and University of Maryland, College Park professor Jeffrey Herf will trace the history of anti-Semitism from its earliest recorded roots through the present, and will discuss the potential impacts of its modern-day resurgence.

Robert Wistrich is director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Neuburger professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A prolific author, Wistrich has written extensively on the history of anti-Semitism, Jews and socialism, Nazi Germany, and related topics. Between 1999 and 2001 Wistrich was one of six scholars appointed to an international Catholic-Jewish historical commission to examine the wartime record of Pope Pius the XII. More recently, in June 2003, he initiated and acted as chief historical advisor for a BBC film documentary on contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism, entitled "Blaming the Jews". Since 2003, he has edited the research journal Anti-Semitism International and the Posen Papers in Contemporary Anti-Semitism. Most recently, Wistrich is the author of A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad.

Jeffrey Herf is professor of modern European history at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World examines the Nazi regime's efforts to spread its ideas to North Africa and the Middle East during World War II and the Holocaust. Herf has lectured widely at major universities and research centers in the United States, Europe and Israel, and has also brought a historian's perspective to bear on issues of contemporary policy and politics in his contributions to The New Republic online and in essays in The American Interest, The International Herald Tribune, The National Interest, Partisan Review, The Washington Post and major German newspapers including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, and Die Zeit.