Resources for Combating Antisemitism

Antisemitism is a critical social justice issue, yet many are unclear on what the term means and are unfamiliar with its long history. All of this makes naming and addressing the issue complicated and necessary. We’ve compiled resources here to help people unpack what is meant by the term, and to address and combat the issue.

According to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, antisemitism is:

  • A form of prejudice and/or discrimination directed toward Jews as individuals or as a group.
  • Hatred of Jews because of their religious beliefs, their group membership, and sometimes the erroneous belief that Jews are a ‘race’.
  • Based on age-old stereotypes and myths.

The resources below were compiled in partnership with students, faculty and staff from across the University for you to use in your exploration of this critical issue and the development of skills to combat antisemitism. Requests to add additional items can be sent to [email protected]. 

The resources below include off-campus resources that Columbia is neither affiliated with nor explicitly endorses. This list is intended only to inform students of resources available to them in the broader community. 

BOOKS

The books listed below are only a small sample of books available from Columbia Libraries on this topic. Please consult with a Columbia reference librarian for additional resources.

Book descriptions are visible when hovering over book covers.

Book cover for Antisemitism: Here and Now
Deborah Lipstadt is Joe Biden's nominee for Special Envoy on Antisemitism and is one of the world's experts on the topic. This book, framed as a dialogue, describes contemporary antisemitism, its precedents, and contexts. (Image courtesy of Schocken Press)
Antisemitism: Here and Now

by Deborah Lipstadt

Book cover for Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition
David Niremberg has written many books on Jew-hatred in the medieval era; this book looks at the phenomenon across history and into the present day. One of the items he addresses is anti-Judaism as a concept that ignores living, breathing Jews, but rather focuses on an imagined "Jew" or "Judaism" that can be assigned all sorts of violent motives and activities. (Image courtesy of W.W. Norton)
Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition

by David Niremberg

Book cover for People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present
This provocative and engaging book details the uncomfortable (and sometimes unbelieveable!) stories of nations and individuals who feel more comfortable embracing "dead Jews" than accepting and learning about those living ones around them. (Image courtesy of W.W. Norton)
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

by Dara Horn

Book cover for Anti-Semitism in America by Leonard Dinnerstein
Exactly one comprehensive scholarly history of American anti-Semitism exists and this is it. Dinnerstein chronicles all aspects of anti-Semitism in American history from the colonial period to the 1990s. He situates anti-Semitism within the context of Christian hostility toward Jews, and compares hatred of Jews with other forms of American animus. (Image courtesy of Oxford University Press)
Anti-Semitism in America

by Leonard Dinnerstein

Book cover for When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna
On December 17, 1862, just weeks before Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, General Grant issued what remains the most notorious anti-Jewish order by a government official in American history. Award-winning historian Jonathan D. Sarna gives us the first complete account of this little-known episode—including Grant's subsequent apology, his groundbreaking appointment of Jews to prominent positions in his administration, and his unprecedented visit to the land of Israel. Sarna sheds new light on one of our most enigmatic presidents, on the Jews of his day, and on the ongoing debate between ethnic loyalty and national loyalty that continues to roil American political and social discourse. (Image courtesy of Schocken Publishing)
When General Grant Expelled the Jews

by Jonathan D. Sarna

Book cover for Anti-Semitism Today by Kenneth S. Stern
On December 17, 1862, just weeks before Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, General Grant issued what remains the most notorious anti-Jewish order by a government official in American history. Award-winning historian Jonathan D. Sarna gives us the first complete account of this little-known episode—including Grant's subsequent apology, his groundbreaking appointment of Jews to prominent positions in his administration, and his unprecedented visit to the land of Israel. Sarna sheds new light on one of our most enigmatic presidents, on the Jews of his day, and on the ongoing debate between ethnic loyalty and national loyalty that continues to roil American political and social discourse. (Image courtesy of Amer Jewish Committee)
Anti-Semi­tism Today: How It Is the Same, How It Is Dif­fer­ent, and How to Fight It

by Kenneth S. Stern

Book cover for How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust by Dan McMillan
In How Could This Happen, historian Dan McMillan distills the vast body of Holocaust research into a cogent explanation and comprehensive analysis of the genocide's many causes, revealing how a once-progressive society like Germany could have carried out this crime. The Holocaust, he explains, was caused not by one but by a combination of factors -- from Germany's failure to become a democracy until 1918, to the widespread acceptance of anti-Semitism and scientific racism, to the effects of World War I, which intensified political divisions within the country and drastically lowered the value of human life in the minds of an entire generation. (Image courtesy of Basic Books)
How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust

by Dan McMillan

Book cover for Building After Auschwitz by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld
Building After Auschwitz is the first major study to examine the origins of the "new Jewish architecture". Historian Gavriel D. Rosenfeld describes this cultural development as the result of important shifts in Jewish memory and identity since the Holocaust, and cites the rise of postmodernism, multiculturalism, and Holocaust consciousness as a catalyst. In showing how Jewish architects responded to the Nazi genocide in their work, Rosenfeld's study sheds new light on the evolution of Holocaust memory. (Image courtesy of Yale University Press)
Building After Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust

by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld

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