Making Jews visible: Germany’s Antisemitism Commissioners
The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (BISA)
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s counterattack on Gaza, there is a rise in antisemitic attacks on Jews, Jewish property, and Jewish-identified institutions in Germany. German politicians have defined the protection of Israel as Germany’s Staatsraison because of Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust. The commitment to protect Israel, and the association of Jews with Israel, is manifest in Bundestag legislation and in the office of state and federal-level commissioners “for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism.”
Irit Dekel is a sociologist of culture who studies memory politics, and ethnic and religious inequality in contemporary Germany. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington
Contact bisa@bbk.ac.uk for further information.
