Antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2021 reached an all-time high, according to figures compiled by the Community Security Trust, the charity that seeks to protect the Jewish community and monitors antisemitism.

The majority of these antisemitic incidents appear to be linked to events in the Middle East but some stem from the activities of far right and neo-Nazi homegrown organisations. However, antisemitism is not confined to the far right.

In a series of three webcasts and podcasts the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies, at the University of Sussex, examines the phenomenon of left antisemitism in the UK, Germany and the United States.

Commenting on the series Professor Gideon Reuveni, Director of the Institute said: ‘Since the war, antisemitism has mainly been associated with the far right but antisemitism on the left has been a growing trend, and not just in the UK as these discussions so vividly illustrate. There are no instant solutions but understanding the problem is the first step towards combatting it.’

In the first episode Dr Dave Rich, Head of Policy at the Community Security Trust in London discusses the issue in the UK with Dr Matt Bolton, who is currently based at the Centre for Antisemitism Research at the Technical University of Berlin. 

The episode focusing on the UK, explores the issue of left antisemitism which arguably first came to prominence in 2015 with the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party. The high-intensity debate which took place within the Party was seen by some observers to have played a role in Labour’s defeat in the 2019 general election.

The second episode focuses on Germany exploring where antisemitic themes have been used by some on the left for many years, dating back to the Red Army Faction (the Baader-Meinhof Group) who were active in the 1970s and whose antisemitism was linked to their Palestinian activism. The episode brings together Dr Christine Achinger from the University of Warwick and Dr Sebastian Voigt of the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich.  

The final episode looks at the situation in the United States with Dr Sina Arnold of the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin and Dr Blair Taylor of the Institute for Social Ecology based in Vermont. In the US, the rise of the left, particularly within the Democratic Party, has been a factor in the growth of many of the same left antisemitic themes seen in the UK, Germany and elsewhere.

The discussants in all three programmes are members of the Institute. They are Professor Gideon Reuveni, the Director of the Institute, Ivor Gaber, Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex and Dr David Juenger an Institute Fellow from the University of Rostock in Germany

Each discussion lasts approximately 45 minutes and episodes are available to listen to on Soundcloud, or to watch on YouTube.