INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RISE IN WESTERN ANTI-SEMITISM. Draws Scholars and Writers from 11 Countries to New York

More than 30 internationally recognized authors, scholars and journalists from North America, Europe and Israel will gather at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in Lower Manhattan for a four-day conference on rising anti-Semitism. The May 11-14 event, titled "Old Demons, New Debates: Anti-Semitism in the West," will examine recent anti-Jewish attacks in Western countries-some just prior to the war in Iraq and others since the start of the conflict.

"Jews have been slandered and their institutions have been attacked," declared Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of The New Republic, a speaker and a key member of the conference planning committee. "Europe seems once again disfigured by its ancient and most ignoble prejudice."


"By exposing and debating anti-Semitism," said Bruce Slovin, who chairs both YIVO and The Center for Jewish History, "we help root it out."


The panelists-all internationally recognized for their incisive analysis of world events-are from the United States, Britain, Canada, Israel, Iran, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, France, Italy and Germany. Among them are: cultural and political essayist, Paul Berman; French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut; Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman; Chair of the Harvard University Afro-American Studies Department, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Executive Director and CEO of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris; the European correspondent for The New Yorker, Jane Kramer; author of the just published "Lolita In Tehran," Azar Nafisi and historian Simon Schama.


"YIVO's mission is to study and document the history, society and cultures of East European Jewry," explained Executive Director Dr. Carl Rheins. "That gives us a special responsibility to learn from our tragic past and help the world understand the complex issue of anti-Semitism so no one will ever be able to say 'I didn't know.'" YIVO was founded in 1925 in Vilna, Poland (now Lithuania) and has been headquartered in New York City since 1940. It is located at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, New York.


The conference was organized after several members of YIVO's Board of Directors visited Europe and were alarmed by the wave of attacks on synagogues, rabbis and other Jews and Jewish institutions. While many of the assaults were carried out by Europe's growing Muslim community in an apparent attempt to export the Middle East conflict, they occurred amid increased support for anti-Semitic parties in some elections. New reports also show a steep rise in anti-Semitic incidents on university campuses in the United States, and some leading American politicians have even blamed "the Jews" for the invasion of Iraq.


This landmark conference will reach beyond headlines to critically examine the current strains of anti-Semitism with an eye to the varied political, sociological and academic phenomena that surround them. Steering clear of rhetoric and advocacy, the conference will be a forum for lively debate and discussion. The lectures will be viewable in person and via a live web cast at www.antisemitism-debates.org.


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