Good Jews: Philosemitism in History

The multifarious faces of antisemitism have understandably dominated the historical study of relations between Jews and non-Jews. However, non-Jewish attitudes towards Jews have always been complicated, and frequently ambivalent – the hatred of Jews often intertwined with contrary impulses of idealization and fascination. This volume aims to examine and trace through history the various manifestations of these ‘philosemitic’ attitudes (including a critical interrogation of the term itself), from antiquity to the present. In so doing we hope to draw together interdisciplinary research on this topic, and cast new light on an often neglected but key aspect of the overdetermination of Jews and Judaism in Western culture.

We seek proposals for contributions from scholars working on any aspect of the history of attitudes towards Jews that might broadly be considered ‘philosemitic’. We would welcome contributions from historians and from literary scholars, as well as from other relevant disciplines such as theology or philosophy. Possible topics include: philosemitism in the ancient world, philosemitism in early and early modern Christianity, literary manifestations of philosemitism, philosemitism in economic thought, the relation of philosemitism to Jewish apologetics, philosemitism in popular culture, evangelical philosemitism, non-Western, Black, and ethnic minority philosemitism, and philosemitism in relation to Zionism / Israel.

Potential contributors should feel welcome to contact the editors at any time to discuss their participation over email. A short abstract of potential contributions (one or two paragraphs) should be sent to both editors by October 30, 2005. We will then aim to finalize the contents of the volume as fast and possible, and will request the submission of compete essays (of approximately 6,000-0,000 words) by June 15, 2006.

Adam Sutcliffe, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (asutclif@uiuc.edu)
Jonathan Karp, Binghamton U. (jkarp@binghamton.edu)