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Robert S. Wistrich, Scholar of Anti-Semitism, Dies at 70 Robert S. Wistrich, Scholar of Anti-Semitism, Dies at 70
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Robert S. Wistrich, who devoted his four-decade scholarly career to dissecting anti-Semitism, from the biblical Haman, who warned King Ahasuerus of Persia against strangers whose “laws are diverse from all people,” to modern Islamist extremists who deny Israel’s right to exist, died on May 19 in Rome. He was 70.Robert S. Wistrich, who devoted his four-decade scholarly career to dissecting anti-Semitism, from the biblical Haman, who warned King Ahasuerus of Persia against strangers whose “laws are diverse from all people,” to modern Islamist extremists who deny Israel’s right to exist, died on May 19 in Rome. He was 70.
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he taught since 1982, said he had a heart attack before a scheduled address to the Italian Senate on rising anti-Semitism in Europe.The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he taught since 1982, said he had a heart attack before a scheduled address to the Italian Senate on rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
Professor Wistrich was the author or editor of 29 books, including the encyclopedic “Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred.” In that volume he found anti-Semitism’s historic roots in Jewish religious and social exceptionalism, which, he said, antagonized early pagans and rulers who demanded absolute fealty, and which later spread as Christians embraced the divinity of Jesus. He distinguished between classical anti-Zionism, or opposition to a Jewish state, and anti-Semitism, and also between Islam and Islamist terrorism.Professor Wistrich was the author or editor of 29 books, including the encyclopedic “Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred.” In that volume he found anti-Semitism’s historic roots in Jewish religious and social exceptionalism, which, he said, antagonized early pagans and rulers who demanded absolute fealty, and which later spread as Christians embraced the divinity of Jesus. He distinguished between classical anti-Zionism, or opposition to a Jewish state, and anti-Semitism, and also between Islam and Islamist terrorism.
But in a letter published posthumously in The Jerusalem Post, he wrote: “The Islamists are the spearhead of current anti-Semitism, aided and abetted by the moral relativism of all-too-many naïve Western liberals.” But in a letter published posthumously in The Jerusalem Post, he wrote, “The Islamists are the spearhead of current anti-Semitism, aided and abetted by the moral relativism of all too many naïve Western liberals.”
Professor Wistrich wrote the text for the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s exhibition “People, Book, Land: The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People With the Holy Land,” which was displayed at the United Nations headquarters in New York in February and March. The exhibit’s debut in Paris last year was postponed after Arab nations protested that it could undermine Middle East peace talks. It finally opened after “Holy Land” was substituted for “Land of Israel” in the title. Professor Wistrich wrote the text for the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s exhibition “People, Book, Land: The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People With the Holy Land,” which was displayed at the United Nations headquarters in New York in February and March. The exhibition’s debut in Paris last year was postponed after Arab nations protested that it could undermine Middle East peace talks. It finally opened after “Holy Land” was substituted for “Land of Israel” in the title.
Robert Solomon Wistrich was born on April 7, 1945, in Lenger, in what was then the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. His parents had moved there after fleeing Poland on the day the Germans invaded. His father, Jakob Wistreich, was a doctor and a Zionist. His mother was the former Sabina Silbiger. Robert Solomon Wistrich was born on April 7, 1945, in Lenger, in what was then the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. His parents moved there after fleeing Poland on the day the Germans invaded. His father, Jakob Wistreich, was a doctor and a Zionist. His mother was the former Sabina Silbiger.
“In September 1939 they took a vacation and, because of a sense of foreboding that they had, they went eastward,” Professor Wistrich recalled in a 2007 interview with Covenant magazine. “Well, this turned out to be an eight-year vacation in hell!”“In September 1939 they took a vacation and, because of a sense of foreboding that they had, they went eastward,” Professor Wistrich recalled in a 2007 interview with Covenant magazine. “Well, this turned out to be an eight-year vacation in hell!”
His father was arrested twice by the Soviet secret police. After the war, the family was repatriated to Krakow, Poland, “but soon found out that they were living in a Jewish graveyard,” Professor Wistrich recalled. They obtained Costa Rican passports on the black market, traveled to Paris and eventually settled in London, where he formed his first memory of anti-Semitism.His father was arrested twice by the Soviet secret police. After the war, the family was repatriated to Krakow, Poland, “but soon found out that they were living in a Jewish graveyard,” Professor Wistrich recalled. They obtained Costa Rican passports on the black market, traveled to Paris and eventually settled in London, where he formed his first memory of anti-Semitism.
“In the 1950s, this was a normal part of the landscape,” he said in the interview. “Jews were ‘bloody foreigners,’ but I wasn’t rattled by it. All the teachers at my grammar school were influenced by anti-Jewish prejudices. So, in order to achieve, you had to outperform.”“In the 1950s, this was a normal part of the landscape,” he said in the interview. “Jews were ‘bloody foreigners,’ but I wasn’t rattled by it. All the teachers at my grammar school were influenced by anti-Jewish prejudices. So, in order to achieve, you had to outperform.”
He said that the nondescript house in which he was raised, at 24 Oxford Road in Kilburn, was where Theodor Herzl embraced the concept of a Jewish state during an 1895 conversation with the playwright Israel Zangwill.He said that the nondescript house in which he was raised, at 24 Oxford Road in Kilburn, was where Theodor Herzl embraced the concept of a Jewish state during an 1895 conversation with the playwright Israel Zangwill.
Professor Wistrich studied at Stanford University, returned to Europe to participate in the Paris student revolt in 1968 and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge in England. He visited Israel in 1969, staying 16 months; received a doctorate from the University of London; and was research director at the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London.Professor Wistrich studied at Stanford University, returned to Europe to participate in the Paris student revolt in 1968 and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge in England. He visited Israel in 1969, staying 16 months; received a doctorate from the University of London; and was research director at the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London.
In 1982, he was granted tenure at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he held the Neuberger chair for modern European history and had headed the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism since 2002.In 1982, he was granted tenure at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he held the Neuberger chair for modern European history and had headed the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism since 2002.
He married Danielle Boccara, who survives him, as do their children, Anna, Dov and Sonia; seven grandchildren; and his mother.He married Danielle Boccara, who survives him, as do their children, Anna, Dov and Sonia; seven grandchildren; and his mother.
In 1989, Professor Wistrich wrote “The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph,” which won the Austrian State Prize in History. Reviewing the book, Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, wrote in The New York Times that it “vindicates the centrality of Jewishness and anti-Semitism as dynamic and changing forces in the evolution of 19th-century Austro-German politics and culture.”In 1989, Professor Wistrich wrote “The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph,” which won the Austrian State Prize in History. Reviewing the book, Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, wrote in The New York Times that it “vindicates the centrality of Jewishness and anti-Semitism as dynamic and changing forces in the evolution of 19th-century Austro-German politics and culture.”
Two years later, his compendious “Antisemitism” was published, inspiring a public television series. He later wrote “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad” and “From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel.” Two years later, his compendious “Antisemitism” was published, inspiring a public television series. He later wrote “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the Global Jihad” and “From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel.”
In 2001, Professor Wistrich was one of three Jewish scholars who said they could no longer work on a committee exploring the degree to which Pope Pius XII defied the Germans during World War II unless the Vatican opened its archives. In a preliminary report, the panel found that the pope “was through and through a diplomat, but that simply didn’t work when confronted with the Nazi machinery.”In 2001, Professor Wistrich was one of three Jewish scholars who said they could no longer work on a committee exploring the degree to which Pope Pius XII defied the Germans during World War II unless the Vatican opened its archives. In a preliminary report, the panel found that the pope “was through and through a diplomat, but that simply didn’t work when confronted with the Nazi machinery.”
Professor Wistrich frequently likened today’s radical anti-Zionism to anti-Jewish sentiments in Europe before the Holocaust. In the journal The Jewish Political Studies Review, he wrote in 2004: “The most virulent expressions of this ‘exterminationist’ or genocidal anti-Zionism have come from the Arab-Muslim world, which is the historical heir of the earlier 20th century forms of totalitarian anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet Union.” Professor Wistrich frequently likened today’s radical anti-Zionism to anti-Jewish sentiments in Europe before the Holocaust. In the journal The Jewish Political Studies Review, he wrote in 2004, “The most virulent expressions of this ‘exterminationist’ or genocidal anti-Zionism have come from the Arab-Muslim world, which is the historical heir of the earlier 20th century forms of totalitarian anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet Union.”
Winston Pickett, a former colleague, said Professor Wistrich sought to endow the subject of anti-Semitism with academic respectability after it had been subordinated to studies of racism and the Holocaust and had fallen out of favor in Israel, “where in a spirit of nation-building and a psychological need to move on, the study of Jew-hatred may have seemed retrograde at best and post-traumatic at worst.” Winston Pickett, a former colleague, said Professor Wistrich had sought to endow the subject of anti-Semitism with academic respectability after it had been subordinated to studies of racism and the Holocaust and had fallen out of favor in Israel, “where in a spirit of nation-building and a psychological need to move on, the study of Jew-hatred may have seemed retrograde at best and post-traumatic at worst.”
Mr. Picket asked Professor Wistrich how he was able to spend virtually his whole career on what a fellow writer sardonically described as “five thousand years of bitterness”? What sustained him? Mr. Pickett asked Professor Wistrich how he was able to spend virtually his whole career on what a fellow writer sardonically described as “five thousand years of bitterness.” What sustained him?
“‘Israel,” he quoted Professor Wistrich as responding. “This is the only place where I could ever carry out this work.”“‘Israel,” he quoted Professor Wistrich as responding. “This is the only place where I could ever carry out this work.”