Featuring instruction by Richard Landes, Professor Emeritus Boston University, and David Deutsch, Visiting Professor of Physics, Oxford University, this course examines the argument made by David Deutsch that a near-universal Pattern of longue durée that characterizes the attitudes and behaviors of non-Jews towards Jews.

The pattern of irrational explanation and argument misleadingly known as ‘antisemitism’ has unique, paradoxical features. It is usually treated as a type of hatred or xenophobia, but in fact, it is neither (though it does cause those from time to time). It is a more dangerous moral pathology, centered on preserving the legitimacy of hurting Jews. This explains all its unique features and resolves the paradoxes. But why that pattern itself exists, why it specifically targets Jews, and why it is so consistent across cultures and millennia, remains unknown. 

The seminar will examine the argument, look at the patterns of the “new antisemitism” of the 21st century to test its value, and try, in conclusion, on the one hand, to evaluate both the accuracy and value of the hypothesis, and on the other to attempt to explain it.

Convenors: Professor David Deutsch and Profe