ON ANTISEMITISM
Antisemitism is one of the world’s oldest hatreds. Adapting to every age it lies hidden below the surface until the conditions allow it to emerge. Then it is put to use by those who refuse to allow Jewish people to be as diverse in opinions, ideology and commitments as any other group of humans. Instead they are lumped together – an undifferentiated mass in which the individual person is reduced to a stereotype – whether Jews are being reviled or celebrated.
Examine how antisemitism mutates across ideologies, why it so often flourishes during moments of social breakdown.
Ruth Balint
Ruth Balint is Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Her research examines the intersections between migration, gender and international law, with a current focus on the Jewish experience. Recent books include Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and their Quest to Leave Europe after 1945, and Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia (NewSouth Publishing, 2021). She co-leads the UNSW Forced Migration Research Network.
Sarah Schwartz
Sarah Schwartz is a human rights lawyer and founding Executive Director of the Jewish Council of Australia, an organisation committed to fighting antisemitism and supporting Palestinian liberation. Sarah is also Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre and Lecturer at Melbourne Law School. Sarah earned a John Monash Scholarship in 2019 and completed a Master of Laws at Harvard University, focusing on racism, policing, and mass incarceration. She has written widely on antisemitism, Jewish identity, and human rights.
David Slucki
David Slucki is Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and Loti Smorgon Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life and Culture. A historian specialising in Jewish life after the Holocaust, he leads the Monash Initiative for Rapid Research into Antisemitism and co-leads the Gen26 Australian Jewish Community Survey. His publications include Sing This at My Funeral: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons (2019), The International Jewish Labor Bund after 1945 (2012), and the co-edited volumes Laughter After: Humour and the Holocaust (2020) and In the Shadows of Memory (2016).
Simon Longstaff
Simon Longstaff began his working life on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is proud of his kinship ties to the Anindilyakwa people. After a period studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, he pursued postgraduate studies as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1991, Simon commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre, a role he continues today. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy.” Simon is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.