Stefanie Schüler Springorum, Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin; Anna-Carolin Augustin, GHI Washington; Sebastian Bischoff, Paderborn Univ.; Kristoff Kerl, Univ. of Copenhagen in cooperation with the German Historical Institute, Washington DC (GHI) and the Center for Research on Antisemitism (TU Berlin) (Web)

Venue: Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin
Time: 13.-15.12.2021
Proposals by: 01.07.2020

Although constructions of Jewish sexualities and alleged Jewish attacks on sexual morals have played a significant role in modern antisemitic worldviews, – whether the same is true for premodern times has to be discussed –, only few historical studies have focused on the connection between sexualities and Jew-hatred. Against this backdrop, the conference aims to stimulate further research and debate on this topic. To bring the differences in the role sexualitites played in judeophobic discourses at different times and in different regions into view, the temporal and geographical focus of the conference reaches beyond the times of modern antisemitism and beyond ‘Western societies.’

In manifold ways, sexualities have played a crucial role in the history of judeophobia. Since ancient times, sexuality has been one of the fields where the borders between different communities, Jewish and otherwise, were drawn most fiercely. At least since the rise of modern antisemitism imaginary conceptions of deviant and dangerous ‘Jewish sexualities‘ became crucial. In modern antisemitism, sexual desires attributed to Jews have been characterized by a transgression of the male-female binarity – a characteristic that corresponds to constructions of Jewish effeminate manhood and masculinized womanhood.

Whereas discourses ascribed ‘unmanly‘ desires to Jewish men in different ways, Jewish women were constructed as seductive, passionate, and sexually active: attributes that have typically had a male connotation. At the same time, constructions of Jewish sexualities have reinforced notions of male activity and female passivity. Read more and source … (Web)