On Saturday, February 10, Anna Foa will hold a conference on antisemitism at Maschio Angioino. A reflection beyond ideological schemes particularly necessary at this historical moment.
Following the suggestions of the President of the Republic Mattarella and Senator Liliana Segre, the initiative of the Valenzi Foundation aims to deepen the reasons for the current, growing antisemitism, particularly after the pogrom of October 7, 2023 against Israel and with the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
A conference by an authoritative historian like Anna Foa can focus on the different types of antisemitism that have occurred over time: religious antisemitism, biological antisemitism and also the elements of antisemitism present in left-wing cultures.
Cultural and political patterns, present for example in Soviet Russia, have settled over time and persist well beyond the end of bipolar balances. The conference will be supplemented by targeted, albeit informal, interventions by scholars and, of course, the public.
So, we think of a comprehensive reflection that, starting from the different forms of antisemitism that have occurred over time, focuses on the reasons and types of antisemitism after the Shoah, the birth of the Jewish state of Israel, the emergence of the Palestinian question, the long continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Middle Eastern crisis, with its burden of hatred and violence, has also brought the phenomenon of antisemitism back to the surface, which, today as in the past, feeds on clichés and a distorted view of history.
Derivation of subcultures that resist time and reason, real 'warehouses of hatred, never emptied of their toxic goods', as Liliana Segre recently defined them.