Over the past few years, antisemitism has become one of the most controversial political topics on both sides of the Atlantic. From Jeremy Corbyn to Rashida Tlaib and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, left-wing politicians have faced grave accusations of stoking up prejudice against Jewish people and communities. Yet some of those making such accusations have been willing to embrace figures like Donald Trump and the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, despite their record of promoting conspiracy theories about the Jewish philanthropist George Soros that are ominously similar to classic antisemitic themes.

Underlying this controversy is a bitter argument about the term antisemitism itself. The protagonists of the debate do not simply disagree about whether a particular charge of antisemitism is justified or not: there is no shared understanding of what evidence might justify that charge. One especially fraught question is whether and when criticism of Israel should be considered antisemitic.

Antony Lerman has stepped into this debate with his book Whatever Happened to Antisemitism? Redefinition and the Myth of the Collective Jew. Lerman, whose integrity and commitment to the truth, however uncomfortable, is long established, brings a valuable perspective to the table, informed by the author’s years of research into the Jewish communities of the world. The main target of his criticism is the concept of the “new antisemitism.”