A Law Book on Antisemitism – About Time

From my research, there is not one textbook written on antisemitism for use in United States law schools. There are textbooks on all kinds of other acts of discrimination. There are textbooks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are law books on discrimination based on race, color, creed, gender, disability, and, well, you name it. There may be an honorable mention here or there that religious discrimination can be actionable. However, a law book on antisemitism for use in a law school? Don’t hang by your fingernails waiting.

Finally, Robert A. Katz, a professor at Indiana University, McKinney School of Law, has tackled the task, and admirably at that.

The book is broken down into provocative and interesting sections. The first chapter takes on the issue of “Jews as Non-White.” The good professor tackles head on the question as to whether people have rights who are not “distinct biological races.”

We learn, for example, that Latinos are not a race and yet are properly afforded protection of the law. For remedial purposes, Latinos either function as or are considered a race.

The density of Professor Katz’s encyclopedic work is remarkable. The excellence of this textbook is particularly important to the undersigned because the Rieders Foundation afforded the author several grants. Providing a grant for a textbook is not like any other work that foundations usually address. It is difficult, if not impossible, to know whether the product of a grant to write a textbook will be worthwhile, effective, and maintain enduring utility.

It appears that Professor Katz’s work on antisemitism, however, meets all of the characteristics necessary for a useable and principled work on the question of antisemitism and the law. We learn, for example, that racial antisemitism is racism for remedial purposes. The examination of case law is precisely the way law students learn. Specific cases are provided so that the student or the student’s mentors cannot only learn about the application of law in context of antisemitism but will also be in a position to teach others.

The Professor includes questions from the United States Supreme Court in connection with Shaare Tefila Congregation vs. Cobb (1987). Utilizing a transcript of oral argument is unusual but, without question, extremely useful and an excellent teaching tool to get into the minds of the judges who wrote varying opinions.

In addition to examining the legal principles, Professor Katz reviews the nature of antisemitism, attitudes about anti-Jewish bigotry, and other challenging subjects. In evaluating the questions of Jews as White, the Professor notes both the social and racial history of the difference between Ashkenazi as opposed to Sephardi Jews. In Israel, the population is just about half and half. When I sit in Synagogue in Be’er Yakov, I note that only the Rabbi and myself could be called “White,” although Professor Katz clearly understands that attempting to demarcate people by color is an almost impossible task. Human beings come in shades and are not always easily characterized as one color as opposed to another.

As a passionate student of history, I could not help but be captivated by discussion of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The Inquisition was the triumph of Catholicism over all other faiths in Europe in 1492. That is not to say that organized bigotry against the Jewish people did not occur earlier. However, the Inquisition was a kind of “trial,” as were many other institutional attacks on the Jewish people.

Naturally, Professor Katz addresses the Nazi era and ultimately arrives at the modern judicial definition of antisemitism as expressed in the IHRA definition. Antisemitism, quite properly, is identified with the mental state of the perpetrator under the IHRA taxonomy.

Much of the compendium is a historical evaluation which will help the reader fully appreciate that antisemitism and the law is not always about the law exclusively. In fact, this book can easily be read by those who are neither lawyers nor law students. While the text delves into such items as applying defamation law to “Platform Regulation,” it also contains lengthy and compelling historical analysis. For example, Chapter 10 delves into the somewhat controversial question of “Comparative Hate Speech.” The chapter examines three legal systems outside of the United States in terms of how they have regulated antisemitic speech. In other words, is the United States more free because we permit more hate speech or are we more shackled because of our broad interpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution?

Again, Professor Katz often relies upon the conversation of others to demonstrate principles which he seeks to elucidate upon.

One can only admire the extensive footnoting, appendices, and supportive material which the curious reader, the student, and professors alike will find extremely useful.

Professor Katz’s work may not be the only book ever written on the law of antisemitism, but it is a remarkably useful tool for both law students, their professors, and those generally interested in the subject of the law and antisemitism. It is a must use text which the Rieders Foundation is proud to have assisted in the creation of.

It should be noted that at no time did the Rieders Foundation indicate how this book should be written, what its conclusion should be, or any other component of how its content should be expressed.

All those interested in civil rights as a living legacy to the American experiment should be happy and proud of Professor Katz’s considerable achievement in a relatively short space of time.