Seminar: Antisemitic & anti-Israel argumentation on the far right

A multimedia-based, low-threshold and interactive seminar/web seminar for participants aged 14 and over – youth groups, associations, workforces, etc.

Bookings at kontakt@werteinitiative.de

• What are the basic ways in which antisemitism functions and is expressed?
• How can I recognise antisemitic patterns of argumentation?
• What significance do antisemitic images of the world and of the self have on the radical right?
• How can I counter antisemitic and right-wing extremist patterns of argumentation and the actors behind them?

Jews in Germany have been feeling increasingly unsafe not only since the attempted attack on the synagogue in Halle, for the number of antisemitic offences has been rising steadily for years. Antisemitic patterns of argumentation are on the rise as well. Even where they clearly belong to the spectrum of the far right, in updated form they threaten to become socially acceptable once again. The at times wild conspiracy ideologies surrounding the coronavirus pandemic are only one particularly topical example of this. Again and again, right-wing actors try to feed their ideology into current debates and in this way to shift the “limits of what can be said”. Antisemitism serves an important hinge function here. It acts as the link between different ideologies (the so-called “Querfront”, a cross-front alliance) whose common ground is the rejection of a modern, free and democratic society.

Since January 2021 a team at WerteInitiative has been working on the subject of “antisemitic and anti-Israel patterns of argumentation on the far right”. Out of this work came an interactive, multimedia seminar in which the use of various media allows this complex subject to be conveyed in a low-threshold way. Depending on the scope required, the offer ranges from a seminar moderated by our speakers or trainers through to a modular online course (link at the bottom of the page). The seminar contains workshop elements and can be adapted modularly to the prior knowledge and particular interests of the target group. The aim is to give participants an understanding of the basic ways in which antisemitism functions and is expressed, and to work out its ideological significance for the far right. The ostensible friendliness towards Israel and towards Jews displayed by parts of the “New Right” in particular is explicitly called into question in the process.

Building on this, participants are to be enabled to understand the fundamentally democracy-endangering character of this ideology and of antisemitism. The different shades within the far right are important here. Participants should learn to recognise and name its patterns of argumentation and, we hope, to counter them later on as well.

The project is funded by the Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) within the federal programme “Demokratie leben!”, and by the programme “Demokratie. Vielfalt. Respekt. Gegen Rechtsextremismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus” of the Landesstelle für Gleichbehandlung – gegen Diskriminierung (LADS) Berlin, the Berlin state office for equal treatment and against discrimination.

*The title “Anyone who loves Germany is an antisemite?” is derived from a slogan of the right-wing extremist splinter party “Die Rechte”, used among other occasions at marches in Dortmund in 2018.