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Join Leeds Momentum for an evening of political education on understanding, spotting and countering anti-semitism, wherever we come across it. Our workshop will be led by Dr Uri Gordon from the University of Durham. Uri is a practising Jew, an Israeli academic, a long-term campaigner for the rights of Palestinians, and an active participant in anti-capitalist movements in the UK over the last 15 years.
Anti-semitism is a particularly insidious form of racism, that has been prevalent in Europe for more than 2000 years, and is unique because it doesn’t only appear in ways that portray the target as inferior, but often in ways that see them as superior to the majority, and in control of society. Conspiracy theories about jewish banking families such as the Rothschilds, and groups of ruling elites like ‘the illuminati’ or even ‘lizard people’ deciding the direction of society according to their own agenda, can often appear to be criticisms of capitalism, albeit simplistic, and attract people wanting a better deal for working class people. However, these ideas are rooted in centuries of anti-semitic thought, tropes and conspiracy theories about Jews, and are pushed by the far-right..
Through learning about anti-semitism, we can begin to effectively combat it wherever it appears, and through political education, we can build a proper analysis of capitalism and avoid the pitfalls of lazy, undeveloped political analyses, which rely on racist stereotypes instead of a scientific Marxist approach.