Open Access

Eli Vinokur

• This paper will present in broad strokes the professional lifespan and philosophical doctrine of Israeli educational philosopher Ilan Gur-Ze’ev (1955-2012). Major attention will be devoted to his articulation of the concept of “new antisemitism,” which seeks to capture the uniqueness of the contemporary form of antisemitism. Compared to “older” forms of antisemitism, which situated the Jews in opposition to western civilization, as its ultimate “other,” contemporary progressive thinkers identify “Jewishness” and Jewish ideas such a “chosenness,” “elitism” and “uniqueness,” as the innate evil embedded deep within the “suppressing, white, colonial patriarchy” of the Judo-Christian civilization. Thus, the redemption of the soul of the new progressive thinker from the historical sins of western civilization, involves cleansing it from its “Jewishness.” It also involves an attack on the physical representation of everything that is wrong in western civilization – the Jewish state.