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Based on a collection of Czech visual antisemitic artworks from the last 30 years, this presentation documents the transformation of the contemporary Central European antisemitic imagery. It shows that while the traditional symbols and stereotypical features remain preserved in the folklore, where they can acquire both antisemitic and philosemitic meanings, the radical antisemitic scene, influenced by both esoteric beliefs and fears of prosecution, experiments with the more abstract and implicit symbols. Identification and discussion of these symbols and visual features can serve as a practical test for our legal and scholarly definitions of antisemitism, some of which may struggle to keep pace with the fluidity of the phenomenon.
Zbyněk Tarant, Ph.D. was born in 1982 in the former Czechoslovakia (today’s Czech Republic). After graduating at the University of West Bohemia in the field of Cultural Anthropology of the Near East, he continued his studies at the same institution, where he got his Ph.D. in 2012. Along with his main interest in Israel Studies, he became actively involved in research and monitoring of contemporary Central European antisemitism since 2006.