(Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt in the film DENIAL)
(Credit: Bleecker Street Media)

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(NOTE: I previously interviewed Deborah Lipstadt about her latest book. You may read that interview here.)
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Q: What is the goal of this new interview?

A: To let people worried about antisemitism know we all have an indispensable, one-of-a-kind resource in Deborah E. Lipstadt’s latest book ANTISEMITISM: HERE AND NOW.

This book really builds my knowledge. Reading it – and then rereading certain parts – is helping me, tremendously, to have better dialogue with people about the urgently important topic of antisemitism.

Q: What is your experience with Deborah Lipstadt’s prior work?

A: My experience with Lipstadt’s prior work is profound.

Deborah was sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving.

And U.K. law put the burden of proof on her to prove the Holocaust happened. In me, that provoked a searing, painful identification with Deborah and her situation.

When I was fighting for restitution for a Berlin building that Nazis stole from my family, Germany required I prove Nazis stole the building because of antisemitism.

Kafkaesque is putting it mildly.

I highly recommend Lipstadt’s book about her trial as well as the movie based on it — DENIAL — starring Rachel Weisz.

Equally revelatory is Lipstadt’s book The Eichmann Trial. It’s crucially important for us to correctly understand the watershed event of that trial, through which Adolf Eichmann was brought to justice. And Lipstadt applies masterly scholarly clarity to the facts.

Q: What is the through-line, for you, in all of Deborah Lipstadt’s work?

A: In all of her work, Deborah Lipstadt is doing society an enormous public service. She is of the breed known as a “public intellectual” and I am deeply thankful to her for all of her outstanding contributions.

I could not possibly overemphasize enough how valuable ANTISEMITISM: HERE AND NOW is. And I very much look forward to hearing what others think about the book.

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(As a reminder, I previously interviewed Deborah Lipstadt about her latest book. You may read that interview here.)