My post conference reading list, one: "How to fight Anti-Semitism" by Bari Weiss

There is always a political bookshop among the commercial stalls at party conferences, and I don't often manage to attend a party conference without coming away with a book or five, often including one or two signed by the author.

The first of the books I bought this year at Conservative Party conference and have been reading is "How to fight Anti-Semitism" by Bari Weiss. 

It is a wake-up call to anyone who imagines that with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the exposure of the Nazi's vile crimes against humanity the kinds of prejudice which led them to attempt genocide are so discredited that they are doomed to the dustbin of history. 

Weiss's book looks at the three main groups spreading modern Anti-Semitic racism - the extreme right, the extreme left, and radical islamists - and discusses how in many cases these ideas are in common or are mirror-images of one another. She also looks at the historical roots of prejudice against Jewish people and Jewish culture and shows how in some ways this prejudice follows in a very old tradition while in others it has morphed into new forms which are designed to appear more convincing in new circumstances - but are as irrational and dangerous as ever.

I can recommend this book, which is available from good bookshops or on Amazon here.

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