Dr. Robert S. Wistrich is, arguably, the world’s leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. He heads the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University.

The center employs a multidisciplinary approach to the study and research of Jew-hatred.

Intelligence in the field of a scholarly understanding of contemporary anti-Semitism demands that Wistrich’s books and articles be read. He has published prolifically on the topic of what fuels the loathing of Israel and Jews. His latest book – A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad – has been showered with accolades and is widely considered to be the definitive account of the long, vile history of hatred of Jews.

In an interview spanning many topics, Wistrich delves into the manifestations of modern anti- Semitism in Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. He offers powerful explanatory models to help readers fathom the outbreaks of hate directed at Jews not only in the West but in the transformations unfolding in Muslim countries and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The writer is European correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.