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No Place for Hate – Falmouth, a community anti-bias group, invites the public to participate in a community book discussion of historian Deborah E. Lipstadt’s Antisemitism: Here and Now, an accessible and highly readable study of contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism with ample historical context. It is an engrossing and quick read, written with gutsy erudition and clear prose in the form of a correspondence and responses. This event, free and open to all, will take place on Monday, March 25 at 7:00 P.M. at Falmouth Public Library’s Hermann Foundation Room. Participants are requested to RSVP in advance to npfhfalmouth@gmail.com to help with planning. This gathering is the first of a two-part program to engage our community in issues of rising antisemitism and its historical and contemporary context. A second event, a public talk by Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Robert Trestan on Tuesday, April 30 at 7:00 P.M. will continue to address these topics. Mr. Trestan’s talk will take place at Falmouth Jewish Congregation. Again, your RSVP will help us to plan for seating, so please write by April 26 if you plan to attend. Please note that, while advance reading of the book is helpful, it is not required, as this discussion will focus on the issues and is intended to help people prepare for Mr. Trestan’s talk in April. No Place for Hate – Falmouth has taken up the topic of anti-Semitism as part of its anti-bias awareness-raising and education mission and in response to current events. Over the last decade there has been a noticeable uptick in antisemitic rhetoric and incidents by left-wing groups targeting Jewish students and Jewish organizations on American college campuses. And the reemergence of the white nationalist movement in America, complete with Nazi slogans and imagery, has been reminiscent of the horrific fascist displays of the 1930s. Throughout Europe, Jews have been attacked by terrorists, and some have been murdered. Where is all this hatred coming from? Is there any significant difference between left-wing and right-wing antisemitism? What role has the anti-Zionist movement played? And what can be done to combat the latest manifestations of an ancient hatred? In a series of letters to an imagined college student and imagined colleague, both of whom are perplexed by this resurgence, historian Deborah Lipstadt gives us her own superbly reasoned, brilliantly argued, and certain to be controversial responses to these troubling questions. In Antisemitism: Here and Now, Lipstadt provides penetrating and provocative analysis of the hate that will not die, focusing on its current, virulent incarnations on both the political right and left: from white supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, to mainstream enablers of antisemitism such as Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, to a gay pride march in Chicago that expelled a group of women for carrying a Star of David banner. As Bret Stephens noted in his New York Times review, “Lipstadt aims not to break new scholarly ground but to awaken her audience to the nature, persistence and scale of the threat, along with the insidious ways in which it seeks to disguise itself. She succeeds . . . She has written a book that combines erudition, clarity, accessibility and passion at a moment when they could not be needed more.” Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She is the author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving (a National Jewish Book Award winner); Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory; and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. No Place For Hate - Falmouth is a community-based organization whose purpose is to build bridges to combat bias and to promote respect for all people. All are welcome at its meetings and events. Visit www.npfhfalmouth.org and follow it at No Place for Hate – Falmouth on Facebook to receive notices about events or write to npfhfalmouth@gmail.com with questions and comments.