In this 45 minutes lecture, Professor Andrew Rubin demonstrates the shared origins of modern European anti-Semitism and the histories of modern Islamophobia and Orientalism in early 19th century Europe. While this perspective does not deny the Holocaust its singularity as a historical catastrophe, it does suggest that as a singular event it produced a plurality of victims, another category of refugees, the Palestinians, the victims of the victims.

By apprehending the Holocaust and al-Nakba together, Rubin argues that by interpreting the work of Said and Arendt together, we better understand how Jews and Arabs belong to the same stream of European History. 

The lecture was delivered at the Barenboim-Said Akademie Forum on 6/7/22. For further information, please contact his publicist at Rubin@me.com.