Best-selling author, noted historian, and subject of the critically acclaimed movie “Denial”, Deborah Lipstadt, is coming to Santa Fe. The New York Times Book Review has described Lipstadt’s latest book, “Antisemitism, Here and Now” as one that “combines erudition, clarity, accessibility and passion at a moment when they could not be needed more”and The Washington Post has said her book is “crucial” for understanding the “resurgence of antisemitism on both the right and left”. Ms. Lipstadt will speak on this subject and some of its less overt but equally insidious forms. In light of the recent synagogue shootings in San Diego and Pittsburgh and the doubling in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. from 2015 to 2018, her talk could not be more timely.
Deborah Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She gained national attention in 1996 when she and her publisher, Penguin, were sued in an English court for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving for Lipstadt’s characterization of some of Irving’s writings and public statements as “Holocaust denial”. The trial, which Lipstadt won, was the subject of the recent film “Denial” starring Rachel Weisz.
Lipstadt is the author of a number of other books, including The Eichmann Trial which was published in commemoration of the trial’s 50th anniversary, and hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “a penetrating and authoritative dissection of a landmark case and its after effects”. Her History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving was a National Jewish Book Award-winner.
Ms. Lipstadt has served as an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was a President Clinton appointee to the Holocaust Memorial Council. She is the recipient of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs highest honor, the Albert D. Chernin Award which is given to “an American Jew whose work best exemplifies the social justice imperatives of Judaism, Jewish history and the protection of the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment.” Previous winners included Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Ms. Lipstadt’s talk is a presentation of the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series and the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival with additional support from Jewish Federation New Mexico.