'Then must the Jew be merciful': a study of 'Jewish Duress Syndrome'

To challenge the intellectual underpinnings of antisemitism in public life.

London Centre Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

How Jews are required to show Christian restraint, and why antisemitism constructs it as impossible for them...

Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice is still perceived by some audiences as antisemitic, yet today’s scholars widely agree that the play supplies a critically minded dissection of the mechanisms of the social exclusion, with Judaism standing as the play’s eminent (though not its only) example. By identifying a template for Jewish ethical action in the play, the presentation will propose a concept of ‘JDS’ (‘Jewish Duress Syndrome’) to show the paradox in which Jews have been expected to display moral probity under circumstances that render moral reasoning impossible. Eric Heinze is <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/people/academic-staff/items/heinze.html" title="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/people/academic-staff/items/heinze.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Professor of Law and Humanities</a> at Queen Mary University of London, where he directs the <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/research/research-centres/society-democracy-humanities/centre-for-law-democracy-and-society/" title="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/research/research-centres/society-democracy-humanities/centre-for-law-democracy-and-society/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Centre for Law, Democracy and Society</a> (CLDS). His next book, to be published by The MIT Press, will be <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262049589/" title="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262049589/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left</a>. His prior books include The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything (The MIT Press, 2022), Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Concept of Injustice (Routledge, 2013), The Logic of Constitutional Rights (Routledge, 2005), The Logic of Liberal Rights (Routledge, 2003); The Logic of Equality (Routledge, 2003), and Sexual Orientation: A Human Right (Nijhoff, 1995). Heinze currently serves as General Editor for major collections including The Oxford Handbook of Hate Speech (Oxford University Press, 2025) and The Criminalisation of Hate Speech (Springer, 2024). His recent writings on antisemitism and Israel-Palestine include: ‘A Tool to Advance Imperial Interests: Leftist Self-Scrutiny and Israeli Wrongdoing’, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003497417/responses-7-october-law-society-rosa-freedman-david-hirsh" title="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003497417/responses-7-october-law-society-rosa-freedman-david-hirsh" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Responses to 7 October: Law &amp; Society</a>, Freedman and Hirsh, eds. (Routledge, 2024) and ‘But Israel claims to be a democracy! – Hypocrisy, double standards, and false equivalences’, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003497424/responses-7-october-universities-rosa-freedman-david-hirsh?context=ubx&amp;refId=f11513b2-22a6-4975-a894-aebfa1ee41bc" title="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003497424/responses-7-october-universities-rosa-freedman-david-hirsh?context=ubx&amp;refId=f11513b2-22a6-4975-a894-aebfa1ee41bc" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Responses to 7 October: Universities</a>, Freedman and Hirsh, eds. (Routledge, 2024).

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'Then must the Jew be merciful': a study of 'Jewish Duress Syndrome'

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'Then must the Jew be merciful': a study of 'Jewish Duress Syndrome'

More events from London Centre Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

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‘Antisemitism and Radicalisation in Digital Gaming Communities’

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