Deborah Lipstadt. Photo: Twitter.

Deborah Lipstadt

Historian and Academic

Deborah Lipstadt is one of a handful of scholars to have enriched our understanding of the dynamics of contemporary antisemitism. The Emory University-based academic, who became a household name in 2000, when she successfully defended a libel case brought to a British court by the notorious Holocaust denier David Irving, is now the source of important insights into the latest mutations of antisemitism, among them the trivialization of the Holocaust and the campaign to demonize Israel. Among Lipstadt’s key contributions over the last year was an August 2014 New York Times oped in which she argued that while comparing the current situation in Europe to the 1930s isn’t helpful, antisemitism still presents a grave challenge “to those who value a free, democratic, open, multicultural and enlightened society.”