Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] INTRODUCTION: EASTERN EUROPEAN ANTISEMITISM 359reasons they appear at the same time in a society, then sooner or laterantisemitism may become a serious and dangerous political and social factor.In other words, if at a time of great social change and in societiesplagued by anti-Jewish prejudice, there emerges a “culture” and a languagethat uses popular beliefs and fantasies about “the Jews” to interpret andexplain various social problems and conflicts, and if solutions to theproblems are also sought in this language, then the different manifestationsof antisemitism may indeed form an explosive mixture. For this reason, thefollowing analyses examine not only the intensity and forms of anti-Jewishprejudice and the groups most likely to exhibit antisemitism, but also theantisemitic discourses heard by the public at large—which are mostly productsof the social elite.Political antisemitism has always been a creation of social elite groups,which use it to accomplish various political goals. The urgent questiontoday is whether the danger of antisemitism becoming a definitive elementof politics and social life in the countries of East Central Europe is presentagain in this region. The articles in this special issue of the JSA are designedto assist in assessing this risk.*András Kovács is the professor at the Nationalism Studies Program and academicdirector of the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University, Budapest,and has held many academic appointments throughout the globe. Professor Kovácshas research interests in Jewish identity and antisemitism in postwar Europe, memoryand identity, socioeconomic attitudes and political choice, and the Europeanextreme right. Widely published, his latest book is The Stranger at Hand:Antisemitic Prejudices in Post-Communist Hungary (Brill, 2010).