Helen Fein

Helen Fein (September 17, 1934[1] – May 14, 2022) was a historical sociologist and professor who specialized in genocide, human rights, collective violence and other issues.[2] She was an author and editor of four books and monographs, an associate of the International Security Program (Harvard University),[3] and a founder and first president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Fein was the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide (City University of New York).[4] She died on May 14, 2022 at the age of 87.[5]

Definition of antisemitism

In The persisting question: sociological perspectives and social contexts of modern antisemitism, Fein wrote:

I propose to define antisemitism as a persisting latent structure of hostile beliefs towards Jews as a collectivity manifested in individuals as attitudes, and in culture as myth, ideology, folklore, and imagery, and in actions — social or legal discrimination, political mobilization against the Jews, and collective or state violence — which results in and/or is designed to distance, displace, or destroy Jews as Jews.[6]

Publications

• Genocide Watch, 1992.
• Genocide: A Sociological Perspective, 1993
• Accounting for Genocide, 1979
• Human Rights and Wrongs, 2007

References

1. Kay, Ernest (1989). International Who's who of Professional and Business Women. Melrose Press. ISBN 978-0-900332-98-2.
2. Deidre Butler, "Holocaust Studies in the United States", Jewish Women's Archive
3. "Biography at Harvard University site". Archived from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
4. Crimes of War project, magazine, 2003 Archived 2010-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
   - Helen Fein Archived 2019-05-13 at the Wayback Machine, Holocaust Memorial Museum
5. "In Memoriam of Helen Fein". The ISG. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
6. Fine, Helen, ed. (1987). The persisting question: sociological perspectives and social contexts of modern antisemitism. Berlin: de Gruyter. p. 67. ISBN 978-3-11-010170-6.