The Crime of Menticide: Antisemitism and Hate Speech in American Law – EVENT CANCELED

DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

In 1977, a group of Holocaust survivors from Skokie, Illinois, filed a lawsuit to stop a planned neo-Nazi march by alleging menticide—the psychological equivalent of genocide.

In this lecture, historian James Loeffler reconstructs this curious legal episode and discusses its larger implications for the contemporary debate over antisemitism and free speech. James Loeffler is Felix Posen Professor of Jewish History at Johns Hopkins University. His writings include two award-winning books, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century and The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire. He is currently writing a book about antisemitism and the First Amendment in postwar America.

Part of the UWM Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies’ Distinguished Lecture series.