Image by Douglas Guthrie

Robert Wistrich, a leading scholar of anti-Semitism and its history, has died.

Wistrich, the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the head of the University’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, died of a heart attack on Tuesday evening in Rome at the age of 70. He had been scheduled to talk about the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe in an address to the Italian Senate, the Times of Israel reported.

He is the author or editor of more than 29 books on the subject of anti-Semitism, including several which won international awards. His 1992 book “Anti-Semitism, the Longest Hatred was the basis for a PBS film documentary which Professor Wistrich scripted and co-edited.

Antisemitism Decoded

Arno Rosenfeld helps you separate the signal from the noise about antisemitism and understand current debates over Jewish safety.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Wistrich was born to leftist Polish parents in1945 in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, where they had fled from anti-Semitism in Poland. The family returned to Poland after World War II, suffered from more anti-Semitism and moved first to France and then England.

Wistrich earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Queens’ College in Cambridge, and went on to receive his PhD in 1974 from the University of London. He became a tenured professor at Hebrew University in 1982.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount