When Catherine Chatterley was growing up in Winnipeg, the first serious book she read was The Diary of Anne Frank, the harrowing story of a young Jewish girl forced to hide for nearly two years in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

“I was in shock,” Chatterley recalls. “I couldn’t understand how a girl like Anne Frank could be perceived as a threat to Germany.”

For Chatterley, who was raised in a devout Lutheran home, the famous book sparked a lifelong fascination with the Jewish people, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

That fascination has prompted Chatterley, an adjunct history professor at the University of Manitoba, to develop the first academic institute in Canada to focus on the study of anti-Semitism, which she says is a persistent — and in some parts of the world flourishing — problem facing Jews today.

“There is a void in academia, our universities and our human rights discourse” when it comes to the study of anti-Semitism, she said in a telephone interview from Winnipeg, where the Canadian Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism (CISA) is based.

CISA, which is barely two years old, is one of only six such institutes in the world. Its mandate is to promote research, education and awareness of anti-Semitism.

Ultimately, her goal is to have the independent, non-profit institute fund and offer university-accredited courses leading to an undergraduate degree in the study of anti-Semitism. In addition, she plans to develop an online publication for young people and publish an academic journal on current and historical anti-Semitism.

Already, the young institute is attracting international attention, especially after Elie Wiesel, the renowned Nobel Peace Prize winner, agreed to serve as honourary chairman.

But why such an institution? And why now?

Chatterley, who will speak May 15 at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto and May 16 in Montreal, agrees many universities have courses in Jewish studies, but it’s rare they have actual courses about the Holocaust, let alone about anti-Semitism. In fact, she says Holocaust courses are dwindling, being replaced by comparative genocide studies.

Because of that void and because Jew-hatred is absent from much of the academic and political talk about human rights and racism, Chatterley says an academic institute devoted strictly to the study of anti-Semitism is badly needed.

In Chatterley’s view, anti-Semitism is the historic product of the Christian accusation that Jews killed Christ. “Its origins are theological, which is why it has lasted so long” and is known as “the longest hatred,” she says.

Studying anti-Semitism is “a minefield,” she says, because many people believe that scholars who do so merely want to defend Israel and its policies toward Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

“It’s become highly politicized,” she admits, but adds it’s a serious problem that deserves serious scholarship.

While some may argue anti-Semitism is waning here, Jewish leaders would disagree, pointing to several recent developments.

This week, an east-end Toronto Islamic school was forced to apologize after a complaint was filed with police claiming that some of its school texts referred to Jews as “treacherous” and compared them to Nazis.

Last week, a report by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada cited 1,297 anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2011, down less than 1 per cent from the previous year. The incidents ranged from death threats to verbal taunts.

In March, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs announced it will train some 25 unarmed volunteers in how to observe and monitor threats and vandalism in heavily Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto.

In recent months, Chatterley has had two death threats against her and lots of hate mail. She now has an unlisted telephone number and requires police security at all of the institute’s public events.

“Anti-Semitism poses a real threat today,” she says, although many academics and other leaders are downplaying it, with some even denying it exists at all.

“I can tell you that the fear today of anti-Semitism in Jewish communities is very real,” she adds.

Chatterley has big dreams for her fledgling institute. Some will never come true, but those that do hopefully will help all Canadians better understand the roots of anti-Semitism, the reasons it still persists — and how to combat it. (© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2012 05/09/12)