Europe's "Jew Clubs:" On Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Austria Vienna with Pavel Brunssen

What do Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Austria Vienna have in common? They all, for better, or for worse, have come to be seen as “Jew Clubs” throughout their history. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes the club embraced it, often it didn’t. "Jew Clubs" - not Jewish clubs, not founded as a Jewish sports society or anything like that. But clubs that have become a canvas for the performance of Jewishness, of antisemitism and also of philosemitism. What does that say about these clubs is one question. What does it say about Europe’s broader cultural and political discourse? That's another. What it says about Jews in those clubs is one question - what it says about how Jewishness is constructed is another.

Pavel Brunssen has written a fascinating book on it. He is a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. There are a lot of voices from fans, from media, from online discourse in this book - and it’s an academic book as well.

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