
The Making of "Jew Clubs"
Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures
Pavel Brunssen(Autor*in)
Indiana University Press
Erschienen am 2. September 2025
Buch
Softcover
480 Seiten
978-0-253-07338-9 (ISBN)
Beschreibung
Why do non-Jewish football fans chant "Yid Army" or wave "Super Jews" banners - especially in support of clubs that are not Jewish? The Making of "Jew Clubs" explores how four major European football clubs - FC Bayern Munich, FK Austria Vienna, Ajax Amsterdam, and Tottenham Hotspur - came to be seen as "Jew Clubs," even though they have never officially identified as Jewish.
In this transnational study, Pavel Brunssen traces how both Jewish and non-Jewish actors perform Jewishness, antisemitism, and philosemitism within European football cultures over the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources-from fan chants and matchday rituals to media portrayals and club histories-the book reveals how football stadiums have become unexpected stages for negotiating memory, identity, and historical trauma.
Offering a new approach to Holocaust memory, sports history, and Jewish studies, The Making of "Jew Clubs" shows how football cultures reflect and reshape Europe's conflicted relationship with its Jewish past.
In this transnational study, Pavel Brunssen traces how both Jewish and non-Jewish actors perform Jewishness, antisemitism, and philosemitism within European football cultures over the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources-from fan chants and matchday rituals to media portrayals and club histories-the book reveals how football stadiums have become unexpected stages for negotiating memory, identity, and historical trauma.
Offering a new approach to Holocaust memory, sports history, and Jewish studies, The Making of "Jew Clubs" shows how football cultures reflect and reshape Europe's conflicted relationship with its Jewish past.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"A masterful comparative study that shows that sports is crucial to fully understand the modern Jewish experience and the history of antisemitism." - Prof. Dr. Michael Brenner"Brunssen's well-researched and theoretically astute book shows how this strange contemporary phenomenon reveals essential insights into the ongoing European effort to come to terms with a difficult past. A fascinating discussion of the role of the 'Jew' in the European imagination and a valuable contribution to the study of the politics of memory." - Maurice Samuels
"A pioneering study of the intersection between memory cultures and collective identities in post-1945 European football. A fascinating exploration of the performance of Judaism in the virtually Jewish stadium and of representations of Judaism in the absence of Jews." - Raanan Rein
"In this fascinating study, Brunssen tackles an intriguing phenomenon: many major European soccer clubs are viewed as Jewish, with fans who celebrate that label and fans of competing teams who insult these "Jewish clubs" with antisemitic epithets. Brunssen offers a bold and nuanced interpretation of this singular case of transnational, popular philosemitism." - Ari Joskowicz
"Brunssen's work is 480 pages long, and the stories of the four clubs are comprehensively presented. But it goes far beyond that." - Moritz Ettlinger, Derstandard
Weitere Details
Reihe
Sprache
Englisch
Verlagsort
Bloomington, IN
USA
Zielgruppe
Für Beruf und Forschung
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Illustrationen
52 b&w illus.
Maße
Höhe: 226 mm
Breite: 146 mm
Dicke: 29 mm
Gewicht
690 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-253-07338-9 (9780253073389)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Weitere Ausgaben
Person
Pavel Brunssen is a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. He is author of Antisemitsmus in Fussball-Fankulturen; editor, with Stefanie Schueler-Springorum, of Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond; and editor of Antigypsyism and Film: Antiziganismus und Film.
Inhalt
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. FC Bayern Munich: The "Jew Club" as Memory Culture
2. FK Austria Vienna: The "Jew Club" as Cultural Code
3. Ajax Amsterdam: The "Jew Club" as Fan Performance
4. Tottenham Hotspur: Problematizing the "Jew Club"
Conclusion
Afterword: The "Jew Clubs" after October 7
Appendix: Archives, Monuments, and Museums
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1. FC Bayern Munich: The "Jew Club" as Memory Culture
2. FK Austria Vienna: The "Jew Club" as Cultural Code
3. Ajax Amsterdam: The "Jew Club" as Fan Performance
4. Tottenham Hotspur: Problematizing the "Jew Club"
Conclusion
Afterword: The "Jew Clubs" after October 7
Appendix: Archives, Monuments, and Museums
Notes
Bibliography
Index