By Eric Cravey, Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Two researchers from West Virginia University are trying to determine how hatred against a certain group of people can develop even when the two groups have never met.
William Brustein, special assistant to the president for global affairs and an Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of History, was recently awarded a $3,000 fellowship grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council to support his research.
Brustein and fellow WVU history professor Luke Gramith hope to understand how antisemitism can occur in populations where no Jewish residents live.
“I was born right after the Second World War, and so, the history of the holocaust loomed large in our family and from early on, I just wanted to come to a point where I could make sense of what had happened during that period,” said Brustein, who is Jewish…
