April 3, 2017 Arkansas Passes Anti-BDS Law Last Wednesday, Arkansas State Governor William Hutchinson signed a law, Act 710, to prohibit Arkansas agencies from investing in or contracting with companies that boycott Israel. Act 710, previously SB 513, was passed by the Arkansas state legislature on March 22nd. SB 513 was introduced by Sen. Bart Hester to the state Senate, where it […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
April 3, 2017 East Carolina SGA Supports Anti-Semitism Resolution In March, the Student Government Association (SGA) of East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina, voted to “take a stand with the Jewish community at [ECU].” The SGA passed a bill which seeks, in the words of it sponsors, to “[define] what anti-Semitism is” and to bring awareness to “what’s going on around […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 16, 2017 ACTA Reports that the BDS Movement Threatens Academic Freedom Last Thursday, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) issued a report on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. As our readers may recall, ACTA is a nonprofit organization committed to academic freedom and achievement at America’s colleges. Two ACTA staffers, William Gonch and Avi Snyder, appeared as guests on the Brandeis Blog in […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 16, 2017 Racism, Antisemitism, Theory On Monday, April 24, our colleagues at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, in partnership with the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, will be holding a conference at Birkbeck, University of London. The conference, entitled “Racism, Antisemitism, Theory,” will “[explore] the relationship between racism and antisemitism.” The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities organizes events with […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 15, 2017 University of Texas Students Speak Out Last week, the student government of The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) unanimously approved A.R. 26, a motion intended to condemn recent anti-Semitic incidents in and around their campus. The assembly resolution, officially titled “In Support of Jewish Students at The University of Texas at Austin,” cites the recent incidents of “a center […] Anti-Semitism Blog
March 15, 2017 Linda Sarsour’s Problematic Views on Zionism and Anti-Semitism As a co-chair of the Women’s March protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration, Linda Sarsour – who is usually identified as a Palestinian-American progressive political activist – has recently attracted much sympathetic media attention, but also some criticism. Among the issues that critics of Sarsour brought up early on was her open support for BDS, i.e. the […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
March 10, 2017 Maryland and Texas BDS Legislation Earlier this month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called in his budget for laws which will stop state support for businesses that endorse or adhere to boycotts of Israel. Seventeen states have currently enacted anti-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanction) legislation, with states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio having done so in just the last few months. […] Anti-Zionism Blog
March 10, 2017 Senate Calls for Federal Action Against Anti-Semitic Threats In a powerful moment of unanimity on Tuesday, the Senate called upon the Trump administration to support the Jewish community, in light of recent security threats to Jewish community centers (JCCs) across the nation. All 100 Senators signed a letter urging the administration to actively address the upsurge in bomb threats against Jewish institutions. The […] Anti-Semitism Blog
February 21, 2017 Antisemitism Studies Journal Announces Contents of Inaugural Issue The Canadian Institute for the Study of anti-Semitism has announced the issue contents of its new journal, AntisemitismStudies, published by Indiana University Press. Antisemitism Studies, as discussed in a prior entry, provides the leading forum for scholarship on the millennial phenomenon of anti-Semitism, both its past and present manifestations. Catherine Chatterly, founding director of CISA and […] Anti-Semitism Blog
February 20, 2017 LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus at StandWithUs Anti-BDS Conference StandWithUs, an international non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about Israel and combatting anti-Semitism, will be holding their third annual Anti-BDS conference in Los Angeles from March 4-6. For the past three years, StandWithUs has invited international experts to discuss strategies to combat the global boycott movement against Israel. LDB President & General Counsel […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
February 13, 2017 Academic Boycotters Target the United States In an effort to condemn the actions taken by President Trump, some academics are now advocating a boycott against the U.S. similar as those attempted against Israel. Recent proposals to adopt sanctions and boycott measures against Israel have been mired in controversy and failure. The Modern Language Association (MLA) recently defeated a proposal for a […] Anti-Semitism
February 13, 2017 ISGAP Publishes New Volume Including LDB Campus Anti-Semitism Research The Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy (ISGAP) has announced the publication of “ISGAP Papers: Anti-Semitism in Comparative Perspective-Volume Two,” featuring an original article by LDB’s Kenneth L. Marcus. The publication of these papers is part of ISGAP’s ongoing work establishing anti-Semitism studies as a recognized academic discipline. ISGAP will continue to […] Anti-Semitism Blog
February 6, 2017 British Columbia School Reverses Decision on Israeli Students In late January, as reported by Jpost, Israeli student Stav Daron was told by the administrators at the British Columbia Island School of Building Arts (ISBA), a Canadian trade school, that he could not attend their school due “to the conflict and illegal settlement activity in the region.” The school’s response to Daron’s interest in […] Anti-Zionism Blog
February 2, 2017 UH students want leaders to respond to anti-Semitic tweets Houston Hillel is reassuring students and the local Jewish community that Houston’s largest university remains a safe place for Jewish students. Blog
January 29, 2017 Possible Anti-BDS Legislation in Wyoming Anti-BDS sentiments reached the Cowboy State this month, as Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn of Jackson, WY encouraged the Wyoming State Legislature to prohibit state agencies from contracting businesses that boycott Israel. Mendelsohn oversees Chabad Lubavitch of Wyoming. Mendelsohn called upon Rep. James Byrd, D-Cheyenne, who then sponsored a resolution requiring state agencies to consider whether a […] Anti-Zionism Blog
January 29, 2017 Fordham University Refuses to Recognize SJP Group On Campus Fordham University denied a request by students to form a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter on campus. The university, a Jesuit school in New York City, does not allow student organizations which promote the interests of one country. As Fordham’s Dean of Students Keith Eldredge wrote in an email released by Inside Higher […] Anti-Zionism Blog
January 24, 2017 Letter to Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Today, two dozen Jewish and civil rights advocacy organizations wrote to the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, William J. Howell, in support of HB 2261. This bill would amend the Virginia Code to recognize anti-Semitism as a form of unlawful discriminatory practice. In their letter, the organizations explained how anti-Semitism is an urgent and compounding problem at […] Anti-Semitism Blog
January 20, 2017 UK Lawyers Taking Action Against Palestinian Terrorism Earlier this week, the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) submitted a complaint to the UK National Contact Point for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding the conduct of a multinational service network’s providing audit reports from which the Palestinian Authority (PA) has funded the payment of salaries to terrorists. UKLFI, a […] Litigation
January 13, 2017 The Second Bristol-Sheffield Hallam Colloquium on Contemporary Anti-Semitism Videos from the Second Bristol-Sheffield Hallam Colloquium on Contemporary Anti-Semitism, chaired by Lesley Klaff and J.G. Campbell, are now available here. This past fall, LDB President and General Counsel Kenneth L. Marcus spoke at the Second Bristol-Sheffield Hallam Colloquium on Contemporary Anti-Semitism. The theme of the colloquium was “Anti-Semitism in the Media: The Old and […] Anti-Semitism Blog
January 13, 2017 Michigan Governor Signs Anti-BDS Bills into Law On New Year’s Eve, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed two anti-BDS bills into law. The bipartisan legislation—previously bill HB 5821 sponsored by Reps. Al Pscholka, Mike Calton, Jeremy Moss, and Andy Schor, and bill HB 5822 sponsored by Rep. Robert Wittenberg—prohibits the state from hiring businesses that boycott individuals or public entities of a foreign […] Anti-Semitism Blog Litigation
January 12, 2017 The Beginning of the End for BDS in Spain The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is being defeated and in perhaps the most surprising of nations – Spain. A country that topped the Anti-Defamation League’s 2015 anti-Semitism index in Western Europe, and the very place where a Catalan lawmaker demanded the head of Barcelona’s Jewish community be removed from the local government’s parliament […] Anti-Zionism Blog Litigation