In partnership with the Center for Jewish History, IUB’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism is delighted to announce its upcoming conference titled “Addressing Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges.” These five sessions will bring together many of this generation’s most prominent scholars to discuss definitions and debates about antisemitism, recent developments in the United States, Europe, and Israel, how technology is used to disseminate hate speech, and the best ways to respond to the rising threats of today’s anti-Jewish hostility. The conference is open to the public and will be held on January 28, 2024 at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. There will be both in-person and virtual opportunities to attend this groundbreaking symposium. Register today to reserve your seat. SESSION ONE on 1/28/24 | 10:00AM ET – features LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus — ‘What is Antisemitism? Definitions and Debates’ Although Jew hatred dates back millennia, historians disagree on whether it should be called “antisemitism.” While some apply the term to violent events that have taken place across the entirety of Jewish history, others contend that alternative terms, such as “anti-Judaism” and “Judeophobia,” better describe the phenomenon in certain eras. Particularly in recent years, scholars and policymakers have debated the meaning of antisemitism by analyzing the role of political considerations in shaping how the term has been employed. Panel #1 addresses these and other issues by exploring competing definitions of antisemitism, examining how they relate to the controversial notion of antizionism, and determining how both terms have been affected by Hamas’s terror attack against Israel. Kenneth Marcus, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law Derek Penslar, Harvard University Miriam Elman, Academic Engagement Network Moderated by Gavriel Rosenfeld, CJH / Fairfield University
Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus will lead a Beinner Family Speakers Series webinar for the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University Bloomington on Sunday, October 23, at 12:00 EDT. His session is titled ‘The Wayward Healer: latrogenic Antisemitism and the Perils of Intervention,’ and registration for the event is now open. . The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) is part of Indiana University Bloomington and was founded in 2009 by Professor Alvin H. Rosenfeld. ISCA, through their lectures and publications, aims to clarify what is new and what has been inherited from the antisemitic lexicons of the past. . The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism is hosting the Beinner Family Speakers Series this fall. This series aims to discuss topics of antisemitism as explored from the diverse perspectives and communities of the presenters. For more details, please contact Brandeis Center Academic Advisory Board member and Director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism Dr. Alvin H. Rosenfeld. . Here is a list of the remaining lectures offered this fall and how to register for them: . Martin Kramer, an historian of the Middle East and Israel at Tel Aviv University and the Walter P. Stern Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, presents: ‘Semites, Anti-Semites, and Bernard Lewis: The Life and Afterlife of a Seminal Book’ on Sunday, October 2 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. . . Thane Rosenbaum, a law professor, legal and Middle East analyst, novelist, essayist, and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, presents: ‘Occupation, “Apartheid,” and “Ethnic Cleansing”: The Trifecta Libel Against Israel’ on Sunday, October 16 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. . Ofir Winter, a research fellow at INSS and a lecturer at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University, presents: ‘Making Peace with the Jews? Contemporary Islamic Arguments for and against Normalization’ on Sunday, October 30 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. . . Ben Cohen, the Senior Correspondent for The Algemeiner, presents: ‘Pandemics, Hate Crimes, and Riots: Media Coverage of Antisemitism Since 2020’ on Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. . . Franziska Haug, a research assistant at the Institute for German Literature and its Didactics at the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, presents: ‘The Function of Antisemitism in Queer-Feminist Discourse’ on Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. . . Yana Grinshpun, a senior Lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, presents: ‘Judeophobia and “Islamophobia” in Today’s France: Symbolism, Doxa, and Reality’ on Sunday, December 4, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here. .
The Louis D. Brandeis Center (LDB) is pleased to share the announcement from our friends at Indiana University about a conference on “Antisemitism in Today’s America: Manifestations, Causes, and Consequences.” The event will be held in July 2021 (precise dates and venue to be determined) and is sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University. LDB Academic Advisory Board member Professor Alvin Rosenfeld serves as the Director of ISCA, as well as Professor of Jewish Studies and English at Indiana University. Scholars are invited to submit papers addressing various topics pertaining to the history and contemporary manifestations of antisemitism in America. These papers may be included in a volume of edited conference proceedings or presented at the conference.
On April 11, the Associated Students Senate at University of California—Santa Barbara (UCSB) unanimously passed a resolution condemning both anti-Semitism and hate speech. Passed on Yom HaShoah, which is the Holocaust Remembrance Day, this resolution affirms the Senate “will strive to be allies of the Jewish community,” and members of other identities including religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, and gender. This news coming out of UCSB, which has also been the site of numerous failed BDS resolutions, is another positive step in the ongoing battle against campus anti-Semitism. This resolution comes on the heels of numerous high-profile anti-Semitic incidents within the University of California system. In October of 2014, flyers circulated on UCSB’s campus stated that “ ‘9/11’ was Mossad,” Israel’s intelligence agency. In 2017, UC Berkeley’s student newspaper, the Daily Californian, published an anti-Semitic image following a speech by Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. This image portrayed a grinning Dershowitz, who had recently given a speech on campus entitled the “Liberal Case for Israel,” while stepping on a man with a Palestinian flag and holding up an Israeli soldier shooting an unarmed man. While the Berkeley Chancellor responded by condemning both the incident, it left many in the University of California system feeling angry and disappointed. Most recently, the word “Jew” was found spray painted on a dumpster on UCSB’s campus. These incidents provided the catalyst for the Senate resolution as several students voiced their concern with the rising levels of anti-Semitism on campus. One student, who also was a student sponsor of the resolution, stated that these anti-Semitic incidents “makes Jewish people feel like they’re being compared to trash.” The resolution passed last week builds on a similar declaration agreed upon by the UCSB Associated Students Senate in 2015. Similar to the recently passed resolution, the 2015 declaration also “unequivocally condemn[ed] all forms of anti-Semitism…and reject[ed] attempts to justify anti-Jewish hatred or violent attacks as an acceptable expression of disapproval or frustration.” In an attempt to provide clarity and guidance as to what is considered anti-Semitic activity, the 2015 resolution adopted the United States Department of State definition of anti-Semitism and included numerous illustrative examples of this form of bigotry. The more recent declaration is broader in scope. It condemns anti-Semitism as well as all forms of hate speech. One of the authors of the resolution summed up the bill well, saying: “It’s not just the Jewish community. For example, I am not Jewish, however, I come from a Hispanic background and I am from a marginalized community as well, so I could sympathize with what my allies in the Jewish community have witnessed here at UCSB, and beyond UCSB. This resolution is something that not only condemns anti-Semitism, but also hate speech.” Sponsored by the Santa Barbara Hillel, Isla Vista Chabad, Guachos United for Israel, and Students Supporting Israel, this resolution also states that the Senate “will respect the right of all students to freedom of speech, while exercising its own First amendment rights to condemn hate speech whenever it occurs on campus.” The UCSB resolution is indicative of an encouraging trend occurring in recent years as more student governments have begun passing resolutions condemning anti-Semitism. For example, in 2015 the Undergraduate Student Assembly at the University of California—Los Angeles passed a resolution that denounced all forms of anti-Semitism and protected Jewish students from future discrimination. In addition, the Associated Students at San Diego State University passed “A Resolution to Condemn Anti-Semitism,” last year which had similar objectives. These resolutions, as well as those passed at campuses like Capital University, Indiana University, and the Toronto-based Ryerson University, formally adopted the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism as well. Setting the tone for the rest of the university community and raising awareness as to the prevalence of anti-Semitism and hate speech on campus, the UCSB resolution condemning anti-Semitism and hate speech represents a significant win in the struggle against anti-Semitism. As more campuses follow in UCSB’s admirable footsteps, the place for these regressive behaviors will soon no longer exist.
On Thursday, December 14th, the National Union of Students (NUS) in Australia recognized the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. This adoption was part of a resolution, proposed by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) during the NUS National Conference. The broadly stated goals of the resolution include a condemnation of anti-Semitism, as well as a pledge to counter the rise of anti-Semitism on university campuses within Australia. The motion also asked the NUS to ensure that all of its programs and spaces become “inclusive and welcoming of Jewish voices and perspectives.” The NUS has already stated, according to the Algemeiner, that it will begin this process by “providing kosher food options at its events, helping AUJS ask universities for special consideration of Jewish holidays for Jewish students, ensure that observant students have access to appropriate religious facilities, and to survey the effects of anti-Semitism on Australian campuses.” The NUS has also stated that it will officially recognize January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and will work with the AUJS to provide greater Holocaust education. This motion comes after the publishing of a report on anti-Semitism by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which found that anti-Semitic incidents have risen by 9.5% between 2016 and 2017 in Australia. The adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, a move also seen in the recent adoption of the definition by the Austrian Student Union, charts a clear course in the National Union of Students’ commitment to fighting against the resurgence of anti-Semitism. Various nations, including the United Kingdom, Romania and Germany, have also adopted the definition. In the United States, several student government bodies on campuses nationwide, including UCLA, Indiana University, East Carolina University, and San Diego State, have adopted resolutions condemning anti-Semitism and adopting the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism – a very similar definition to that of the IHRA . The State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism was just adopted by the Village of Bal Harbour for the use of law enforcement officers, marking Bal Harbour the first government body in the United States to incorporate this important definition into their laws. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, federal legislation which incorporated the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism, passed the United States Senate by unanimous, bipartisan consent last December. Similar legislation has been introduced in several states, including South Carolina. The decision by the NUS to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism is a continuation of a broad international trend, one that highlights the need for a clear definition of anti-Semitism. The definition serves as a tool that will help these nations, municipalities, and organizations all fight against this resurgent form of bigotry.
“With the advent of the Internet, antisemitic messages are disseminated more quickly and widely than ever before, and often go unchallenged,” opens a new report from the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) based out of Indiana University. The report, “Best Practices to Combat Antisemitism on Social Media,” was prepared for the U.S. Department of State as part of an effort between Indiana University and the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. The study, conducted in spring of 2017, utilized the same definition of anti-Semitism used by the U.S. State Department. The study saw the ISCA send out a survey to non-governmental organizations, who have worked against anti-Semitism, 17 of which took the time to respond. The NGOs represented were from more than ten different countries. The second part of the report revolved around searching social media platforms for anti-Semitic posts, with a particular focus on Twitter, then analyzed the background of the repeat offenders. The study reports that, based on the surveys conducted, “traditional” or “classic” anti-Semitism is the most prevalent form of anti-Semitism found on social media platforms. Stereotypes include the idea that Jews control the financial world, media and Hollywood, and are engaged in an attempt to destroy traditional or nationality-centered societies. Many of the organizations that were surveyed also noted a rise in “what can be termed as the new antisemitism” directed against Israel, which attempts to portray Israelis or Zionists as the “new Nazis.” The study’s analysis of Twitter messages also revealed that the most influential disseminators of anti-Semitic messages are white nationalist individuals, many who “self-identified or [are] clearly affiliated [with the] alt-right.” The study further documented the patterns in anti-Semitic terminology, and discovered that the three most active posters of the term “Holohoax,” used to indicate a belief the holocaust is a fabrication, garnered between 4,884 and 18,265 followers. These numbers display the large pool of supporters that gather around these anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. The study credits NGOs around the world with being at the “forefront of flagging anti-Semitic content” online, but points to the “vast quantity of anti-Semitic messages and accounts” as an obstacle to erasing this form of bigotry from social media. Another stated obstacle is the reluctance of social media platforms to block content or users for “ideological and financial reasons,” many of which revolve around issues of “free speech.” In European nations, governments increasingly pressure internet service providers and social media platforms to remove hateful content. In the case of the United States, however, this is rarely the case. Few NGOs are engaged in counter speech, or the stating of counter narratives by questioning and rejecting anti-Semitic logic, as it is believed that these counter narratives have difficulty reaching the “target audiences” and not granting anti-Semitic messages more of a platform than if they were never challenged in the first place. (more…)
The following piece was written in collaboration with Emma Dillon and Juan Pablo Rivera Garza: Indiana University BloomingtonPhoto via http://www.iu.edu/ In April, the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism (ISCA) organized an important International Scholars Conference at Indiana University, on the topic of “Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and the Dynamics of Delegitimization.” The conference sought to explore what informs contemporary anti-Zionism as well as to clarify the ties such thinking may have with anti-Semitism and broader ideological, political, and cultural currents of thought. The conference brought together some 70 scholars from 15 countries over the course of several days for intense deliberation and discussion about some of the most pressing issues today. LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus chaired a session of the conference, and LDB is proud to have close ties with many of the distinguished speakers and participants at this great event. Videos from the conference have recently become available for viewing online. (more…)
Our friends at Indiana University have alerted us to a conference on “The New Unease: Antisemitism in Europe Today – Variations, Impact, Counter-Strategies,” which will be held in Berlin, Germany on July 7. The event is sponsored in cooperation with The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University, Indiana University Europe Gateway, the Moses Mendelssohn Center (MMZ) at the University of Potsdam, and the International Institute for Education and Research on Antisemitism (IIBSA). LDB Academic Advisory Board member Professor Alvin Rosenfeld serves as the Director of ISCA, as well as Professor of Jewish Studies and English at Indiana University. For the full list of panels and for more information about the event in English, please click here. For the full list of panels and for more information about the event in German, please click here.
Starting this weekend, The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism at Indiana University (ISCA) will host its third international scholars conference, from Saturday evening, April 3 through Wednesday, April 7, on “Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Dynamics of Delegitimization.” LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus will chair a panel on Tuesday, April 5, with Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, speaking on The New Supersessionism: ID Theft of the Jewish Narrative, and Richard Landes, a professor and historian at Boston University, speaking on The Global Progressive Left, Anti-Zionism, and Secular Supersessionism. The conference will bring together about 70 scholars from 15 countries, and aims to explore the thinking that informs contemporary anti-Zionism and to clarify the ties such thinking may have with anti-Semitism and broader ideological, political, and cultural currents of thought. Dr. Alvin Rosenfield , a member of the Brandeis Center’s legal advisory board and director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism is leading the conference., In addition to Dr. Rosenfield, LDB is pleased to have connections to many of the other speakers and participants. Irwin Cotler, the LDB Legal Advisory Board Honorary Chair, will give a keynote address at a dinner event on April 3, on Global Anti-Semitism, Demonization, and the Laundering of Delegitimization Under Universal Public Values. Additionally, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a member of LDB’s academic advisory board ,will speak about campus anti-Semitism on the morning of April 4th. LDB academic advisory board members Dina Porat and Catherine Chatterley will speak on Vatican-Jewish Relations Following the Holocaust and The Effects of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, and Anti-Israel Politics on Contemporary Holocaust Education and Memorialization later on that same day. More information can be found here: http://www.indiana.edu/~iscaweb/docs/isc_agenda_2016-03-07.pdf
On Tuesday, December 2, Students Supporting Israel at Indian University passed a resolution in its student government that adopts the United States’ State Department’s Definition of Anti-Semitism. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the resolution passed at the Student Association Congress meeting by a vote of 22-6, with six abstentions. The resolution states that, “the Indiana University Student Association adopts the definition of anti-Semitism as stated above as well as the State Department’s understanding of Anti-Semitism relative to Israel” The Indiana University Student Association commented, stating they recognize “that the Jewish people, like all peoples, have a collective right to self-determination, and considers attempts to undermine these rights, including the global BDS Movement against Israel, to be a form of bigotry” It also cites the Marcus Policy, initiated by LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus in 2004 during his tenure at the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights. This policy extended Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects students from discrimination based on their race, color, or national origin at federally funded post-secondary educational institutions, to protect Jewish students based on their ethnic or ancestral background. (more…)