Publications
This series is published with the kind support of Dana and Yossie Hollander
Below is a collection of articles that have been written as part of a comprehensive research project on contemporary antisemitism in the United States. During 2020, our research team studied the phenomenon employing a multi-pronged methodology which includes open-source documents, and dozens of interviews and learning sessions with Israeli and American officials, academics and civil society leaders. Our objective is to provide a comprehensive analysis geared towards concrete policy recommendations to improve the response to multiple challenges that rise from antisemitism in the United States.
The articles in the collection cover a multitude of aspects relating to the manifestation of antisemitism in the United States – including theoretical background, a situational report and a response analysis. Longer and more comprehensive articles were written by members of our research team, and shorter analyses pinpointing specific issues were written by top experts who we met as part of our research journey and who agreed to contribute to the project. The series of articles that comprise the project will be published over the course of 2021 – watch this space as we fill the line-up with clickable links.
Table of Contents:
Articles in this section examine the definition of antisemitism and the phenomenon's unique American context. This includes: an analysis of current academic discourse on antisemitism; a discussion of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism; a historical assessment of antisemitism in the United States; a deep dive into the unique characteristics of antisemitism in the context of legislation on freedom of speech and human rights; and an analysis of the links between antisemitism and anti-Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric.
Kenneth S. Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH) in New York, and the author of The Conflict over The Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate, examines the linkage and tensions between antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and freedom of expression today. Stern outlines his views on lines and gray zones between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, and about if, when and how anti-Zionism is related to contemporary antisemitism in the American context.
Eli Lederhendler, Stephen S. Wise Professor of American Jewish History and Institutions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the chair of the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, examines the phenomenon of Antisemitism in the United States in the context of American social history and analyzes how the phenomenon has developed in the United States over the past hundred years, emphasizing the main formative events and counter reactions by the American Jewish community.
Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld, who holds the Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University and is the director of the university’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, shares his insights on contemporary antisemitism in the United States and its alarming rise, based on his yearslong research and expertise in the field.
Prof. Dina Porat, the founder and former head of the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry; Dr. Giovanni Quer, the project manager at the Kantor Center; and Adv. Talia Naamat analyze the status of the working definition of antisemitism five years after its adoption by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), and offer a close examination of the main criticism and responses to it.
Adi Kantor, a research associate on Contemporary Antisemitism in the United States at the INSS, reviews the development of the concept of antisemitism in scholarly discourse and the treatment of the theoretical and ideological sources on which antisemitism is based. She describes the ways that the concept of antisemitism has changed and the main issues that have accompanied and shaped the scholarly discourse about it in the contemporary era. This article aims to provide a theoretical and conceptual basis and infrastructure tools for those seeking to examine and characterize the phenomenon of contemporary antisemitism.
Articles in this section examine contemporary antisemitism in the United States. This includes: a meta-analysis of various indicators and monitoring systems pointing towards an increase in antisemitism; an analysis of the various sources that cultivate different types of antisemitism in the United States; an assessment of mainstream U.S. and Israeli media coverage of antisemitism in the United States during 2020; a deep dive into the characteristics of antisemitism in the digital realm and social media.
Dr. Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), underscores the role of antisemitic concepts and rhetoric in the ideology and activities of major far-right groups in the United States, just after extreme right-wing groups, stormed Capitol Hill the day Congress certified Joe Biden as President-Elect. Dr. Beirich outlines the theoretical and organizational evolution of antisemitism amid the ranks of America's right-wing extremists.
Lior Sirkis, a research assistant in the "Contemporary Antisemitism in the United States" research project of the INSS, examines the media coverage of the phenomenon of Antisemitism in the United States during 2020, which was full of tumultuous events. By analyzing the media coverage of the topic by mainstream American and Israeli online print media, she presents the main trends that reflect the public discourse in this field and at the same time helps in shaping it.
Stephen H. Norwood, professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and an expert on the American left, examines the phenomenon of antisemitism in the US in the context of the radical left, and analyzes how certain political movements adopted antisemitic stereotypes as part of their ideology from the end of the 19th century until now
Tom Eshed, a research assistant at the INSS project on “Contemporary Antisemitism in the United States,” examines how various government entities, law enforcement agencies, and civil society organizations collect and monitor data about antisemitism in the United States. He analyzes the advantages and shortcomings of each method and suggests how to responsibly use the various monitoring tools.
Shahar Eilam, head of the research project on contemporary antisemitism in the US at the INSS, and Tom Eshed, a research assistant with the project, examine the wave of antisemitic events in the US in May 2021, during and immediately after Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls. Based on these events, they analyze various and broad aspects of antisemitism in the US and their effect on the American Jewish community and on Israel.
Eunice G. Pollack, a professor of history and Jewish studies (ret.), University of North Texas, analyzes how racialized forms of antisemitism and anti-Zionism took shape, spread, and intensified among Blacks in the US from the era of Malcolm X through the current Black Lives Matter movement.
Yehudit Barsky, a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, and Ehud Rosen, a team member of the INSS’s project on Contemporary Antisemitism in the United States, analyze the evolvement of Islamist antisemitism in the US. They emphasize the “rebranding” and mainstreaming of Islamist groups by utilizing the wide interest in human and minority rights in the US, taking advantage of growing societal divisions and the advance of “intersectionality” and the ongoing activity of far-left activist groups together with Islamists, also known as the “red-green alliance”. The “red-green alliance” serves as a unifying axis of anti-Israel mobilization and operates on the basis of shared agendas of anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism.
Articles in this section examine the ecosystem of actors in Israel and in the United States tasked with countering antisemitism. This includes: an analysis of the roles of the Israeli establishment, Jewish national institutions, and civil society working from Israel to addressing antisemitism in the United States; assessments of the roles, perceptions and methodologies of leading American actors working to counter antisemitism "at home" (the American establishment, the Jewish community, Philanthropy & Civil society, the Israeli-American community); and threat analyses and best practices relating to the central domains in which a response to antisemitism is provided (the educational arena, the academic realm and U.S. campuses, legislation, social media, securing Jewish institutions and communities).
Prof. Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), examines antisemitism and delegitimization of Israel in the U.S. academic realm. Drawing on her rich experience in the campus setting, Prof. Elman puts the phenomenon of antisemitism on US campuses in context and delves into its variegated expressions with concrete policy recommendations of how best to address the challenge.
Mitchell D. Silber, Executive Director of the Community Security Initiative (CSI), responsible for securing and protecting Jewish institutions in the greater New York City area, assesses changes in the security and protection of Jewish communities, since the horrifying massacre in Pittsburgh on October 2018. In his article, Silber identifies the various ideologies that cultivate antisemitism in the United States, and provides a glimpse of the community’s security set-up, cooperation on the national level, and learning processes, drawing on the rich experience of the Jewish community in Britain.
Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, analyzes the complicated challenges of dealing with antisemitic manifestations within the educational institutions in the United States as well as the comprehensive role of education in addressing antisemitism. As the former US assistant secretary of Education for Civil Rights (twice), Marcus reviews the long path that educators, administrators and the federal government went through in addressing the challenge so far and suggests the next needed steps
Stephanie Hausner, the former managing director of the Israel Action Network at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and Rebecca Caspi, the senior vice-president for global operations of the JFNA and the director general of JFNA’s Israel office, discuss the main challenges of contemporary antisemitism for the Jewish communities throughout the United States. They suggest a few leading approaches in combatting the threat, such as improving capabilities for identifying antisemitism, enhancing coordination between Jewish groups, strengthening the cooperation with non-Jewish partners, and promoting government efforts to address the issue.
Dr. Scott Lasensky, a former senior policy advisor on Israel, the Middle East, and Jewish affairs in the Obama administration, examines the national political context in the US of the fight against antisemitism. Lasensky explains the evolving role of national authorities, assesses the responses of the early Biden administration, and offers recommendations designed to strengthen the role of the executive branch and Congress in combatting domestic antisemitism.
Dr. Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky, formerly a research fellow at the INSS and a member of the research team dealing with contemporary antisemitism in the United States, describes the development of the Israeli establishment’s response to antisemitic incidents in general and in the United States specifically. She analyzes the main activities of official state and national bodies and suggests alternatives for improving the response to the growing threat of antisemitism.
This section will synthesize the data which surfaces in the multitude of articles comprising each of the earlier sections into a comprehensive assessment of the researched phenomenon. As such, this final section will entail an analysis of the challenges posed by antisemitism in the United States, to the Jewish community in specific, the American society at large, official U.S. agencies and relevant players (establishment and other) in the State of Israel. This section will flesh out an organizing concept as well as concrete policy recommendations to better address the many challenges.
The opinions expressed in INSS publications are the authors’ alone.