Antisemitism Online: From Social Media to the Dark Web and Beyond – Dr. Lev Topor (Fall 2024)
This digital course is aimed to present the topic of antisemitism online and the way it is propagated nowadays with modern technologies which mainly include platforms like the dark web or secure and anonymous messaging applications like the dark web as mainstream social media often bans extreme content.
During this course, we will learn and discuss the reasons for engaging in antisemitism in the online domain, and the effects of such antisemitism and we will also debate about ongoing policies aimed to tackle this problem, whether policy from social media platforms/technology companies or from governments and organizations. During the course, we will also learn about the concepts of cyberspace, anonymity, and pseudonymity.
Session 1: Introduction – What Is Anonymous Communication and What Extremists Have to Do With It?
Session 2: Online Antisemitism, Racism, Islamophobia and Xenophobia – A Review
Session 3: Trends from the Dark Web and Telegram: Online Radicalization
Session 4: Conclusion and Future Recommendations
Faculty Antisemitism Before and After October 7 – Professor Cary Nelson (Fall 2024)
Antizionist faculty members have a unique role in defining and rationalizing the terms, rhetoric, and key arguments behind what is increasingly a movement dedicated to discrediting or eliminating the Jewish state, not debating its policies. This course is designed both to look at their specific strategies and to ask what can be done to restore rational, evidence-based discussion to campus in the light of the highly polarized environment we confront.
We will begin by looking at the vexing, continually debated question about whether anti-Zionism and antisemitism are fundamentally different or deeply interrelated phenomena. We will then examine a couple of antizionist faculty careers in detail and look at efforts to analyze and evaluate them. We will also ask what cultural and political work such evaluations can do. One does not generally hope to reach already committed opponents of Israel, including those who urge a boycott of Israeli universities, but rather to interest the undecided and to empower allies with detailed evidence they cannot acquire independently.
We also need to ask how the context for such work has changed since the watershed day of October 7. Certainly even established supporters of Hamas dramatically escalated their rhetoric soon thereafter. A new antizionist group has arisen, Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), and it has chapters on 100 key campuses. Did a basic transformation of antizionist antisemitism take place in the wake of that day? How has the campus climate changed as a result and what strategies are available to us in response?
Session 1: Anti-Zionism versus antisemitism?
Session 2: Jasbir Puar and Lara Sheehi
Session 3: The challenge of faculty conduct on social media
Session 4: The ruptured world of October 7
Examining Common Libels Against the Jewish State Under International Law – Professor Ansel Brown (Fall 2024)
The world in the post-October 7th reality has seen a surge in the proliferation of serious accusations hurled against the Jewish State, such as war crimes, genocide, occupation, illegal settlements, colonialism, and apartheid. These accusations have morphed into a virulent concoction of libels against the Jewish collective of Israel, fueling an unprecedented global pandemic of antisemitism. This course will dissect these often-unchallenged accusations and examine them through sound legal analysis under international law.
Session 1: Illegal Occupation Accusation
Session 2: Apartheid Accusation
Session 3: Genocide Accusation
Session 4: Peace Obstruction Accusation
The Triple Dimension of Post-Shoah Antisemitism – Professor Joël Kotek (Spring 2025)
Upon reflection, the anti-Israeli passion (there is no other term for the current hostility towards the Jewish state) stems from three interrelated factors. First, there is an old habitus of Judeophobia inherited from Christianity and Islam (primary antisemitism). Second, there is a guilt associated with the Shoah, which German researchers have termed secondary antisemitism. Finally, there is a clearly opportunistic anti-Zionist stance, driven purely by electoral calculations (tertiary antisemitism).
Session 1: The Origin of Antisemitism: Christian and Muslim Jealousy of Israel
Session 2: Passionate Antisemitism (Primary)
Session 3: Vengeful Antisemitism (Secondary)
Session 4: Calculated Antisemitism (Tertiary)
Holocaust Inversion and the Christian Academy – Dr. Dyanne Martin (Spring 2025)
This course will delve into the complex interplay between Holocaust inversion and Christian antisemitism, examining their historical roots, contemporary manifestations, and impact on society. We will analyze the phenomenon of Holocaust inversion and examine the ways in which Holocaust history is being distorted to vilify Jews and Israel. Drawing on historical, theological, and literary perspectives, this course aims to deepen participants’ understanding of these troubling phenomena and explore strategies for combatting them.
Session 1: Historical Foundations of Christian Antisemitism
Session 2: The Holocaust: History, Memory, and Distortion
Session 3: Holocaust Inversion and Contemporary Antisemitism
Session 4: Reflections and Resolutions: Confronting Holocaust Inversion in the Christian Academy and Beyond
Islamism in the West: The Tripartite Challenge of Social Polarization, Radicalization and Antisemitism – Dr. Lorenzo Vidino (Spring 2025)
The course will analyze the complex presence of Islamist networks in Europe and North America, with a particular focus on the Muslim Brotherhood. The world’s oldest Islamist organization, in fact, has established a presence in the West since the 1960s and its networks, while numerically small, have managed to reach a position of disproportionate influence within local Muslim communities and in the public discourse. Thanks to a combination of sophisticated political skills and access to large resources, individuals and organizations linked to the movement have been able to play a substantial role in shaping the religious and political perceptions of many Western Muslims and how Western policymakers, media outlets and civil society see Islam and Muslims.
The course will analyze the tactics and strategies utilized by these networks. It will then outline the tripartite challenge they pose, as outlined in current Western debates. The first is the negative impact that Brotherhood networks have on social cohesion and the integration of Muslims in the West. In the French debate, this is often referred to as séparatisme, the social engineering project by Islamists to create a parallel society for Western Muslims embracing values that are different from the rest of society and antagonistic towards it.
The second challenge is security-related. While the Brotherhood is not engaged in terrorism in the West, its narrative can be conducive to it, de facto creating a fertile environment for violent radicalization. Moreover, Brotherhood networks in the West do engage in various activities in support of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in both the EU and the United States. Finally, Brotherhood networks play a key role in disseminating antisemitic views within Western Muslim communities and beyond, chiefly by weaponizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Session 1: What is the MB in the West?
Session 2: How the MB in the West operates
Session 3: How the West sees the MB
Session 4: The MB and antisemitism
The Holocaust: An Interdisciplinary Introduction – Dr. Shay Pinik (Spring 2025)
The Holocaust of European Jewry or the Shoah is a dark chapter in the history of mankind with long-term and far-reaching repercussions that continue to impact the world we live in and be impacted by it. The intent of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen to erase from the face of the earth, first and foremost the Jewish people, and also, other groups deemed socially and racially “undesirable” marks one of the low points of moral degradation and barbarism in the history of humankind; an event the horrific magnitude and barbarism of which continue to haunt and affect our lives in the post-Holocaust era.
The exploration offered in this course, covering a whole range of disciplines – literature, film and visual arts, theology, and psychology – will help students grasp the magnitude of the Holocaust, recognize the evolution of its memory, the challenges in its representation (also, the need to defend this memory from both distorters and deniers) and better understand our own reality as a post-Holocaust one.
Session 1: The Literary Representation of the Holocaust
Session 2: The Historiography of the Holocaust
Session 3: Theological Responses to the Holocaust
Session 4: Between Art and Record Keeping – Artistic Representations of the Holocaust
Setting Precedence by NOT Following Protocol – Dr. Christine Maxwell (Spring 2025)
Based on Following PROTOCOL… or NOT?! A straight-forward and concise primer on contemporary antisemitism today, this four-part course elaborates on 20 straight-forward and concise points about the who, what, when, why, and how of contemporary antisemitism. Discussed in four sections, the course lays a foundation for understanding the origins of Hitler’s ‘big lie’, the pervasive impact of the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, common misconceptions about antisemitism, and suggests specific ways to ‘break protocol’ as informed and empowered upstanders. The aim of the course is to deliver a simple perspective of contemporary antisemitism for educating “typical” people about this complex topic.
This course builds on the 53-page ISGAP primer (required text), Following PROTOCOL… or NOT?! A straight-forward and concise primer on contemporary antisemitism today. This simple pamphlet is powerful because of its simplicity, but more importantly because of its targeted objective of bridging the gap between knowledge of the Holocaust and antisemitism, and Hitler and so on, and what’s going on today, for example, with Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA, gun violence, and what happened on 10/7. Contextualizing all of this in light of the lessons learned from the Holocaust is of the utmost urgency.
Practically, the primer starts with a working definition of contemporary antisemitism, followed by 20 statements in four sections. Statements 1-5 introduce the “big lie” as portrayed in Nazi propaganda. Six through 10 specifically address the fictitious Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Statements 11 through 15 discuss common misconceptions about antisemitism that perpetuate hatred, prejudice, and discrimination. Sixteen through 20 suggest ways to “break” the inherent, subconscious, and deliberate “protocols” of contemporary antisemitism. Then, it offers actionable ideas of what those who want to stand up can do to make a difference in their own spheres of influence – once they feel prepared to take a stand.
Session 1: (NOT) Following Protocol
Session 2: Understanding the Protocols
Session 3: Being [In]HumanSession
Session 4: Making a Difference
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew? Antisemitism and Lethal Ideologies – Dr. Naya Lekht (Spring 2025)
At its core, antisemitism is an ideology that views Jews as whatever is vile in the world. To save the world, “the Jew” must be exterminated. It is for this reason that Hannah Arendt wrote that, unlike many other forms of hatred, antisemitism is genocidal. Join Dr. Naya Lekht as she examines three distinct eras that birthed anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism by looking at the dominant ideologies that fueled this ancient hatred.
Session 1: Approaches to the Study of Antisemitism
Session 2: In the Era of Anti-Judaism: The Origins of Blood Libel
Session 3: In the era of anti-Semitism: Jews and Power
Session 4: In the era of Anti-Zionism: Israel and Power
Demonization Blueprints: Antizionist Propaganda—from the USSR to American Campuses Today – Izabella Tabarovsky (Spring 2025)
The explosion of anti-Israel demonization on the left in the wake of October 7 caught many by surprise. But the language equating Zionism with Nazism, fascism, racism, imperialism, settler-colonialism and apartheid has been a conventional part of far-left discourse since that late 1960s. Originating from the USSR, it got transferred to the global left via numerous channels of influences, including Soviet-financed communist parties, leftist publications, diplomatic channels, the Third World, and various international organizations. It’s impossible to understand the specific language and explanatory logic of anti-Zionist demonization deployed by the far-left today without understanding its roots in Soviet global propaganda and disinformation campaigns.
This course will survey the history of Soviet antizionist propaganda and its role in the broad Soviet information warfare against the West. We’ll cover the evolution of Soviet antizionism from the early days of Bolshevism to Brezhnev and discuss the channels Moscow used to inculcate it among the global left. We’ll examine why the language of far-left anti-Israel demonization tracks so closely with far-right antisemitic conspiracy tropes, effectively landing the far-left on the same page as the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. We’ll also look at some aspects of Soviet Jewish history to gain a better understanding of what happens to Jews when the broader society adopts antizionism as its dominant ideology. Finally, we’ll discuss models of resistance developed by Soviet Jews and how we can apply them today.
Session 1: Soviet Antizionism and Contemporary Left Antisemitism: An Overview
Session 2: Demonization Blueprints: Inculcating Antizionist Ideology among the Global Left
Session 3: Antizionism Is Antisemitism: Learning from the Soviet Jewish Experience
Session 4: In Search of New Jewish Role Models: the Refuseniks and the Soviet Jewry Movement
Hidden Truths and New Lenses: How Jewish Art Can Illuminate the Elephants in the Room – Ian Cohen (Spring 2025)
Utilizing original artworks as a vehicle, this course will explore key aspects of the Jewish story that are often left out of the discourse on Israel and the complexities of Jewish identity, history, and the antisemitism that has woven its way throughout millenia. Through visual expression, art can convey something that words alone cannot, and hopefully offer the ability to either relate or think about the subject matter via a lens the viewer had not yet contemplated or known to exist. From this new vantage point, along with suggested readings and interactive discussion, we will attempt to answer many questions such as: What does it mean to be part of an ethno-religion, versus a universalizing religion? How have antisemitic tropes functioned throughout the ages and majority cultures surrounding Jews? What facets of the Israeli-Arab conflict, including Anti-Normalization are omitted from the conversation around peace and coexistence? How does the term “Abrahamic faiths” obfuscate key features of their respective groups in how they are different versus how they are all the same. Why don’t we talk about these things?
In addition we will explore the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, the relatively recent development of Jewish denominations such as Orthodox, Conservative and Reform, as well as what historical factors spurred these new ways of expressing and practicing Judaism. We will also explore the concepts of assimilation and the challenges in current Identity politics, including the binary of white versus person of color in progressive spaces, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, while seeking to understand the meanings of “The West,” and “The East,” as well as where the Jewish people fit in this paradigm. A glossary of terms will be provided to attendees as well as various readings to help those at different levels of current knowledge. The use of art and visuals throughout the course will offer new ways of seeing and understanding the Jewish people, Israel and the space different groups occupy as well as power dynamics, Antisemitism, and humanity in general.
Session 1: One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: Jewish identity and why it’s confusing
Session 2: People of The Book: Replacement Theology and Supersessionism
Session 3: The Coloring Game Starring “White” Jews
Session 4: “Why You So Obsessed With Me?”