This program aims to provide deeper insights into the socio-economic, political, and cultural processes related to this rapidly evolving subject matter. The ISGAP Certificate Program in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies offers a wide range of courses that enable you to explore topics aligned with your interests and to gain professional knowledge. Courses are taught by leading international scholars and will provide a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of contemporary antisemitism and approaches to combat this growing challenge to democratic principles.
Each course consists of four-part online sessions scheduled weekly throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. To earn the Certificate, candidates must successfully complete two required courses and four elective courses, totaling six courses within a two-year timeframe.
Students may enroll in individual courses without committing to the full certificate program. In order to receive an official ISGAP certificate, students must, however, complete the required coursework.
Although live participation is encouraged, all courses will be recorded and available for later viewing.
To earn your certification at the end of the program, you will need to submit a 2,000-3,000 word research or policy paper, with the possibility of publication.
To view previous courses, click here.
ISGAP is a high-caliber international research center, committed to mapping, decoding, and combating contemporary antisemitism. Headquartered in New York, ISGAP also operates in Canada, the UK, Italy and Israel. ISGAP holds programs at top universities, engages in research projects, and publishes books and reports in the area of contemporary antisemitism studies and policy.
Applications are now being accepted.
Certificate Program:
$900 USD
Individual Courses:
$175 USD per course
Led by Dr. Charles Asher Small, this four-part course will offer a critical analysis of issues central to the study and emergence of contemporary antisemitism, as it relates to processes of globalization, the crisis of modernity, and the rise of reactionary anti-systemic movements, including political Islam, and the extreme left and extreme right wing nationalism. This area of inquiry is central to challenges confronting scholars and students when assessing the complexities of contemporary antisemitism(s) in a comprehensive analytical manner.
This course examines a variety of questions that cut across several disciplines to examine the millennial phenomenon of antisemitism. Exploring the history, causes, and essence of Jew hatred, the course delves into its philosophical, theological, ideological, political, and social aspects. The ultimate aim of the course is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the essence of Jew hatred as it appears among very diverse peoples and cultures ranging from ancient Greeks to modern intellectuals, from Saint Augustine to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, from Karl Marx to Adolf Hitler. Among the areas of focus are Nazi antisemitism, Jihadist antisemitism, and contemporary antisemitism. The fundamental question to be examined in this course is: What is the antisemite anti?
The devastating rupture in Jewish life that unfolded on October 7, 2023, had its most horrific consequences in Israel, a country that in many ways remains in shock as a result. But that day also, counter intuitively, triggered a surge in antisemitism that targeted campuses worldwide. Jewish students and faculty who identify in part with Israel found their identities disparaged and criminalized. We want to ask how the world has changed as a result and what can be done about it.
This course explores how contemporary antisemitism in Western societies has been reshaped by its Arab-Islamist iteration, particularly through the activism of radical Islamist immigrants. Using the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks as a central case study, the course examines how antisemitic narratives rooted in Arab and Islamist contexts circulated rapidly across Western campuses, media, and activist movements, normalizing hostility toward Jewish communities worldwide and challenging the resilience of liberal democracies. Students will gain historical and analytical tools to trace the intellectual roots of Arab antisemitism, assess its global diffusion, and evaluate its current and evolving impact on politics in both the Middle East and the West.
The goal of this course is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of contemporary antisemitism as an ideology and equip them with the psychological knowledge and practical tools necessary to combat it effectively. Drawing on insights from social psychology, judgment and decision-making, behavioral science, and the study of social movements, participants will explore what makes ideologies appealing, how they spread, and what it takes to challenge them.
Explore how antisemitism shaped the portrayal of Jews in art, how Jewish communities reclaimed their history and identity on their own terms, and how lessons from the past can inform strategies for confronting antisemitism today.
Comparative studies allow us to explore what is both familiar and foreign, to deepen understanding of our own and others’ traditions by studying their similarities and differences. Juxtaposing Hindu and Jewish indigeneity reveals two civilizations whose beliefs and practices emerge from sacred geography, peoplehood, and sovereignty. Examining their parallels and distinctions illuminates questions of identity, belonging, and diaspora, showing how ancient beginnings remain central to current concerns. For instance, this framework implicitly refutes the settler colonial state libel that targets Jews. Additionally, by foregrounding two non-colonial traditions with enduring relationships to their ancestral homelands, this approach deconstructs the modern Protestant-centric category of “religion.”
This course introduces students to the emerging field of Antizionism Studies by examining antizionism as a distinct and historically coherent form of anti-Jewish bigotry. Rather than approaching antizionism merely as “opposition to Zionism” or as a subset of antisemitism, the course takes antizionism itself as an object of systematic historical, theoretical, and comparative inquiry. Students will explore the conceptual limitations of existing frameworks for understanding anti-Jewish hostility, the historical emergence of antizionism as a modern ideological movement, and the relationship between antizionism, classical antisemitism, and earlier forms of anti-Jewish thought and polemic.
This course examines how law protects Jews from unlawful discrimination and bias-motivated crime, and where that protection falls short. Students will survey the principal legal regimes relevant to Jewish civil rights, including federal civil rights statutes (Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981–1982), federal and state hate crime laws, and executive and administrative guidance, and will compare these with developments in other jurisdictions, particularly the United Kingdom.
It is no longer news that feminism has enabled antisemitism and antizionism around the world—and far beyond the feminist movement. But how did this happen? This course looks at some of the most consequential ways in which feminist ideas and vocabularies have contributed to modern-day manifestations of hostility towards not just Jewish women, but Jews in general, and towards Israel. We will explore: the ongoing campaign against Jewish American feminist Betty Friedan; the development of feminist theory that marginalized or excluded Jews and Jewish women, leading to their oppression both within and outside of the movement; the Jewish feminists who developed a new antizionist Jewish identity; and modern-day movements that use feminist principles to undermine Jews, Jewish women, and Israel. Participants will be able to explain the basic history of global feminist antisemitism and antizionism as well as some of its most important contributing factors. This course is based on the book “Feminist Antisemitism: An Intellectual History” by Kara Jesella. Recommended readings are for those students who would like to look even more carefully at primary sources.
