Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman and Dr. Joel Finkelstein: 2020 ISGAP-Oxford Summer Institute

Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Emerita Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department, Brandeis University

“Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Contemporary Social Movements”
A discussion of the ways in which antisemitic and anti-Zionist assertions promulgated by some contemporary social movements and organizations illustrate the triumph of alternative narratives over historical fact. Some claim that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem — and the Jews have no historical connection to Jerusalem. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement asserts that the original sin was the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Some worthwhile movements with critically important social messages are sidetracked by “fake news” concerning Israel. One example: Black Lives Matter, created in 2014 as a response to the shootings of unarmed black men by police officers, is in many ways exactly the kind of organization that most American Jews passionately support, but the rhetoric produced by the movement—accusing Israel of “genocide”— is manifestly false and painful for Jewish allies.

Dr. Joel Finkelstein, Director, Network Contagion Research Institute; Visiting Scholar, Madison Program for Ideas and Institutions, Princeton University

“Digital Antisemitism, Platform Sponsored Terror and the Race War”

2020 ISGAP-Oxford Summer Institute
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2020