BISA at Birkbeck

The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London is a centre of innovative research & teaching & contributes to public policy.

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

You can also follow us on Bluesky - search "bisa-bkk" to find us. See you there!

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

You can also follow us on Bluesky - search "bisa-bkk" to find us. See you there!

[Leo Baeck Institute London @lbi_london]

Call for papers: FINAL WEEK FOR APPLICATIONS

Applications close 31 March 2025 for the 8th International ‘Beyond Camps and Forced Labour’ Conference (7–9 January 2026).

https://t.co/JDKVhyNsVh

[Ben Gidley @bengidley]

Coming back to this site to publicise a @bisa_bbk / @RunnymedeTrust event in the new year (20 Jan) to launch a report we’ve been working on. I’ll present the work with David Feldman and @BrendanMcGeever and we will soon announce some very special guests. https://t.co/NHBgwHAxNj

[Na'amod @NaamodUK]

If you missed our November event there's a fantastic opportunity to hear @rachshabi in conversation with David Feldman (@bisa_bbk) and Shabna Begum (@shabnabegum) on December 11, organised by Diaspora Alliance.

RSVP here:

https://t.co/PvoM7qLmHg

[BirkbeckPsychosocial @bbkpsychosocial]

Our @BrendanMcGeever in @BylineTimes. Brendan draws on his historical sociology of antisemitism in Russia to discuss the use of the word “pogrom” to talk about recent violence in Amsterdam.

https://t.co/JsbzvtYtEc

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Read BISA's @BrendanMcGeever on the recent violence in Amsterdam.

[Brendan McGeever @BrendanMcGeever]

The violence in Amsterdam has been widely described as a ‘pogrom’. This is misleading and politically dangerous. It also does a disservice to Jewish history. My piece for @BylineTimes. https://t.co/phmSVOlKgm

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

In case you missed it, Prof. Derek Penslar's lecture on 'The 1948 Palestine war: from the local to the global' is now available to watch: https://t.co/PSGufXuQzJ

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

We’re looking forward to hearing Prof. Derek Penslar speak online tonight at 6:30pm about ‘The 1948 Palestine war: from the local to the global’.

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

We’re looking forward to hearing Prof. Derek Penslar speak online tonight at 6:30pm about ‘The 1948 Palestine war: from the local to the global’.

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Hear Prof. Derek Penslar on ‘The 1948 Palestine war: from the local to the global’ – 30 October, 6.30pm, online. Book here: https://t.co/PSGufXuQzJ

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

October 7 as Turning Point in Jewish History? Read David Feldman on Jews and the Left, Derek Penslar, Susannah Heschel and others on the aftermath of 7 Oct on American university and political life https://t.co/LkYQXoP9Ss @katzcenterupenn

[Beyond Camps and Forced Labour @BCFL_Conference]

📢 New CFP! 📢 Pleased to announce the 8th Beyond Camps & Forced Labour Conference is now accepting applications. Deadline 31 March 2025. https://t.co/ajdbt30boi Pls share widely! @wienerlibrary @lbi_london @Leibniz_IfZ @I_W_M @dieter_steinert @RHUL_HRI @fvaht @bisa_bbk

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Watch Prof. Bryan Cheyette discuss how we define testimony, and how decolonizing testimonies helps us move beyond European narratives of slavery and the Holocaust. https://t.co/Q6Jgn1wDvt #BlackHistoryMonth #ReclaimingNarratives @CheyetteBryan

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Hear Prof. Derek Penslar on ‘The 1948 Palestine war: from the local to the global’ – 30 October, 6.30pm, online. Book here: https://t.co/PSGufXuQzJ

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Hear Prof. @garyyounge on what German Colonialism and the experience of Black Germans in Nazi Germany can tell us about systems of racial oppression https://t.co/3M0Vs15PT6 #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Focusing on the role of witnesses and witnessing, Prof. @Iritdekel brings a new angle on German debates concerning antisemitism. Join us tomorrow: https://t.co/UMO3E8ue3S

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Join us online on 16 October to hear Prof. @Iritdekel, ‘Making Jews Visible: Germany’s Antisemitism Commissioners’. Book: https://t.co/UMO3E8uLTq

[ENCOUNTERSeu @EncounterSeu]

Jewish–Muslim Encounters in Urban Europe: Under Pressure

Berlin launch of our work, 4 November

https://t.co/Bgtynm9oLy

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Join us online on 16 October to hear Prof. @Iritdekel, ‘Making Jews Visible: Germany’s Antisemitism Commissioners’. Book: https://t.co/UMO3E8uLTq

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

The struggles against antisemitism and racism have at times seemed closely connected. Today it is the disconnections that seem most visible. Read David Feldman in @HistoryWO on how this came about and the way forward. https://t.co/qwO1s1qsvv

[BISA at Birkbeck @bisa_bbk]

Read David Feldman in The Ideas Letter on the divide between anti-racism and anti-antisemitism and the way forward.

[Open Society Foundations @OpenSociety]

Once part of the same fight against bigotry, the struggle against antisemitism and the struggle against racism have become disconnected, argues historian David Feldman in a piece for the latest edition of The Ideas Letter, published by our Ideas Workshop. He offers a way to bridge the disconnect.

This disconnect has accelerated after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and during Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. A war of words globally now parallels the violent physical war taking place on the ground and “pits Hamas’s genocidal antisemitism against Israel’s reinvention of apartheid, a crime against humanity.” These conflicting visions of the conflict itself divide the responses to it.

How did anti-antisemitism come to be separated from anti-racism in this way?

First, one must understand how the terms “racism” and “antisemitism” came about and in which contexts, especially in relation to Zionism and anti-colonialism, over the course of the 20th Century and second, how these terms and their understanding have changed since the 1960s and 70s.

Feldman traces the evolution of these terms and points to the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, as “a rupture between the politics of anti-antisemitism and international anti-racism.” This surfaced two contentious and connected issues: reparations for slavery and colonialism in the past and the conflict between Israel and Palestine in the present.

Read Feldman’s whole piece, including an attempt to bridge the divide between the struggles of antisemitism and racism, and more in The Ideas Letter and subscribe to receive the letter via email: https://t.co/8StWzO1p60