There has long been debate and disagreement over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitic. In recent months, this debate has become particularly intense and often acrimonious. In an effort to tackle this contentious and timely question in a serious, scholarly and nuanced manner, Professor Ethan Katz (UC Berkeley) and Professor Dov Waxman (UCLA) engaged in a two-part public conversation. Their first conversation—held at UC Berkeley on Feb 1st—addressed anti-Zionism on college campuses. Their second conversation—held at UCLA on Feb 15th—addressed the broader debate over anti-Zionism and antisemitism and what's at stake.

Part 1: Anti-Zionism on Campus: Legitimate Protest or Dangerous Hate Speech? (Hosted at UC Berkeley)

Part 2: The Debate Over Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: Understanding the Terms and the Stakes (Hosted at UCLA)

Co-organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the UC Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, and the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Ethan Katz is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley. He is a historian of modern Europe and the Mediterranean, with specialties in modern Jewish history and the history of modern France and its empire. To date, his scholarship has focused in four principal areas: the history of Jewish-Muslim relations and the nature of belonging and exclusion in modern France and the Francophone world; the history of Jews in colonial societies; Holocaust Studies; and the relationship between the secular and religion in modern Jewish life. His major publications include The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard, 2015) (winner of a number of honors including the National Jewish Book Award); Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times, co-edited with Ari Joskowicz (UPenn, 2015); and Colonialism and the Jews (Indiana, 2017), co-edited with Lisa Moses Leff and Maud S. Mandel.

Dov Waxman is the director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. He is a professor of Political Science and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair of Israel Studies at UCLA. Waxman's research focuses on the conflict over Israel–Palestine, Israeli politics and foreign policy, US–Israel relations, American Jewry’s relationship with Israel, Jewish politics, and anti-Semitism. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and four books, most recently The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Sue Fishkoff (moderator for Feb 1 event) was the longtime editor of the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. Previously, she worked as a national correspondent for the JTA Jewish news service, focusing on Jewish identity and culture. Her freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Hadassah Magazine and the London Jewish Chronicle. She lectures widely on her books and on Jewish identity in North America. From 1991–1997, she was a staff writer for the Jerusalem Post, serving as the paper’s New York bureau chief from 1991 to 1994. She is the author of The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch (Schocken Books, 2003) and Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority (Schocken, October 2010).

Sarah Abrevaya Stein (moderator for Feb 15 event) is a historian, writer, and educator whose work has reshaped our understanding of Jewish history. Her commitment to research is matched by her love of teaching. At UCLA, she is a Professor of History, the Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, as well as the Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies. She is the author/editor of ten books, including Family Papers: a Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century and Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce.

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.

Published: Thursday, February 15, 2024