The Official ISCA Podcast

The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

A podcast from Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism's (ISCA) Beinner Family Speaker Series. ISCA pursues high-level scholarly research into present-day manifestations of anti-Jewish animosity. Such hostility finds public expression through aggressive acts and words. ISCA examines both of these and the relationships between them, especially the intellectual and ideological roots of the “new” antisemitism. In doing so, we seek to elucidate the social, cultural, religious, and political forces that nurture anti-Jewish hostility.

  1. MAR 20

    Judea Peal: "Coexistence and Other Fighting Words"

    Sunday, January 18, 2026. In this episode, Judea Pearl discusses his recently published book, "Coexistence and Other Fighting Words." Dr. Judea Pearl is the Chancellor’s Professor of Computer Science and Statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the UCLA Cognitive Systems Laboratory. He is known internationally for his contributions to artificial intelligence, human reasoning, and philosophy of science. Dr. Pearl is the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which he co-founded with his family in 2002. He lectures and writes frequently on Jewish identity, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the history of Zionism, and Israel on campus.   About Coexistence and Other Fighting Words: Selected Writings of Judea Pearl, 2002-2025: Catalyzed by the kidnapping and murder of his son, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, world-renowned computer scientist and philosopher Dr. Judea Pearl has been a relentless advocate for reason and understanding in writings and talks spanning the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Best known for his groundbreaking work on artificial intelligence, Dr. Pearl turned his power of analysis to an anatomy of the hate that took his son’s life, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the story of Israel, antisemitism, and other related subjects. In Coexistence and Other Fighting Words, Dr. Pearl collects the best of his work, offering an indispensable guide to some of the most pressing issues of our time. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    38 min

  2. MAR 20

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Six: Weaponizing Holocaust Memory and Antisemitism in the Ivory Tower

    December 03, 2025. "How Memory of the Holocaust is Used against Jews Today" - Marlene Gallner Marlene Gallner is a Visiting Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. She is one of the editors of sans phrase. Zeitschrift für Ideologiekritik, the Vienna-based biannual German-language journal dedicated to social and cultural analyses in the tradition of Frankfurt school critical theory. She has lectured and published widely on antisemitism, postwar German society, and post-Shoah philosophy.   "Campus Antisemitism and Critical Theory" - Zahava Feldstein Zahava Feldstein is a researcher, speaker, and author specializing in campus antisemitism, Jewish education, and ethnic studies. She has spoken at universities and organizations worldwide and leads research, curriculum, and network development initiatives bridging scholarship and public discourse. Zahava received a MA in Divinity (History of Judaism) from the University of Chicago, where she was a Divinity Dean’s Fellow and a recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) academic-year award. She earned a MA in Education from Stanford University, where she was a Jim Joseph Doctoral Fellow in Education & Jewish Studies prior to withdrawing from the PhD program in response to pervasive and targeted antisemitism. Zahava is currently pursuing a doctorate in Antisemitism Studies at Gratz College in its inaugural cohort. An impactful storyteller whose writing reaches broad audiences, Zahava’s November 2024 Moment Magazine op-ed about antisemitism at Stanford was the second most-read of the year, and her 2025 Times of Israel essay—“How I Learned to Stop Apologizing for Being a Jew”—trended globally within hours of publication, reaching #2 on the site’s “Most Popular” list.  Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 24m

  3. 12/04/2025

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Five: Antisemitism in Progressive and Academic Contexts

    November 12, 2025. “The Gentileman’s Agreement: Patterns Between Misogyny and Antisemitism” - Talia Rockman This talk explores the structural parallels between misogyny and antisemitism, and the related valuation of women and Jews for their symbolic and material service, rather than as human beings. Through secondary data analysis of interviews with Jewish faculty members on Canadian campuses, from the “Faculty Experiences of Antisemitism Research” project, led by Deidre Butler (Carelton University) and Cary Kogan (Ottawa University), I examine this asymmetrical moral contract, termed The Gentileman’s Agreement, and its implications for how Jewish faculty navigate the stigma of being Jewish on Canadian campuses. Talia Rockman is an MA candidate in Sociology at the University of Ottawa and holds a B.A. (Hon.) in Psychology from the University of Guelph. She has held Research Assistant roles for several projects related to the impact of antisemitism on Canadian campuses, including in the context of EDI, faculty unions, and academic freedom and mental health. She has presented her theoretical framework on the structural parallels between misogyny and antisemitism, and chaired panels, at the 2025 Conference for Contemporary Antisemitism in London and at the 2025 Brock University Antisemitism Symposium. Talia intends to pursue doctoral work where she will continue to research contemporary antisemitism. “Examining Antisemitism in Antizionist Academic Discourse” - Perla Matusof This presentation applies a discourse-analytic approach, grounded in the Decoding Antisemitism classification system, to examine how antisemitic rhetoric is embedded and legitimized in academic discourse, particularly in anti-Israel context. An analysis of a corpus of ten texts authored by academics reveals patterns of classic antisemitism, academic camouflage, epistemic pseudo-science, and rhetorical moralization. By mapping these patterns, the study offers empirically grounded tools for distinguishing legitimate criticism from coded antisemitic discourse and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms that normalize such expression within the academy. Perla Matusof is a doctoral researcher at Brock University, specializing in contemporary antisemitism in academic and institutional contexts. Her research integrates discourse analysis and psycholinguistic tools to differentiate between antisemitic rhetoric and legitimate critique, with particular attention to its impact on Jewish students and academics. Her academic background includes studies at Université Paris 8 and Brock University. She is actively involved in educational and community initiatives addressing Holocaust memory, Jewish identity, and antisemitism in Canada. She is also a research fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 8m

  4. 11/17/2025

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Four: Campus Climate, Identity, and Belonging

    October 29, 2025. Yael Silverstein (Columbia University) - "Ambient Antisemitism and the Struggle for Belonging: Insights into University Environments"This talk presents findings from a multi-university study examining how different forms of antisemitism affect Jewish students, faculty, and staff. It shows that belonging is most strongly undermined by ambient antisemitism— institutionalized and environmental cues of exclusion—more so than by direct interpersonal incidents (e.g., overt harassment or subtle insults), and argues that belonging must be treated as central, not peripheral, to understanding Jewish experiences on campus.Yael Silverstein is a doctoral student in Social-Organizational Psychology and an MS candidate in Applied Statistics at Columbia University. Her research explores how stereotypes and organizational cues influence perception, belonging, and well-being in minority populations. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and dual BAs from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.“Antisemitism and Jewish Day School Enrollment in Europe” - Nadia BeiderThis study examines whether rising antisemitism affects Jewish parents’ decisions to enroll their children in Jewish vs. mainstream schools. Using data from the EU FRA survey and European enrollment figures, Dr. Beider compares expressed and revealed preferences to understand how prejudice, passing, and community solidarity shape school choice.Dr. Nadia Beider is a lecturer at the Melton Center for Jewish Education and leads the Jewish Day School Census at the JPPI. She was previously a Rothschild postdoc at UCL and a Martin Buber Fellow. Her research focuses on educational sociology, Jewish identity, and the intersection of religion and discrimination. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    51 min

  5. 10/27/2025

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Three: Antisemitism and the Digital Sphere

    October 16, 2025. Lev Topor (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo / ISGAP) - "Artificially Amplified: Challenges and Complexities of Dealing with Online and AI-Enhanced Antisemitism" This lecture examines the emerging threat posed by AI-generated content in fueling antisemitism across digital platforms. Focusing on synthetic media such as deepfakes, forged images, and auto-generated texts, Dr. Topor analyzes how technological manipulation shapes public perception and reinforces extremist ideologies. Attention is given to radicalized audiences, bystanders, and the mechanisms of algorithmic amplification. The session will explore detection methods and suggest strategic responses to mitigate this evolving challenge. Dr. Lev Topor is a policy-oriented researcher specializing in antisemitism, cybersecurity, and intelligence. He is the author of multiple books, including Phishing for Nazis (Routledge, 2023) and Cyber Sovereignty (Springer Nature, 2024). He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Yad Vashem, and advised governmental and intergovernmental bodies on cyber policy and hate speech. Daniel Miehling (Indiana University) - "Affect Mobilization on YouTube: Emotional Toning in State-Funded News Outlets Covering the Israel-Hamas War" Dr. Daniel Miehling's research studies the intersections of anti-Zionism and antisemitism in digital discourse. His current work focuses on political communication in social media, analyzing narratives following the attacks on Israel after October 7. Using methods of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Social Science (CSS), he examines how news coverage by state-funded media influences online discussions about Israel, Jews, Palestinians, and Islamist groups. By analyzing large-scale datasets, his research provides insights into the dissemination of contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, the emotional toning within User-Generated Content (UGC), and the challenges of detecting harmful content in digital spaces. Abstract: How do users emotionally and ideologically respond to state-funded media coverage of the Israel–Hamas War on YouTube? This talk presents findings from two recently published studies analyzing millions of comments using aspect-based sentiment analysis. The approach reveals patterns of affective alignment, polarization, and coded language in user-generated discourse. I show how this method yields scalable insights and provides robust tools for analyzing online antisemitism and political discourse in digital environments. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 20m

  6. 10/27/2025

    Pamela Nadell: "Antisemitism, an American Tradition"

    Sunday, October 12, 2025. In this episode, Pamela Nadell discusses her recently published book, "Antisemitism, an American Tradition." Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's and Gender History and is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University in Washington, DC. She is the author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (W.W. Norton), winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award—Jewish Book of the Year. The book was also published in Hebrew. Her new book Antisemitism, an American Tradition, investigates the dark history of how this hate threaded across the American past from colonial times to today.  Already acclaimed as “the book that the world needs now,” Antisemitism, an American Tradition will be published on October 14, 2025 (W.W. Norton) and was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award. She has testified before Congress three times and was the fourth witness in the congressional hearing with the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and University of Pennsylvania. Her other books include Women Who Would be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1985, a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    40 min

  7. 09/18/2025

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Two: Left-Wing Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism

    September 10, 2025. Matheus Alexandré (Federal University of Ceará)  - “Contemporary Left-Wing Antisemitism in Brazil: Discourses and Representations in the Portal Brasil 247” This talk analyzes rhetorical strategies and ideological tropes in Brazilian leftist media following October 7. Focusing on Brasil 247, it explores how Critical Discourse Analysis can uncover patterns linking antisemitism and anti-Zionism in progressive narratives. Matheus Alexandré is a Brazilian sociologist and PhD candidate whose research examines antisemitism and anti-Zionism in left-wing political discourse. He lectures at StandWithUs Brazil and was trained at Yad Vashem and the University of Oxford. His work appears in both academic journals and public platforms like Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil. Maor Shani (Osnabrück University / Ariel University) - “'Unfortunately, Given the Current Climate…': Antisemitism Accommodation as Indirect Discrimination Post-October 7” This talk introduces the concept of antisemitism accommodation—the indirect exclusion of Jews or Israelis from public and institutional spaces due to appeasement of perceived antisemitic pressure. Dr. Shani analyzes how institutions use neutrality or safety language to justify discriminatory decisions, drawing on psychological theories of conflict avoidance. Preliminary data from an experimental study in academic settings will be presented. Maor Shani holds a Ph.D. in psychology and researches intergroup conflict, antisemitism, and adolescent polarization. His doctoral work addressed Jewish-Arab reconciliation, and his current projects explore group-based emotions, discrimination coping strategies, and social network interventions. He is affiliated with Osnabrück University and Ariel University. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    50 min

  8. 09/16/2025

    ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session One: Framing Antisemitism in International and Historical Contexts

    September 3, 2025. Batsheva Neuer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - "Framing Israel: Antisemitism and the Postcolonial Imaginary at the Durban Conference" This talk examines how postcolonial discourse was repurposed at the 2001 Durban Conference to frame Israel as a racialized colonial oppressor. Through analysis of official records and NGO statements, Neuer explores how anti-colonial language was used to legitimize antisemitic narratives within international institutions, revealing how the postcolonial framework can mask the resurgence of hostility toward Jewish political identity. Batsheva Neuer is a PhD candidate and fellow at the Avraham Harman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation, awarded the 2024 Bernard Lewis Prize, investigates Israel and the global politics of racism in the lead-up to the Durban Conference. She has held fellowships at SICSA and the Cherrick Center and recently published in Israel Studies on the revocation of the “Zionism is Racism” UN resolution. Tami Peterson (Gratz College) - "Mobilization for Murder: Considering Antisemitism as a Causal Factor of the Deadly 1941 Pogroms" This talk examines the 1941 pogroms in Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine to explore how antisemitic attitudes—rather than just state ideology—can serve as catalysts for mass violence. By applying theories of symbolic political mobilization, Peterson investigates how threat perceptions among civilians transformed antisemitism into deadly action in the absence of state control. Tami Peterson is a PhD candidate at Gratz College and currently serves as the inaugural Visiting Student Scholar at NYU’s Center for the Study of Antisemitism. She is also a Research Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. She holds an MRes in Social & Political Theory from Birkbeck, University of London. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    57 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

A podcast from Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism's (ISCA) Beinner Family Speaker Series. ISCA pursues high-level scholarly research into present-day manifestations of anti-Jewish animosity. Such hostility finds public expression through aggressive acts and words. ISCA examines both of these and the relationships between them, especially the intellectual and ideological roots of the “new” antisemitism. In doing so, we seek to elucidate the social, cultural, religious, and political forces that nurture anti-Jewish hostility.

Information

  • Creator
    The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    64
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
  • Show Website
    The Official ISCA Podcast

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