The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism is a centre of innovative research and teaching on antisemitism, racialization and religious intolerance. It contributes to knowledge and understanding, policy formation and public debate.
The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism was established in 2010 by Birkbeck, University of London and Pears Foundation.
We are the only university centre in the UK dedicated to the study of antisemitism and one of only two in Europe. The Institute is renowned internationally for its innovative research and teaching.
Our work is framed by our conviction that antisemitism is a distinctive form of racism. Through our research and public activity we establish points of connection between the problem of antisemitism and the challenge of racisms more broadly.
Our scholarship contributes to public debate on antisemitism, racialization and religious intolerance and we provide expertise and advice to a wide range of institutions in the UK, Europe and the wider world.
The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism is both independent and inclusive.
Between 1947 and 1949, debates about Palestine within the United Nations pulled dozens of countries into the determination of the land’s fate – national interests and transnational sympathies shaped attitudes towards the partition of Palestine and the ensuing Arab-Israeli war. The war riveted the attention of the world – for reasons that still apply in our own day.
Historians have recognized the wide range of sexual fantasies underlying attitudes toward Jewish men and women that have developed over the centuries. However, those fantasies about Jewish women, enacted over centuries in horrific acts of sexual violence, most recently in Israel on 7 October 2024, have received far less attention. In this context, Susannah Heschel will argue that antisemitism requires reinterpretation as a culture of sadism.
Marking the anniversary of 7 October 2023, David Feldman writes on Jews and the Left, Arnold M. Eisen, Susannah Heschel, Rebecca Kobrin, and Derek Penslar, reflect on the aftermath of October 7th on American university and political life.
The struggle against antisemitism and the struggle against racism have at times appeared inextricably connected. But today it is the disconnections that are most visible – illustrated by the responses to 7 Oct 2023 and its aftermath. Today, any political reunion of anti-antisemitism and anti-racism will have to recognise these disconnections and bridge them.
The Eighth international, multidisciplinary conference is to be held at Birkbeck, University of London, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, London from 7-9 January 2026.
The conference will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines who are engaged in research on all groups of survivors of Nazi persecution. The call for papers is now live: click here to find out more.
Black History Month | Public Lecture
In this talk, Professor Gary Younge will discuss what German Colonialism and the experience of Black Germans in Nazi Germany can tell us about systems of racial oppression.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s counterattack on Gaza, there is a rise in antisemitic attacks in Germany. German politicians have defined the protection of Israel as Germany’s ‘Staatsraison’ because of Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust. Focusing on the role and concept of the witnesses and witnessing to explain the rush to protect Jews together with varied Jewish responses, Irit Dekel’s talk brings a new angle on German debates concerning antisemitism.
In an age of populism and nationalism it is more important than ever to understand the connections between antisemitism and other forms of racialization.
Professor David Feldman, Director
