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.
Professor Wolf Gruner tells the story of five Jewish people – a merchant, a homemaker, a real estate broker, and two teenagers – who bravely resisted persecution and defended themselves in Nazi Germany.
The massacre and hostage taking carried out by Hamas on the 7th October 2023 has provoked different reactions. In this seminar, Camila Bassi and Yair Wallach examine responses to anti-Jewish violence.
Image: Barbara Rich.
David Feldman brings a historical perspective to the current rise in antisemitism and the cultural and political forces at work.
Image: Sean Gallup/Getty.
As conflation and confusion abound after the 7 October, how do we make sense of the slaughter and the simultaneous rise in antisemitism? David Feldman and Brendan McGeever argue for the need for clear thinking.
A ground-breaking study of 17 essays by prominent scholars examines the history of and dilemmas associated with using “antisemitism” and related terms as tools for both historical analysis and public discourse. Contributors include: David Engel, David Feldman and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum.
SEMINAR SERIES | ANTISEMITISM NOW
In this seminar, Marc Volovici and Rebecca Ruth Gould will consider the value and limits of definitions in confronting antisemitism and Islamophobia and the potential merits of alternative approaches.
In this talk, Laura Leibman reveals how an early multiracial Jewish family who began their lives poor, Christian and enslaved in the Caribbean became some of the wealthiest Jews in New York. Their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten people of mixed African and Jewish ancestry and sheds new light on the fluidity of race in the first half of the nineteenth century.
The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism explores the pattern of antisemitism both today and in the past. We connect research on antisemitism to the wider study of racialization and intolerance.
