Innovative, Independent, Inclusive

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.

What's On

Seminars, conferences, workshops, public lectures

Study

Public courses, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, MPhil/PhDs

Resources

Books, essays, reports, comment, podcasts

Research

Projects, partnerships, networks, fellowships

Latest Update: BISA has received a major funding boost from the Open Society Foundations to support its work – see the homepage for more.

WORLD LEADING EXPERTISE

Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism

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. 

 Explore the Institute

Activity

What's On

How illiberal memory politics is hijacking the discourse on antisemitism

SEMINAR SERIES | ANTISEMITISM NOW

17th October, 2023

How illiberal memory politics is hijacking the discourse on antisemitism

Andrea Pető, Central European University

In this seminar, Andrea Pető considers how different illiberal governments and political parties are hijacking the memory politics of the Holocaust.

BISA receives major funding boost

The Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (BISA), University of London has received a grant of £500,000 from the Open Society Foundations (OSF). This funding will enable BISA to forge ahead with its ambitious programme of research, policy and public engagement addressing antisemitism in the present. The Institute will promote a better understanding of the sources and dynamics of antisemitism and explore how racialization, discrimination and persecution of Jews in the past continue to leave a legacy today.

Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition

Books | Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism

Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition

David Feldman and Marc Volovici (eds.)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2023

In this volume, historians, social scientists and philosophers reflect on definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia in both the past and the present. The essays explore the deep historical roots of contemporary debates and consider how and why definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia have become a site of fierce political contestation in recent years.

Why the West’s ‘Anti-war’ Camp is so Hostile to Ukrainians – and to Jews

Ben Gidley and Jan Rybak consider the rise of antisemitic conspiracy theories since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and how these age-old narratives are now being widely shared in both right-wing and left-wing political spaces.

Everyday Zionism in East-Central Europe

Everyday Zionism in East-Central Europe

Jan Rybak

Oxford University Press, 2021

Winner of the 2023 British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies book prize. This deeply researched study draws on archival sources across eight languages to trace the everyday practices through which Zionism came to have meaning in Jewish lives in east-central Europe during the First World War.

Between Self-Determination and Self-Censorship: Antisemitism and Interwar Jewish Politics

Seminar | For Scholars

28th June, 2023

Between Self-Determination and Self-Censorship: Antisemitism and Interwar Jewish Politics

Marc Volovici, University of Haifa

In this talk Marc Volovici will discuss different ways in which Jewish writers and activists understood and responded to their political strategies and self-presentation in the public sphere and how it might be instrumentalized by antisemitic agitators. Volovici will also consider the relevance of the interwar debate to contemporary political debates on antisemitism and anti-antisemitism. 

Professor David Feldman, Director – 1

The relationship between antisemitism and other forms of racism and exclusion is not only a historical question. It is an urgent issue for today.

Professor David Feldman, Director

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