Antizionism and Antisemitism: Debates and Definitions

As we approach Tisha Be’Av – a season of reflection on Jewish vulnerability, division, and collective memory – join Jonathan Jacoby and Dr. Shaul Kelner for a timely conversation about one of the most debated questions in contemporary Jewish life. How do we understand the relationship between antizionism and antisemitism? Where do observers agree and disagree? Why have competing definitions of antisemitism generated such contention within Jewish communities? Drawing on their respective expertise and perspectives, our speakers will explore the historical roots, political dimensions, and questions of Jewish identity surrounding antizionism and antisemitism, while grappling with the challenges of discourse in an era of heightened polarization.

Jonathan Jacoby is President of the Nexus Project. He was the founding Executive Director of the New Israel Fund and founding President of the Israel Policy Forum. He also held leadership positions at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Americans for Peace Now. Jonathan has pioneered new models for public-private partnerships in the field of rare disease research as a co-founder of SOAR (Support Of Accelerated Research), which has built a pipeline of potential therapeutics for a rare neurodegenerative disease. He and his wife, Hope Grossman, live in Los Angeles. They have three sons.

Dr. Shaul Kelner is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on transnational Jewish solidarity and the intersection of culture and politics in Jewish life. As a sociologist, Professor Kelner works across subfields, drawing together the study of cultural production and consumption, travel and tourism, social movements, religion, education, diaspora, and youth. An enthusiast for mixed methods, he has conducted ethnographic field work, designed and analyzed surveys, published statistical and social network analyses, conducted oral history interviews, and engaged extensively in archival research.

Professor Kelner has been a Fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, as well as a visiting scholar in Tel Aviv University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He has served as a board member of the Association for Jewish Studies and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. He received his Ph.D in 2002 from the CUNY Graduate Center, which he attended as a Wexner Graduate Fellow. His newest book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews (NYU Press, 2024) was written with grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and won a National Jewish Book Award.