The Official ISCA Podcast

Sunday, October 6, 2024. In this episode, Günther Jikeli and Katharina Soemer discuss "Online Antisemitism Before and After October 7” as part of our 2024 Datathon & Machine Learning Competition. Günther Jikeli holds the Erna B. Rosenfeld Professorship at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism in the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. He has published widely on antisemitism online and offline. Katharina Soemer holds an MA in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Bremen, Germany. She currently manages ISCA’s Social Media & Hate Research Lab at Indiana University. Her published work focuses on online antisemitism and methods of research in that field. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, September 22, 2024. In this episode, Mara Lee Grayson discusses "The Contemporary Racialization of the Jew and Its Impact on Campus Antisemitism.” Mara Lee Grayson is the author or editor of five books, including Antisemitism and the White Supremacist Imaginary: Conflations and Contradictions in Composition and Rhetoric (Peter Lang, 2023) and Challenging Antisemitism: Lessons from Literacy Classrooms (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023, co-edited with Judith Chriqui Benchimol). Grayson is founder and chair of the Jewish Caucus of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and chair of the Jewish Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English. She holds a PhD in English Education from Columbia University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. Previously a tenured faculty member in the California State University system, Grayson now works as the Director of Content Development for the Campus Climate Initiative at Hillel International. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, September 15, 2024. In this episode, Cary Nelson discusses "The Future of Campus Antisemitism after October 7." Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He is the author or editor of 36 books, including six about antisemitism. Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles was published this April. He was president of the national AAUP from 2006-2012. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, September 8, 2024. In this episode, Dave Rich discusses "Antisemitism in the UK since the October 7 Attack." Dave Rich, one of Great Britain’s leading experts on antisemitism, is the author of The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel, and Antisemitism (2018) and Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism Is Built into our World and How You Can Change It (Updated Edition, 2024). He has worked for many years at the Community Security Trust, a London-based Jewish agency that aims to safeguard the British Jewish community. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, May 12, 2024. In this episode, Cary Nelson discusses "The Perilous Campus Scene: Encampment versus Enlightenment." Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He is the author or editor of 36 books, including six about antisemitism. Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles was published this April. He was president of the national AAUP from 2006-2012. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, April 7, 2024. In this episode, Ilan Troen discusses "Religious Dimensions of the Israeli/Palestinian Dispute." Ilan Troen is a professor emeritus at Brandeis University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a founding editor of the leading journal "Israel Studies" (Indiana University Press). He has contributed to numerous publications about Jews and Israel, including “Tel Aviv, The First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities” (2012); with Donna Robinson Divine, “Zionism in the 21st Century” (2014) and “Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century” (Indiana University Press, 2017). Ilan Troen lived in the United States before making aliyah in 1975. He now lives with his wife, Dr. Carol Troen, and six children in Omer, Israel. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, April 14, 2024. In this episode, Michal Cotler-Wunsh discusses "The Hamas Massacre of October 7 and Responses to It: A Chronology of Hate." Michal Cotler-Wunsh is a prominent public speaker, researcher, and independent policy and strategy advisor on intersecting issues of antisemitism, law, human rights, and Zionism. Informed by political, professional, and academic experience, Michal explores topics surrounding mutated and mainstreamed rising antisemitism; international law, human rights, and the harm of their weaponization; the threat of disinformation and conspiracy theories to democracies; Zionism as a millennia-old identity integral to the construction of a progressive national liberation movement; the relationship between Israel and global Jewry in collaborative nation-building; and the role of “Olim” as a “live bridge” to build resiliency, address growing internal gaps, and connect Israel to global communities, cultures, and countries. Michal’s focus on process, transparency, and accountability, continues to inform and guide her in the role of Israel’s Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, engaging local and global partners around the shared responsibility to comprehensively identify and address the rise and mainstreaming of ever-mutating antisemitic hate. Michal was a Member of Israel’s 23rd Knesset. Drawing on areas of expertise and commitments, she served as Chair of the Special Committee on Drug and Alcohol Use, Chair of the Subcommittee on Israel-Diaspora Relations, and as active member of several prestigious committees including the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and the Children’s Rights, Women’s Status, and Immigration and Integration Committees. Michal served as the first Knesset Liaison to the Issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was co-chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Friendship Group, was a member of several interparliamentary working groups, and Chair of the Caucus for Ethiopians in Israel. She initiated and led multiple Knesset hearings on the topic of online antisemitism, engaging social media platforms, civil society organizations, and technology experts. Recognizing the inherent connection between online hate and real-world violence, Michal co-founded the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, together with multi-partisan elected officials from Canada, Australia, the US, and the UK. She remains at the forefront of this and other initiatives, committed to identifying, exposing, and combatting the mutation and permeation of antisemitism in the online and real-world space. Equipped with extensive experience, academic expertise and multi-lingual communication skills, Michal is regularly interviewed and featured as a speaker at diverse events in Israel and abroad. She is a prolific author published on multiple platforms, utilizing her hybrid identity and competencies to transcend and bridge geographic, cultural, religious, and linguistic divides. Michal serves as a trustee in The Rabbi Sacks Legacy and is a member of several not-for-profit boards, focused on governance and strategy. She is a legal advisor to the Goldin family, dedicated to the return of deceased Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, held captive for 9 years in standing violation of international law and human rights. In this, as in other engagements, Michal is committed to underscoring shared responsibility for equal and consistent application of international law and human rights, critical to the sustainability of the infrastructure created to uphold, promote, and protect foundational principles. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, March 17, 2024. In this episode, Elhanan Yakira discusses "Spinoza, Arendt, and Contemporary Israel Bashing." Elhanan Yakira is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the Hebrew University. His main fields of interest are early modern rationalism and anti-Israelism, with a special emphasis on Jewish and Israeli anti-Israelism. He has published a number of articles on these subjects, as well as a book: Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust. Three Essays on Denial, Forgetting, and the Delegitimation of Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2009. "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, February 18, 2024. In this episode, Françoise Ouzan discusses "Being a GI Jew in World War II: Coping with Hostile Attitudes in the American Military." Dr. Françoise S. Ouzan is a Senior Research Associate at the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University. She is the author or editor of 11 books, including, most recently, How Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt Their Lives (2018) and True to My God and Country: How Jewish Americans Fought in World War II (2024), both published by Indiana University Press, Studies in Antisemitism. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, January 21, 2024. In this episode, Jacob Kovalio discusses "The Global Phenomenon of Conspiratorial Antisemitism." Jacob Kovalio is a researcher in Japanese, Chinese, Asian, and global history, nationalism, antisemitism, and Jihadism. Through the Transnistria compulsory work camp, Romania. and Israel, he reached Canada in 1986. He holds BA degrees in History and Development Economics from the University of Tel-Aviv and MA in Chinese History and a PhD in Japanese History, both from the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught and given lectures at the University of Tel-Aviv, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Victoria [Canada], and in Japan, China, and Korea. Since 1987, he has been teaching Japanese/Chinese/Asian History at Carleton University in Ottawa. In 2021 the Government of Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Rosette for his contributions to Japanese scholarship and Canadian-Japanese relations. Among his publications are The Russian Protocols of Zion in Japan: Yudayaka/’Jewish Peril’ Propaganda and Debates in the 1920s,” (2009), Japan in Focus (1994), ed. “Arnold J. Toynbee and Japan,” (in Japan in Focus) “Antisemitism and racism in Japan” online democracy.” Dr. Kovalio has spent six years in Japan; he is fluent in Japanese, Hebrew, Romanian, Russian, and other languages. "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, January 14, 2024. In this episode, Richard Landes discusses "Jewish Anti-Zionism and Masochistic Messianism." Richard Landes was trained as a medievalist at Princeton University (MA 1979, PhD 1984). His work focused on apocalyptic beliefs and millennial movements (Heaven on Earth, 2011), initially around the year 1000 (Peace of God, 1986; Relics, Apocalypse and the Deceits of History, 1996; Apocalyptic Year 1000, 2003). He developed the concept of “demotic religiosity,” an orientation that prizes 1) equality before the law, 2) dignity of manual labor, 3) access to sacred texts for all believers, and 4) moral integrity over social honor. But he increasingly focused on contemporary movements (Paranoid Apocalypse,2006), especially Global Jihad. He made a series of documentaries in 2005/6 titled “According to Palestinian Sources…,” which document the extensive staging of footage (Pallywood), the staging of the Al Durah footage (Making of an Icon), and the impact of that fake broadcast as “news” by Western news media (Icon of Hatred). In 2015, he retired from Boston University where he was a Professor in the History Department and lives with his wife in Jerusalem. He is currently completing a book titled They’re so Smart cause We’re so Stupid: A Medievalist’s Guide to the 21st When he completes this book, he plans to return to his medieval work (While God Tarried: Disappointed Millennialism from Jesus to the Peace of God, 33-1033). "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, December 10, 2023. In this episode, Corinne Blackmer discusses "Queer Anti-Zionism: Antisemitism in LGBTQ Communities Then and Now." Corinne Blackmer is professor of Judaic Studies and English and director of Judaic Studies at Southern Connecticut State University.  She has published a large array of articles on diverse subjects, from pinkwashing, contemporary Israeli literature, and the Hebrew Bible, to Jewish women’s modernism, Jewish ethics, and Jewish women’s graphic novels.  She has co-edited with Andrew Pessin a volume on antisemitism, Poisoning the Wells: Antisemitism in Contemporary America, and recently authored (Wayne University Press), Queering Anti-Zionism: Academic Freedom, LGBTQ Intellectuals, and Israel/Palestine Campus Activism, which was a finalist in the National Jewish Books Award.  She lives with her wife and family in New Haven Connecticut. "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Sunday, December 3, 2023. In this episode, Dave Rich discusses "Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into our World, and How We Can Change it." Dr. Dave Rich is one of the United Kingdom’s leading experts on antisemitism. He has worked for almost thirty years for the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity that protects the UK Jewish community and writes about antisemitism and extremism for a range of national and international media. Dave is a research fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. Everyday Hate is Dave’s second book, following The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel, and Antisemitism. Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sunday, November 12, 2023. In this episode, Izabella Tabarovsky discusses "Soviet Antizionism and Contemporary Left Antisemitism." Izabella Tabarovsky is a Senior Advisor at the Kennan Institute (Wilson Center), a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP), a founding fellow of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (LCSCA), and a contributing writer at Tablet. Her research and writing focus on Soviet antizionism and contemporary left antisemitism, Soviet Jewry, Holocaust in the USSR, and Stalin's repressions. Her paper, “Demonization Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizionism in Contemporary Left-Wing Discourse,” appeared in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism in the summer of 2022. Her book on late-Soviet antizionist campaigns will be published by Routledge as part of an LCSCA series on contemporary antisemitism. "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Monday, November 6, 2023. In this episode, Ellie Cohanim discusses "Is Antisemitism an Integral Part of the Islamic Republic of Iran's DNA?" Ellie Cohanim is a Senior Fellow with Independent Women's Forum (IWF), is host of "Global Perspectives with Ellie Cohanim" for Jewish News Syndicate (JNS),and is a National Security Contributor to Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Ellie Cohanim served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. Department of State by appointment of the President of the United States and the US Secretary of State. She is an expert on Iran, Israel, the Middle East, the Abraham Accords, and US foreign policy. Ms. Cohanim was the State Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy and led diplomatic initiatives which resulted in forging groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world to combat antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Islamophobia. Ms. Cohanim also persuaded the first-ever Muslim faith group to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, all as part of the Abraham Accords efforts. As Deputy Envoy, Ms. Cohanim was the lead official for the State Department in creating and implementing policy on countering antisemitism in the Near East and Western Hemisphere regions. She also worked closely with Jewish communities in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia in confronting local issues of antisemitism. "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/