4th Annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference

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You are invited to submit a paper or presentation for the 4th Annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference. We invite scholars to reflect on the relationship between antisemitism, Jews, and the law, historically and in the contemporary environment, especially but not exclusively in the United States. We especially welcome papers and presentations that propose changes in law and policy with promise for ameliorating antisemitism and its effects. 

● The Working Definition of Antisemitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), its legal implications, critics and competing definitions (e.g., Nexus, JDA)

● The relationship between Judaism/antisemitism and anti-Zionism, “Israelism,” and Kahanism

● Legal efforts in the U.S. and abroad to curtail expressions of antisemitism, e.g., by regulating hate speech, hate speech online, Holocaust denialism, and hate crimes

● Laws that authorize religious expression in public spaces, laws that target Jews and other religious minorities, and generally applicable laws that burden Jewish observance, including abortion bans (in the context of Dobbs)

● The relationship between the 1st Amendment, academic freedom, free speech on campus, and antisemitic speech

● Legal responses to the Boycott-Divest-Sanctions (BDS) movement and other efforts related to boycotts of Israel

● Antisemitism in the context of bias/discrimination based on race (including African Americans and Asian Americans), gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, or other categories, and Jews as a protected class under federal and state civil rights statutes

● Jews and whiteness, including white privilege, white nationalism, and white supremacy

● Jews and indigeneity, settler-colonialism, and decolonialism

● Intersectional issues in Jewish identity (Jews as a religious/ethnic group; LBGTQ Jews; Black Jews, Jewish women)

● Official discrimination against Jews, both historic and contemporary, including bars to holding office, immigration restrictions, housing and zoning restrictions

● Jews and antisemitism in the legal profession

● Jews and employment law, including employment discrimination, religious accommodations, and the ministerial exception

● Jews and antisemitism in education, including California Ethnic Studies curricula;

anti-Jewish quotas; affirmative action, Title VI and hostile environment issues; regulation of faculty and student expression and actions concerning Israel and Zionism 

● Law and the Holocaust, punishing the perpetrators, restitution/reparations for the victims

● The legal construction of Jewish identity (e.g., defining who is a Jew for purposes of the Law of Return, the Nuremberg laws)

● Left- and right-wing extremism and the embrace of violence in relation to self-determination claims

● Case studies in antisemitism, e.g., the Dreyfus Affair, the Leo Frank trial

● Practical, research-based strategies (legal and otherwise) for countering antisemitism

● Pedagogical approaches to teaching about the relationship between law and antisemitism

Please submit an Abstract of 300-500 words and a professional/academic resume or CV to Diane Klein at klein1997@lawnet.ucla.edu.Please indicate whether the proposal is a work in progress or a completed paper. (Questions may also be directed to the same email address.)

Abstracts due August 19, 2024 Presenters will be notified by October 1, 2024