Antisemitism and the Law
Casebook
Robert Katz
(Carolina Academic Press, July 2025)
This groundbreaking casebook serves as a vital resource for understanding the legal history of antisemitism and legal strategies to combat it. It explores how legal systems have been wielded both to oppress Jews and to fight antisemitism, offering a global and historical perspective on the intersection of law and antisemitism.
Part One examines Jews within anti-discrimination law in the U.S. and U.K., analyzing their legal construction as non-white, white, or ethnic. It explores how courts have extended race-based protections to Jews and other groups not traditionally viewed as distinct races. Part Two focuses on Jewish identity, addressing legal definitions of "Jew" in Orthodox and Reform Judaism, Israel's Law of Return, the Spanish Inquisition, and Nazi Germany. It also investigates cases where Jewish practices, beliefs, and projects were deemed racist.
Part Three analyzes the regulation of antisemitic speech in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Canada, South Africa, and international human rights law. It evaluates legal efforts to debunk antisemitic conspiracy theories and contain online hate speech. Part Four addresses combating antisemitism through hate crime laws in the U.S. and Germany and federal restrictions on funding for universities that tolerate hostile environments for Jewish students. Part Five highlights the critical role non-Jewish allies have played in opposing antisemitism, featuring J'Accuse, Émile Zola's 1898 exposé of the Dreyfus Affair, and the Catholic Church's evolving stance on antisemitism, culminating in the Second Vatican Council's 1965 exoneration of Jews from collective blame for Jesus' death.
This casebook offers an essential framework for understanding antisemitism as a legal phenomenon and addressing antisemitism through legal means.
The casebook will support a 2-3-credit elective course on the subject for law students. It is also suitable for undergraduate and graduate level courses.
The casebook project receives support from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), with additional support from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), and the Rieders Foundation.