Scholars from around the world gathered in Haifa on Thursday to launch a new academic organization for studying antisemitism at what organizers say is the largest annual academic conference on contemporary antisemitism in the world.

The three-day Contemporary Antisemitism at the University of Haifa, running July 7-9, attracted more than 500 participants, including over 300 international speakers speakers, to explore how antisemitism is evolving in the post-October 7 era and its impact on higher education, law, media, technology, public policy, and democratic institutions.

Since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, global antisemitism has metastasized, leading to countless cases of harassment, hostilities, and violence against Jews. But many in the academic world dismiss its study as a “soft” field or recoil because of the political sensitivities, said the conference’s organizer, Jacob Dallal, who serves as the managing director of the Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa.

“By putting the word contemporary in the title, we are putting issues around anti-Zionism on the table,” Dallal said. “If you look at most academic programs studying antisemitism, they talk about the Holocaust, but they don’t want to deal with Zionism or Israel. We see the importance of speaking about these topics with no prior judgments.”

During the event, organizers also formally launched the Contemporary Antisemitism Studies Association (CASA), a new international academic initiative dedicated to advancing the scholarly study of contemporary antisemitism as an academic field and creating........

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