Promise and Betrayal: Jews, Universities, and Antisemitism in the 20th Century
A fraying of the alliance between Jews, the state, and civil society
Diaspora Jews are feeling more vulnerable than at any time since WWII. They were traumatized by the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, indifference or hostility from the global left following the attack, and the worldwide spike in antisemitism in response to Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza. Jewish students, parents, and alumni have accused pro-Palestinian university students and faculty of shutting down other points of view, disrupting campus life, and shaming or shunning Jewish students who refuse to disavow Israel.
Since the 1970s, governments throughout the Western world have made concerted efforts to combat antisemitism, but those governments appear today to be unwilling or unable to protect their Jewish citizens. Moreover, institutions of liberal civil society such as universities and the mass media have often been negligent or ineffective in responding to Israel-related hostility to diaspora Jews. The result has been a fraying of the alliance between Jews, the state, and civil society that provided Jews security in the post-1945 Western world. In this talk, Derek Penslar assesses the process by which these alliances have crumbled and, by focusing on recent developments at Harvard and other leading American universities, proposed how they can be restored.
In conversation with Dan Diner, Professor, Emeritus of Modern History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
In cooperation with Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and AmerikaHaus NRW e.V.
Meet the speaker
Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He holds a BA in History from Stanford University as well as an MA and a PhD in Modern European History from the University of California, Berkeley. In his research and teaching, Penslar…
