Antisemitism: Then and Now

Kerice Doten-Snitker is a social scientist and Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. She received a PhD in Sociology from the University of Washington and previously held positions at the Carlos III – Juan March Institute and Chapman University. Across her work, she pursues three lines of inquiry: how interests and values are institutionalized, what catalyzes institutional change, and how this change happens. She is currently working on a book about how medieval German cities responded to political challenges with antisemitic violence and exclusion.

Jordan Berg Powers (he/him) is currently a PhD Student at Brandeis University Heller School Institute of Economic and Racial Equity. He is the former Executive Director of Mass Alliance, where he was for 13 years. As a broad coalition of 29 political and advocacy organizations with different sizes, organizational structures, and focus issues, Jordan knitted together these disparate groups to build a powerful, cohesive table dedicated to making Massachusetts more just. Jordan also serves as a Zoning Board Commissioner for the City of Worcester. He is also on the board of JOIN for Justice, Disability Policy Consortium, Partners in Democracy, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA), Committee for Social Action for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) – Boston Area, Teen Just-Us, and the Jewish Liberation Fund; he is also on the advisory committee for the RAC Massachusetts. In 2018, Jordan was lucky enough to be a part of the JewV’Nation Fellowship, a leadership development program for visionary Jewish leaders across North America.

Ron Hassner is the Chancellor’s Professor of Political Science and Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at the University of California Berkeley. He is also the faculty director of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies.  He is editor-in-chief of the journal Security Studies and editor of the Cornell University Press book series “Religion and Conflict.” Prof. Hassner studies the role of ideas, practices, and symbols in international security with particular attention to the relationship between religion and violence.

Jonathan Feingold’s scholarship explores the relationship between race, law, and the mind sciences. Much of his recent research has interrogated how and why various American legal regimes, including equal protection doctrine, function to reinforce and reproduce racial hierarchy. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Utah Law Review, and Temple Law Review. Representative publications include “SFFA v. Harvard: How Affirmative Action Myths Mask White Bonus,”“Hidden in Plain Sight: a More Compelling Case for Diversity,”“Eyes Wide Open: What Social Science Can Tell Us About the Supreme Court’s Use of Social Science” (with Evelyn Carter), and “Defusing Implicit Bias” (with Karen Lorang). Jonathan also hosts #RaceClass, a monthly conversation that explores how race and racism remain powerful forces in American society