The Antisemitism Education Initiative helps universities reduce antisemitism by improving the capacity of campus stakeholders to recognize, contextualize, and challenge antisemitism in all its forms.
We provide cultural competency education on antisemitism, Judaism, Jewish culture, and Israel for university administrators, staff, faculty, and students. We prioritize interventions grounded in the day-to-day campus experiences of students and faculty as well as cutting-edge academic scholarship on antisemitism, hate, and bias. We offer trainings, provide consultations, and create educational resources for use at UC Berkeley, colleges and universities across California, and organizations nationwide.
UC Berkeley is the first university in the country to establish a campus-based initiative centering antisemitism education focused on students, staff, and other campus stakeholders.
Our work is built around three key values:
● PRIORITIZE EDUCATION: We focus on education, not advocacy. We insist on a nuanced approach that aims not to indoctrinate, but to facilitate better conversations about antisemitism.
● CENTER LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: Antisemitism is widespread on campuses nationally, but each local situation is distinct, and demands a locally-rooted solution. At UC Berkeley, university administrators turn to us as the local experts on antisemitism and on the culture of our own campus. We meet each community where they are, offering pre-emptive trainings and rapid responses that are informed by local needs and challenges.
● FOSTER A SHARED LANGUAGE: Our work is centered on regular trainings which provide a common language and promote a deep understanding of antisemitism and its connections to broader issues of bias.
AEI Advisory Committee:
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Prof. Robert Braun (Associate Professor, Sociology)
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Dr. Rena Dorph (Director, Lawrence Hall of Science)
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Prof. Ron Hassner (Chancellor's Professor of Political Science and a Faculty Director of the Helen Diller Institute on Jewish Law and Israel Studies)
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Prof. Carla Hesse (Peder Sather Professor of History and former Executive Dean of the College of Letters & Science)
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Prof. Ethan Katz (Associate Professor, History, and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies)
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Prof. Daniela Kaufer (Associate Dean, Class of 1943 Memorial Chair, and Professor of Integrative Biology)
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Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman (Executive Director of Berkeley Hillel)