ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session One: Framing Antisemitism in International and Historical Contexts

September 3, 2025.

Batsheva Neuer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - "Framing Israel: Antisemitism and the Postcolonial Imaginary at the Durban Conference"

This talk examines how postcolonial discourse was repurposed at the 2001 Durban Conference to frame Israel as a racialized colonial oppressor. Through analysis of official records and NGO statements, Neuer explores how anti-colonial language was used to legitimize antisemitic narratives within international institutions, revealing how the postcolonial framework can mask the resurgence of hostility toward Jewish political identity.

Batsheva Neuer is a PhD candidate and fellow at the Avraham Harman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation, awarded the 2024 Bernard Lewis Prize, investigates Israel and the global politics of racism in the lead-up to the Durban Conference. She has held fellowships at SICSA and the Cherrick Center and recently published in Israel Studies on the revocation of the “Zionism is Racism” UN resolution.

Tami Peterson (Gratz College) - "Mobilization for Murder: Considering Antisemitism as a Causal Factor of the Deadly 1941 Pogroms"

This talk examines the 1941 pogroms in Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine to explore how antisemitic attitudes—rather than just state ideology—can serve as catalysts for mass violence. By applying theories of symbolic political mobilization, Peterson investigates how threat perceptions among civilians transformed antisemitism into deadly action in the absence of state control.

Tami Peterson is a PhD candidate at Gratz College and currently serves as the inaugural Visiting Student Scholar at NYU’s Center for the Study of Antisemitism. She is also a Research Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. She holds an MRes in Social & Political Theory from Birkbeck, University of London.

Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/