PRESS RELEASE

June 6, 2018

Formation of a New Scholarly Society to Study Antisemitism

Scholars and policymakers who assembled in Vienna at the recent conference An End to Antisemitism! unanimously approved the proposal to form a new international academic society, to be called the International Organization for Antisemitism Research (IOAR).  This society will be devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of antisemitism throughout its history and in its various manifestations as well as to scholarly and scientific research aimed at developing strategies to fight antisemitism. It hopes to encourage scholarly interchange and research, theoretical and applied, to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon. The society hopes to hold conferences and foster scholarship as well as to promote the interchange of ideas between academic researchers and policymakers.

Professor Jehuda Reinharz, former president of Brandeis University and president of the Mandel Foundation, has agreed to serve as President and members of the founding board are Professors Catherine Chatterley of the University of Manitoba, Armin Lange of the University of Vienna, Dina Porat of Tel Aviv University, Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University, Lawrence H. Schiffman of New York University, Monika Schwarz-Friesel of the Technical University of Berlin, and Mr. Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. 

The board will soon begin the process of constructing bylaws and setting up an administrative office.  It is expected that within a few months membership criteria will be announced and plans will be made for the IOAR’s first international conference. 

For information, please contact:

Catherine Chatterley, University of Manitoba
[email protected]

Armin Lange, University of Vienna
[email protected], +43 664 60277 43313

Dina Porat, Tel Aviv University
[email protected]

Alvin Rosenfeld, Indiana University
rosenfel[email protected]

Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
[email protected]

Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Technical University of Berlin
[email protected]

Mark Weitzman, Simon Wiesenthal Center and International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [email protected]

The administrative center of the society will be housed at Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of European Jewry. For administrative matters and membership information please contact Dr. Giovanni Quer at [email protected]