News Archive
Professor Katz Receives Grant for a Casebook and Course on Antisemitism and the Law
10/25/2022
IU McKinney Professor Robert Katz has been awarded a $3,000 grant to support his research on the relationship between antisemitism and the law. The grant was awarded by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a nonprofit organization that supports research and education aimed at combating antisemitism.
Professor Katz began researching this subject after observing that Jewish law students and faculty experience antisemitism at their institutions, no law school regularly offers a course on antisemitism and the law, few legal scholars write about the subject, many law schools do not work to raise awareness about antisemitism, and many law schools' DEI programs do not address Jewish concerns or include Jews on their DEI committees. To begin to address these deficiencies, Professor Katz is writing a casebook and preparing a course on antisemitism and the law, the first on this subject, to educate students how law has abetted antisemitism and legal strategies for reducing it. The casebook will also promote the development of this subject as a field of systematic study by providing interested scholars with a unique resource. As part of this project, Professor Katz co-organizes conferences on the subject, including the inaugural Law vs. Antisemitism Conference hosted by IU McKinney on March 13-14, 2022.
Professor Katz's leadership in this nascent field has been recognized by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which named him as a Senior Research Fellow at its Center for Antisemitism Research and invited him to speak at its upcoming annual conference; the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), which named him as a Research Fellow; and the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (ILJ), which named him to the Academic Advisory Board of its legal publication. He recently published an article on this project in Res Gestae, the Indiana State Bar Association magazine. He has spoken on the subject to various groups, including the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers.
