News Archive

IU McKinney Professor Robert Katz spoke at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never Is Now summit, the world’s largest annual summit on antisemitism and hate, held in New York City on November 10. Speaking before an audience of several hundred, Professor Katz discussed the failure of legal education to grapple with the problem of antisemitism, even as such hatred goes mainstream and rises to record levels.

“Law schools do not offer courses on antisemitism,” Professor Katz said. “Few law professors talk about it in their classrooms, few diversity and inclusion programs raise awareness about it, and few legal scholars research it.  This apparent indifference is especially surprising, and disturbing, given the intense attention law schools pay to bias and discrimination against other vulnerable groups.”

“Because law schools do not educate students about antisemitism,” said Professor Katz, “they produce lawyers who don’t understand it, can’t spot it, and aren’t trained to combat it.  Because legal scholars do not research antisemitism, front-line activists are cut off from a vital source of knowledge.”

To move forward, said Professor Katz, “law schools must acknowledge that Jews as a class are vulnerable and that bias against Jews is no less worthy of study than other forms of bias.”  To encourage engagement with antisemitism, he said, he is writing Antisemitism and the Law, the first casebook on the subject, and a law school course to accompany it.  He also co-organizes the annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference, the first of which IU McKinney hosted on March 14-15, 2022, and works with IUPUI’s Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion to raise awareness of antisemitism on campus. Professor Katz is a Senior Research Fellow at ADL’s Center for Antisemitism Research and a member of the Academic Engagement Network.