Jewish Identities and Antisemitism Programming Series

This series of four events started in October 2021 with a program featuring individuals with a diversity of intersecting Jewish and other identities talking about their lived experiences. In the three sessions during spring semester 2022, we grounded our investigation of Jewish identity and experience of antisemitism in an exploration of history, identity, and opportunities for solidarity.

We hope that this series will validate and affirm Jewish members of the UMD family and give all UMD community members greater understanding and more tools to recognize and counter antisemitism when we see it.

Antisemitism, like other forms of oppression, traffics in stereotypes, generalities, and assumptions. These tropes are all around us—in literature and popular culture and in everyday conversations on the street or on our campus. When left unexamined and unchallenged, anti-Jewish tropes can in extreme cases lead to violence and in more everyday circumstances cause microaggressions and other tensions that degrade the vibrant and inclusive climate we want UMD to be.

What’s more, as this programming series explored, anti-Jewish bias and antisemitism work hand in hand with other forms of oppression, including anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant bias, and homophobia, to name just a few. Addressing all forms of oppression are integral to ODI's work of helping the university achieve its diversity, equity and inclusion goals, and this programming will play an important role.

We hope you will watch the recordings below.