Webinar Series

Psychologists Against Antisemitism Event with Dr. Moshe Vardi. October 20, 2024. The horrific atrocities of October 7, 2023 in Israel and the ensuing Hamas-Israel war have unleashed a wave of antisemitism on the campuses of elite US universities, especially the private ones. This presentation aims at explaining the social, political, and economic influences of how we got here. Dr. Moshe Y. Vardi is a University Professor and the George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University. He is the author and co-author of over 750 papers, as well as two books. He is the recipient of several scientific awards, is a fellow of several societies, and a member of several honorary academies. He holds ten honorary titles. He is a Senior Editor of Communications of the ACM, the premier publication in computing, focusing on societal impact of information technology.

Drs. Thomas Plante and Caroline Kaufman provide important information on how to effectively address antisemitic hate both from a mental health perspective and through formal administrative actions. Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP is the Augustin Cardinal Bea, S.J. University Professor, Professor of Psychology and Religious Studies (by courtesy), and directs the Applied Spirituality Institute at Santa Clara University. He is an Emeritus Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stanford University. He has published 29 books including most recently, Living Ethically in an Unethical World (2024) and Living Better with Spiritually Based Strategies that Work (2024). He maintains a private practice as a licensed psychologist in Menlo Park, California. Dr. Caroline C. Kaufman is an Assistant Psychologist at McLean Hospital and Instructor at Harvard Medical School in the Spirituality and Mental Health Program. She completed her doctorate in Child & Family Clinical Psychology at the University of Memphis, her predoctoral internship in adolescent psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine/Yale-New Haven Hospital, and her postdoctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Her program of research focuses on the intersection of adversity, mental health, and spirituality/religion. She has specific publications discussing the psychology of antisemitism and provides workshops and lectures on antisemitism to lay and academic audiences across the United States.

Naomi Friedman is the founder of Stop BDS on Campus, a social media-based grassroots organization of 5.5 K activists who fight rising antisemitism in educational institutions. Stop BDS on Campus pioneered the use of action alerts on social media back in 2015, acts as meeting ground seeding off-line organizations, such as the first 12 chapters of ACF (Alums for Campus Fairness), provides a network to lobby elected officials and pursue legal action (using an online petition to gather 2,000 litigants against the Airbnb boycott), and try to have fun. To achieve that last goal, Stop BDS on Campus launched their first podcast last month—Jewnited, a mix of humor, trivia, and suggestions for effective actions.

The present research addresses the following questions: To what degree is anti-Semitism related to anti-Israel attitudes? What are popular misconceptions of Jews (e.g., their total numbers) and of Israel (e.g., its geographic size), and how are these misconceptions related to each other? Results from survey and experimental studies indicate that hostility toward Israel and towards Jews, and misconceptions of them, arise from the same underlying animosity. Kent D. Harber, PhD is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University at Newark. His research program has two main directions. One focuses on interracial feedback, and especially the positive bias in feedback from White instructors to students of color. The other examines how psychosocial resources (e.g., social support, self-esteem), affect perceptions of the physical world and the social world. For example, people see hills as less steep, heights as less extreme, and tarantulas as less close if they feel supported by others or good about themselves. He also studies emotional disclosure and social judgment, and modern anti-Semitism. Professor Harber received his doctorate in experimental social psychology from Stanford University (1995). He completed postdoctoral training in health behavior at Washington University in Saint Louis, MO, and then worked for two years as a research scientist at American Institutes for Research in Palo Alto, CA, where he focused on class size reduction and effective teaching practices. In 1999 he accepted his current position at Rutgers/Newark. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Lucent Foundation. It has been featured in The Atlantic, Newsweek, Huffington Post and other popular venues.

Dr. Rusi Jaspal is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom. Much of this research has focused on the social psychological aspects of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, especially in Muslim societies. He is the author of the book Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk (Taylor and Francis, 2020) and his most recent article in this area is entitled The social psychology of antisemitism, published in Israel Affairs.

Psychologists Against Antisemitism Inaugural Lecture: "Embracing Jewish Friends & Combating Antisemitism: The Joys and Duties of Being a Gentile Ally" Dr. Mark S. Kiselica is a licensed psychologist, professor of psychology, and director of the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education at Penn State Harrisburg. A former president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, Dr. Kiselica is the author of over 100 conference presentations and 155 professional publications, including Multicultural Counseling with Teenage Fathers (Sage, 1995), Handbook of Counseling Boys and Adolescent Males (Sage, 1999), Confronting Prejudice and Racism during Multicultural Training (American Counseling Association, 1999), Counseling Troubled Boys (Routledge, 2008), and When Boys Become Parents: Adolescent Fatherhood in America (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Dr. Kiselica is the editor of the Routledge Book Series on Counseling and Psychotherapy with Boys and Men, which features 18 books addressing the mental health needs of various populations of boys and men. In recognition of his national impact on the science and practice of the profession of psychology, Dr. Kiselica was named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, an Alumnus of Distinction of Saint Vincent College, and Researcher of the Year by both the American Mental Health Counselors Association and the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity. He also is a Fellow of the American Council on Education, and he was the recipient of the American Counseling Association’s Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person in honor of his work to combat racism and antisemitism.