American Antizionism - with Shaul Kelner

Sociologist and Jewish studies scholar Dr. Shaul Kelner joins Dr. Rachel Fish to examine the rise of antizionism as a distinctly American political and social movement. Kelner argues that contemporary antizionism is less an intellectual critique of Zionism than a political mass movement defined by praxis: the othering and exclusion of Jews through social and institutional action. 

Their conversation explores why debates over whether antizionism equals antisemitism often obscure more than they clarify, the distinction between 'anti-Zionism' and 'antizionism', how ambiguity about end goals of the pro-Palestine movement enables broad coalition-building, why higher education became especially fertile ground for this movement, and more.

Further Reading

Shaul Kelner, “American Antizionism,” Sources Journal

Isabella Tabarovsky, "The Cult of 'Antizionism'," Tablet Magazine

Isabella Tabarovsky, "Zombie Anti-Zionism," Tablet Magazine

David Hirsch, "'Anti-Zionism' and 'Antizionism'," Australia/Israel, and Jewish Affairs Council

Guest Bio

Shaul Kelner is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, specializing in the study of contemporary Jewish life. 

His latest book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews received grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and won a National Jewish Book Award. 

Prof. Kelner has been a Fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, a visiting scholar in Tel Aviv University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology and a resident scholar at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He has served as a board member of the Association for Jewish Studies and of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science recognized him with an Innovative Teaching Award for Creating Engaging In-Person Learning Environments.