Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study

Chaya M. Abrams

doi:10.29333/ajqr/15162

Chaya M. Abrams ¹ ^*

More Detail

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 8, Issue 4, pp. 62-86

https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

OPEN ACCESS 592 Views 220 Downloads

Download Full Text (PDF)

Abstract

Institutional antisemitism is a growing concern across university campuses in the United States of America. Research shows that academic environments do not always welcome Jewish presence and needs. Though contemporary studies examine student lived experiences of antisemitism, few Jewish scholarly perspectives are included in related inquiries. A qualitative Delphi study contributes to this literary gap by sharing Jewish expert consensus on the research question of is institutional antisemitism a problem in the US? Consensus conclusions indicated that (a) institutional antisemitism is often misinterpreted and difficult to define and (b) interpersonal antisemitism is present within Jewish campus interactions. Through theoretical frameworks of critical theory, Afro-pessimism, and study of anti-Blackness, the impacts of Jewish scholar-participants’ identities and experiences on field expertise are discussed. Future campus implications for integrating sociocultural critical theory into Jewish historical trauma education and institutional antisemitism prevention are analyzed.

Keywords: Institutional antisemitism, Delphi study, Jewish historical trauma, critical theory, Afro-pessimism, anti-Blackness

References

Abrams, C. (2022). Ancestral bonding: Autoethnography of a Holocaust granddaughter. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 1(1), 47–68. https://doi.org/10.32674/jtse.vlil.4063
Abrams, C. (2023). The lived experiences of antisemitism encountered by Jewish students on university campuses: A phenomenological study. The American Journal of Qualitative Research, 7(3), 172–191. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/13482
Adorno, T. W. (1970). Negative dialektik. Suhrkamp.
Adorno, T. W. (2005). Critical models: Interventions and catchwords. Columbia University Press. (Original work published 1963/1969).
American Jewish Committee. (2021). Everything you need to know about antisemitism. https://www.ajc.org/resources/antisemitism
Anti-Defamation League. (2022). ADL tracker of antisemitic incidents. https://www.adl.org/education-and-resources/resource-knowledge-base/adl-tracker-of-antisemitic-incidents
Anti-Defamation League. (2024). Antisemitic attitudes in America 2024. https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitic-attitudes-america-2024
Antisemitism Awareness Act, H.R. 6090 (2023). https://rules.house.g/bill/118/hr-6090
Arendt, H. (2007). The Jewish writings. Schocken Books.
Barrett, B., & Heale, R. (2020). What are Delphi studies? Evidence-Based Nurse, 23(3),
68–69. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2020-103303
Ben-Atar, B. S. (2021). Indulging the antisemitism of the woke. American Jewish History, 105(1/2), 225–229. https://doi/org/10.1353/ajh.2021.0014
Beschloss, M. (2002). Knowing what really happened. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 32(4), 641–837. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0360-4918.2002.00237.x
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Brubaker, R. (2003). The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States. In C. Joppke & E. Morawska (Eds.), Toward assimilation and citizenship: Immigrants in liberal nation-states (pp. 39–58). Palgrave Macmillan.
Bustos, A. (2024). Review of Ruth Rebecca Gould’s Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
https://www.wrmea.org
Caplan, J. (2021). Public heroes, secret Jews: Jewish identity and comic books. Journal of Jewish Identities, 14(1), 53–70. https://doi.org/10.1353/jji.2021.0004
Chalmers, B. (2015). Jewish women’s sexual behavior and sexualized abuse during the Nazi era. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 24(2), 184–196. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.242-A10
Cieslik, E., & Phillips, R. (2021). “You’re my first Jew”: University student and professor experiences of Judaism in a small Indiana city. Contemporary Jewry, 41, 325–348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-021-09389-9
Clavey, C. H. (2023). “The stereotype takes care of everything”: Labor antisemitism and Critical Theory during World War II. Journal of the History of Ideas, 84(4), 711–742. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2023.a909536
Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9(3), 302–338.
https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1994.9.3.02a00040
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, D. J. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Douglass, P., Terrefe, S. D., & Wilderson, F. B. (2018). Afro-Pessimism. Oxford Bibliographies. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190280024/obo-9780190280024-0056.xml
Drumm, S., Bradley, C., & Moriarty, F. (2022). ‘More of an art than a science?’ The development, design, and mechanics of the Delphi technique. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 18(1), 2230–2236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2021.06.027
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-12.1.1589
Farber, B. A., & Poleg, A. (2019). Campus diversity, Jewishness, and antisemitism. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 75(11), 2034–2048. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22862
Ferber, E. (1917). Fanny, herself. Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers.
Foronda, C. (2020). A theory of cultural humility. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 31(1), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659619875184
Foster, S., Pettigrew, A., Pearce, A., Hale, R., Burgess, A., Salmons, P., & Lenga, R. A. (2016). What do students know and understand about the holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools. UCL Centre for Holocaust Education.
Gerstenfeld, M. (2009). The abuse of holocaust memory: Distortions and responses. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Goodman, B. K. (2023, December 27). The post-October 07 antisemitism and anti-Zionism backlash at Montreal universities. The Times of Israel. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/campus-antisemitism-and-anti-zionism-the-biggest-news-stories-of-2023/
Gordan, R. (2021). The sin of American Jewish exceptionalism. AJS Review: The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies, 45(2), 282–301. https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2021.a845296
Gould, R. R. (2023). Erasing Palestine: Free speech and Palestinian freedom. Verso.
Greason, M. (2018). Connecting findings to meaningful change: The benefits of using qualitative Delphi in empirical ethics and policy research in long-term care. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1–11.. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918803271
Hagstrom, A. (2024, March 4). Jewish students from across US describe rampant campus antisemitism at House hearing: “Wasteland of hatred.” Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jewish-students-us-describe-rampant-campus-antisemitism-house-hearing-wasteland-hatred
Hartman, S. V. (1997). Scenes of subjection: terror, slavery, and self-making in nineteenth-century America. Oxford University Press.
Hooks, B. (2015). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black. Routledge.
Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment: Philosophical fragments (G. Schmid Noerr, Ed.; E. Jephcott, Trans.). Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1944).
Howard, (2020). The Black perspective in clinical social work. Clinical Social Work Journal, 48(4), 335–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-018-0663-8
Jacobs, J. (2015). The Frankfurt School, Jewish lives, and Antisemitism. Cambridge
University Press.
Jacoby, J. (2023, December 20). A generation of antisemites: In a new survey, two-thirds of young Americans describe Jews as ‘oppressors.’ The Boston Globe. https://jeffjacoby.com/27402/a-generation-of-antisemites
Jarvie, J. (2024). Divestment from Israel roils universities. Would it work? Some are dubious. Courant. https://www.courant.com/2024/05
Julius, A. (2022). Willed ignorance: Reflections on academic free speech, occasioned by the David Miller case. Current Legal Problems, 75(1), 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/clp/cuac001
Kahane, M. (1972). Never again! A program for survival. Pyramid Books.
Kaplan, M. (1934). Judaism as a civilization. Macmillan Company.
Käpplinger, B., & Lichte, N. (2020). The lockdown of physical co‑operation touches the heart of adult education”: A Delphi study on immediate and expected effects of COVID‑19. International Review of Education, 66, 777–795. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09871-w
Koren, A., & Einhorn, E. (2010). Expanding the study of Israel on campus: The American-Israeli cooperative enterprise 2005-2009. Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. https://hdl.handle.net/10192/23440
LaFreniere Tamez, H. P., Anastasio, N., & Perlig, A. (2024). Explaining the rise of antisemitism in the United States. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2023.2297317
Linstone, H. A., & Turoff, M. (1975). Delphi method: Techniques and applications. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Lyerly, E. (2023). Protect Jewish students from antisemitism, discrimination. Campus Legal Advisor, 24(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1002/cala.41197
Magid, S. (2024). Jude pessimism: Antisemitism, history, and Critical Race Theory. Harvard Theological Review, 117(2), 368–390. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816024000130
Marris, E. (2024, February 13). How cultural wars are affecting universities. Nature, 626, 474–476. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00393-1
Mathur-Ashton, A. (2024, May 7). The controversy surrounding the antisemitism bill, explained. US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-05-07/explainer-the-controversy-surrounding-the-antisemitism-bill
McLeod, J. (2010). Case study research in counseling and psychotherapy. SAGE Publications.
Metzger, S. A. (2012). The borders of historical empathy: Students encounter the Holocaust through film. The Journal of Social Science Research, 36(4), 387–410.
Michels, T. (2010). Is America “different”? A critique of American Jewish exceptionalism. American Jewish History, 96(3), 201–224. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23887725
Milanović, A. (2022). Antisemitism online: History’s oldest hatred and new media challenges. Philosophy and Society, 33(3), 567–582.
Mousavi, M.A. & Kadkhodaee, E. (2016). Academic contact: A theoretical approach to Israel studies in American universities. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(4), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p243
Myers, J. (2023). Of Black study. Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv36cj867
Nadell, P. (2019). America’s Jewish women: A history from colonial times to today. W.W. Norton & Company.
Nagel, J., & Olzak, S. (1986). Competitive ethnic relations. Academic Press.
Nelson, C. (2019). Israel denial: Anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and the faculty campaign against the Jewish state. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvf3w25x
Pease, D. (2009). Re-thinking “American studies after US exceptionalism” American Literary History, 21(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajn055
Pew Research Center (2023, March 17). Anti-Jewish harassment occurred in 94 countries in 2020, up from earlier years. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/17/anti-jewish-harassment-occurred-in-94-countries-in-2020-up-from-earlier-years/
Pistone, I., Andersson, L. M., Lidström, A., Mattson, C., Nelhans, G., Pernler, T., Sager, M., & Sivenbring, J. (2021). Education after Auschwitz – Educational outcomes of teaching to prevent antisemitism (Report No. 10). The Segerstedt Institute. https://www.gu.se/sites/default/files/2021-10/Education%20after%20AuschwitzX_0.pdf
Prell, R. E. (2021). Antisemitism without quotas at the University of Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s: Anti-Communist politics, the surveillance of Jewish students, and American antisemitism. American Jewish History, 105(1/2), 157–188. https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2021.0007
Rabin, S. (2021). Antisemitism, American Jewish historians, and their publics. American Jewish History, 105(1/2), 213–217. https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2021.0012
Rajal, E. (2024). Countering antisemitism through Holocaust education. A comparative perspective on Scotland and Austria. Educational Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2024.2325068
Rensmann, L. (2017). The politics of unreason: The Frankfurt School and the origins of modern antisemitism. Suny Press.
Romanyshyn, R. D. (2010). The wounded researcher: Making a place for unconscious dynamics in the research process. The Humanistic Psychologist, 38(4), 275–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873267.2010.523282
Rubin, D. (2020). The Jewish struggle in the 21st century: Conflict, positionality, and multiculturalism. Brill.
Singer, K., Staples, A., Mayhew, M. J., & Rockenbach, A. N. (2021). Antisemitism on campus is alive and well. Contexts, 20(2), 66–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/15365042211012075
Sorkin, D. (2019). Jewish emancipation: A history across five centuries. Princeton University Press.
Spector, K. (2005). Framing the Holocaust in English class: Secondary teachers and students reading Holocaust literature [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Cincinnati. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1116257818
Spinazola, P. L., Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. (2021). Evocative autoethnography: Evoking is as evoking does. In I. Fourie (Ed.), Autoethnography for librarians and information scientists (1st ed., pp. 33–48). Routledge.
Steinberg, M. (1941). To be or not to be a half-Jew. Common Ground, pp. 5–6.
Steinberg, M. (1945). A partisan guide to the Jewish problem. Bobbs-Merrill.
Steinberg, G. M. (2023). The apartheid and racism campaigns: The NGO contribution to antisemitism.Israel Affairs, 29(1), 52–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2023.2162256
Strydom, P. (2022). The critical theory of society: From its Young-Hegelian core to its key concept of possibility. European Journal of Social Theory, 26(2), 153–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310221130914
Tollefson, J. (2024, January 3). Harvard president’s resignation amid plagiarism leaves academics reeling. Nature, 625, 224–225. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00009-8
Weddington, G. (2019). Political ontology and race research: A response to “Critical Race Theory, Afro-pessimism, and racial progress narratives.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity,5(2), 278–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218785921
Wilderson III, F. B. (2017). Blacks and the master/slave relation. In F. B. Wilderson III (Ed.), Afro-pessimism: An introduction (pp. 15–30). Racked & Dispatched.
Yakira, E. (2015). Virtuous Antisemitism. In A. H. Rosenfeld (Ed.),
Deciphering the new Antisemitism (pp. 77–102).
Indiana University Press.http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18crxz7

Citation

Abrams, C. M. (2024). Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 8(4), 62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

Abrams, C. M. (2024). Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 8(4), pp. 62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

Abrams CM. Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2024;8(4), 62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

Abrams, Chaya M.. "Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study". American Journal of Qualitative Research 2024 8 no. 4 (2024): 62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

Abrams, Chaya M. "Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study". American Journal of Qualitative Research, vol. 8, no. 4, 2024, pp. 62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162

Abrams CM. Conversations with Jewish Scholars on Institutional Antisemitism: A Delphi Study. AM J QUALITATIVE RES. 2024;8(4):62-86. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/15162