Rice Lecture Series: U.S. Campus Antisemitism – How Did We Get Here?

The Center for Jewish Lifelong Learning’s adult learning program and Rice University are set to launch the 16th annual Rice University Jewish Studies three-part evening lecture series. The series features lectures on September 11, 18 and 25.

This second lecture in the series, U.S. Campus Antisemitism – How Did We Get Here?, will take place on Wednesday, September 18.

The second lecture by Moshe Vardi, a Rice University professor for the past 30 years, will examine the wave of antisemitism on campuses after the horrific atrocities of October 7, 2023, in Israel and the ensuing Hamas-Israel war that has unleashed a wave of antisemitism on the campuses of elite U.S. universities, especially the private ones. The lecture will explain how we got here and tie the wave to a simplistic oppressor-oppressed morality that is common to two major social phenomena: the rise of identity politics as a dominant theme of U.S. liberalism and the rise of the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion agenda in elite American higher education. The lecture will also explore the argument that economic and political forces are at the root of these phenomena.