Law vs. Antisemitism Conference Calls for Papers

Legal scholars and experts will discuss how law has been used both to perpetrate and to combat antisemitism, historically and today, at the 2nd Annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference, March 26 - 27, 2023 at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland Oregon. Intended for students, members of the legal community, and interested members of the public, the interdisciplinary conference is being hosted by the law school, Lewis & Clark Law Review, and the Law vs. Antisemitism Project. The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland is an event sponsor.

“We’re so excited to be bringing this conference to Portland and Lewis & Clark,” said Professor David Schraub, one of the conference conveners. “This event brings together a rich confluence of scholars and activists united by a common cause, and I’m incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received from the school and the community.”

A call for papers has been issued for submissions on the intersection of law and antisemitism from academics and practitioners of all backgrounds and all statuses. Selected articles presented at the conference will be published as a symposium issue in Volume 27, Issue 4 of the Lewis & Clark Law Review (forthcoming in 2023).

Possible topics for conference presentations and papers may include, but are not limited to:

• Contending definitions of antisemitism itself (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Nexus, Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA))
• Legal history as it relates to the regulation of Jewish immigrants and Jews in colonial and antebellum America
• Title VII and employment anti-discrimination law as a tool against antisemitism
• Antisemitism in the legal profession
• Intersections of antisemitism and anti-trans or homophobic movements
• Jewish involvement/antisemitism in civil rights movements, including BLM
• Holocaust reparations
• First Amendment speech issues (hate speech online and elsewhere, Holocaust denialism)
• First Amendment religious freedom issues as these relate to Jews and Judaism, including Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause controversies
• Implications of recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion, guns, education, religious liberty, or other matters as they relate to Jewish equality
• Jews and Whiteness, Jewish Anti-Black racism/Black antisemitism
• Antisemitism and White nationalism/White supremacy
• Antisemitism and antisemitic laws in American legal history
• Intersectional issues (Jews as a religious/ethnic group; LBGTQ Jews; Black Jews, Jewish women)
• The use of zoning and land-use law by and against Jewish communities, the regulation of physical space for Jews in America
• The history of Jewish lawyers and organizations involved in impact litigation in cases involving Jews and others
• The legal relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism
• BDS and Israel boycotts on campus and by state/local governments, international boycott law as applied to Israel

Those interested in presenting should submit a one-page Abstract to lawvsantisemitism2023@gmail.com by October 1, 2022.

Keynote speakers at the conference will include Eric K. Ward, Executive Director of the Western States Center and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the connection between antisemitism and White supremacy, and Steven M. Freeman, Vice President of Civil Rights and Director of Legal Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League. Conference conveners are David Schraub (Lewis & Clark), Robert Katz (Indiana University), and Diane Kemker (Southern University).

The 2nd Annual Law vs. Antisemitism Conference is part of a larger project, and includes the development of a law school course in law and antisemitism, and the creation of a first-of-its-kind casebook to support the course. A Project Workshop for Legal Educators will be held March 26, 2023.

For more information on the conference, on how to submit papers, or to participate in the workshop, please see the event page.