Faculty members from around the world are set to gather at Oxford University for the ISGAP-Oxford Summer Institute for Antisemitism Studies, beginning on Sunday.

This event comes amid a global surge in antisemitism, which has led to unlawful encampments and numerous arrests at universities and colleges this spring.

Scheduled from July 28 to August 9 at St Catherine’s College, the program will provide faculty with guidance on developing courses about antisemitism to be taught at their home institutions.

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) is an international organization focused on mapping, decoding, and combating contemporary antisemitism. ISGAP's founder and executive director, Charles Asher Small, will open the program with a lecture titled “The Importance of Creating Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies.”

"The program helps professors create courses in an area of academia where there is a large void," Small told JNS. "Our graduates return to their home universities and teach their students, for course credit, on a subject matter that is of great importance and an increasing challenge to social cohesion. Antisemitism is now threatening our very basic democratic principles."

Small aims to collaborate with top professors globally to transform antisemitism studies into a recognized academic field. He stated, "At the end of the initiative, participating faculty members will present an outline of their new courses that we designed together."

On Tuesday, Small testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Oversight, in a meeting titled “Fueling Chaos: Tracing the Flow of Tax-Exempt Dollars to Antisemitism.” He presented 12 policy recommendations to combat antisemitism in higher education and ensure transparency and accountability in university funding.

Recently, The New York Times reported that more than 3,100 protesters were arrested during anti-Israel encampments on U.S. campuses this spring. However, most charges have been dropped, including over 100 criminal trespassing charges at the University of Texas at Austin, dismissed on the grounds of free speech.

In February, Small discussed his research with JNS, revealing tens of millions of dollars in undocumented funds from Qatar to universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He questioned why a country that supports the dismantling of Israel and the spread of antisemitism would fund such institutions.

"Qatar is using soft power to promote this ideology to distance Israel from the West and uses antisemitism to fragment the United States and other democracies. They are succeeding," Small said. Photo by Kenneth Yarham, Wikimedia commons.