Professor of history and director of Fairfield's undergraduate Judaic Studies program, Gavriel Rosenfeld, PhD, currently serves as president of the Center for Jewish History (CJH) in New York City. On Sunday, Jan. 28, he will moderate a panel of speakers at the CJH symposium, “Addressing Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges.”

Fairfield University is a sponsor of the event and the University community is invited to watch the livestream free of charge.

At 10 a.m. on Jan. 28, Dr. Rosenfeld will moderate session one, “What is Antisemitism? Definitions and Debates,” featuring speakers Derek Penslar, PhD, of Harvard University; Kenneth Marcus, Esq., of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; and Miriam Elman, PhD, of the Academic Engagement Network.

The panel will explore, among other topics, the competing definitions of antisemitism, examining how they relate to the controversial notion of antizionism, and determining how both terms have been affected by Hamas’s terror attack against Israel. 

The symposium seeks to explain the recent upsurge of hatred of Jews in the contemporary world. Timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University, "Addressing Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges" brings together prominent scholars to discuss the challenge of defining antisemitism, explain its explosion in Europe and the United States, understand its dissemination through digital media, and determine how scholars and activists should best combat it in an era of intensifying global turmoil.

Dr. Rosenfeld is a prolific writer for academic and public audiences and is skilled in bringing scholarly insight to bear on topics of present-day importance, from the politics of Holocaust memory in the United States to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He holds a BA in history and Judaic studies from Brown University and earned his PhD at UCLA.

A specialist in the history of Nazi Germany, Holocaust studies, memory studies, and counterfactual history, Dr. Rosenfeld is the author or editor of eight books, including The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism Since World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Building After Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust (Yale University Press, 2011), which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of visual arts.

The Center for Jewish History illuminates the Jewish past for audiences today and preserves it for the future as a multilingual, interdisciplinary space for learning and public engagement. The Center is home to five in-house Partner organizations — the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research — whose combined holdings make up the world’s largest collection of Jewish history and culture held outside Israel. The Center opens these collections to the public and activates the stories they hold through archive and library services, fellowships, public programs, and free exhibits.