ISGAP Conference Announces Jewish Consciousness to Combat Antisemitism

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, November 9, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- The conference, which aims to address the growing hostile redefinition of Jewish identity in academic and intellectual circles, will take place from May 30 to June 1, 2027, at Jesus College, University of Cambridge.

The announcement was made during a Holy Land pilgrimage of 500 Black pastors, which honored the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the pilgrimage he planned in 1967. The Black Christian Leadership Council on Israel Relations led the delegation, which included some 500 Black pastors and Christian leaders.

The conference is the culmination of years of research initiated by Dr. Charles Asher Small at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). The research aims to develop a framework for mapping, decoding, and combating contemporary antisemitism at the political and intellectual levels. Dr. Chavis's announcement responds to a growing trend where Jewish identity is defined from the outside, particularly at elite institutions, which often define the Jewish people, Zionism, and Israel in terms of colonialism, white privilege, racism, occupation, and apartheid without engaging Jewish thought, ethics, history, or notions of homeland, exile, and freedom.

At the heart of the conference is the concept of "Jewish Consciousness," a framework under development in a dedicated ISGAP research project. Drawing on parallels with the Black Consciousness Movement led by Steve Biko in apartheid South Africa and the Black Consciousness Movement in America, the framework seeks to ground Jewish identity in its own ethical and intellectual tradition, from Torah and Talmud to Maimonides and Emmanuel Levinas, and in principles such as Tzelem Elohim, the idea that every human being is created in the image of God. The framework aims to empower Jewish people and their allies in the struggle against antisemitism.

The Cambridge conference will ask how this framework can help reclaim Jewish identity from imposed distortions, equip students and scholars to confront antisemitism and anti-democratic values, and renew the historic alliance between Jewish people, people of African descent, and others globally, rooted in a shared pursuit of justice and dignity for all.

ISGAP invites scholars across the humanities and social sciences to submit proposals for this interdisciplinary conference. More information is available at https://isgap.org/call-for-papers-jewish-consciousness-the-role-of-ethics-memory-and-power-in-reclaiming-identity-in-order-to-confront-antisemitism/.