Duquesne law professor to chair national Law and Antisemitism Conference

Rona Kaufman recalled being taken aback by the anti-Zionists who spoke at last year’s Law vs. Antisemitism Conference, held at the UCLA School of Law.

“I was unaware that some of the speakers that were invited to the conference last year were anti-Zionist,” she said. “I was moderating a panel when an anti-Zionist professor from Canada lectured a room of Jews on the meaning of Zionism and defined it as an ethno-supremacist ideology. I was very upset, as were most of the attendees.”

Speakers at the 2025 conference, according to Jewish Insider, included University of Toronto law professor Mohammed Fadel; Thomas Hardy, a civil rights attorney representing Faculty for Justice in Palestine; and former campus coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace Ben Lorber.

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“I was devastated because I gave my welcoming remarks, telling the audience how powerful and important the conference was to me the year before and how proud I was to be a part of the steering committee,” said Kaufman, a law professor at Duquesne University and co-founder of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies.

Kaufman is chairing this year’s conference, renamed the Law and Antisemitism Conference, hosted by the Center for the Study of Law and Antisemitism. It will be held at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York City.

She was quick to note that the anti-Zionist speakers made up only a small portion of last year’s conference, which she described as one of only a few spaces where Jewish academics could connect, network and explore collaboration.

Conference founder Robert Katz is a professor at Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law and author of the first casebook on law and antisemitism. He’s on this year’s steering committee along with former Squirrel Hill resident and law professor Seth Oranburg; Ruthy Lowenstein Lazar, dean of the Striks Law Faculty at Colman College in Israel; Andrea J. Martin, law professor at Penn State University’s Dickenson Law School (and co-founder of the Center for Legal Studies); and Zalman Rothchild and Suzanne Stone, representing the Cardozo School of Law.

Kaufman first became aware of the conference after Oct. 7, 2023, when she was invited to speak about her experiences in academia following Hamas’ terrorist attack. She will serve as the conference chair for the next two years.

She said that while the conference, taking place March 8-9, is primarily directed at the academic and legal fields, it’s “open to anyone who wants to learn about intersections of law and Jew-hatred. It’s for law faculty, other scholars, lawyers, policy people, Jewish community professionals, students and anyone else interested.”

In addition to the Cardozo School of Law, the conference is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law and Antisemitism, the Academic Engagement Network, the Center for Jewish Legal Studies and Stirk’s Center for Law and Antisemitism.

The conference will feature more than 15 panels addressing various topics, including the IHRA definition of antisemitism; conceptual and legal approaches to defining antisemitism; international law and human rights; political violence; freedom of speech; new initiatives to combat antisemitism; and historical perspectives on antisemitism and the law, among others, according to the conference website.

Kaufman said the conference is important because, although much of the Jewish community is focused on antisemitism on college campuses, many are overlooking the growing influence of anti-Zionism within academia and “the very significant legal ramifications it will have.”

She pointed to a pending bill in Vermont that seeks to clarify that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same; BDS legislation at local, state and federal levels; and the targeting of Jewish organizations, like Jewish National Fund, which recently lost its tax-exempt status in Canada.

“There are major consequences of anti-Zionist infiltration into academic spaces that then make their way to the law in the United States. We’re seeing it happen now,” Kaufman said. “We’re seeing what happens when you have a mayor that may not enforce the FACE Act [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances], for example, to protect Jews going to synagogue.”

The 2025 conference attracted more than 150 attendees. This year, Kaufman hopes to attract more.

“Last year’s conference at UCLA was like a secret conference. It was during spring break, there were no students on campus, even the professors didn’t know about it. That’s not how I’m approaching it. I’m broadcasting this widely. I want people to know. I want people to attend. This is an incredible opportunity to build this community of people dedicated to this area of legal scholarship. I’m really excited.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.