Zionism, US
Empire, Racial State

Part of Community Conversations, the discussion features scholar and activist Emmaia Gelman on Zionism as a “movement from above”—an elite project of racial state-making aligned with U.S. imperialism. Drawing on her research into the Anti-Defamation League, Gelman examines how race, class, and state power flow through institutions that weaponize civil rights discourse and tradition. Connor O'Foley also joins the conversation. The event is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. Emmaia Gelman is the author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State and co-editor of The Anti-Defamation League: A Critical Reader. She is founding director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, co-chair of the American Studies Association Caucus on Academic and Community Activism, co-host of the podcast Unpacking Zionism, and a longtime activist in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Boston Review, Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, Jadaliyya, Journal for the Critical Study of Zionism, Jewish Currents, Truthout, Mondoweiss, and others. RSVP is offered through the CCNY conversations page.