(JTA) — Indiana University inaugurated an Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism.
Sources at the Bloomington university said the center that opened in mid-January is the second in the United States devoted to scholarly research on anti-Semitism, joining the Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism in New Haven, Conn.
Three major research institutes abroad studying the topic are the Stephen Roth Institute in Tel Aviv; the Vidal Sassoon International Center in Jerusalem; and the Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Technical University in Berlin.
The Indiana institute was founded and is directed by Alvin Rosenfeld, the university’s Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies. Initial funding will come from the endowment supporting that chair.
In the spring of 2011, the institute is set to sponsor a major international conference on the intellectual and ideological sources of contemporary anti-Semitism.
Rosenfeld told local reporters that there is "a compelling need for more organized research and teaching on contemporary anti-Semitism, including its similarities to and differences from anti-Semitism throughout history."
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