The Rise and spread of Antisemitism
‘The Jew’ as the historical and archetypal Other has been at the centre of the public and scholarly interest for millennia. Over the past two decades we have evidenced the rise and spread of Antisemitism in Europe. 22% of hate crimes committed in Europe in 2019 were directed against Jews, whereas their rate in the population is less than 1%.¹ 38 % of European Jews feel unsafe and consider emigration.²

Focusing on the Workplace
Our initiative wishes to shine a searchlight on the workplace as a situ of active and passive Antisemitism. Given how widespread and deep rooted Antisemitism is, surprisingly we know next to nothing about organisational Judeophobia, discrimination against Jews at work and institutional Antisemitism. We wish to explore how Antisemitism is similar to or different from other forms of discrimination and prejudice in the work context; and its consequences for work and management processes and procedures, for organisational culture and implications on personal and professional identity. Finally, we anticipate that  focusing on the oldest and longest hatred in the world will provide insights into generic issues pertaining to the dark side of management and organization.

The workplace offers unique opportunities in combatting Antisemitism since equal opportunities legislation and diversity management practice are common throughout the developed economies and increasingly among the developing economies too, providing a mandate for experimentation with relevant workplace initiatives.

We aim to:

• Research (conceptually, empirically and theoretically) Antisemitism in the context of the workplace

• Educate, in developing educational material for higher education students* and staff

• Policy development and support to combat Antisemitism in organisations and the workplace

We follow the widely adopted definition of Antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

* For the fifth consecutive year we ran an elective course at the WU titled Antisemitism at Work in Austria.

¹ EU-FRA. 2020. Overview of Antisemitic incidents recorded in the European Union 2009-2019

² EU-FRA. 2018. Experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. Second survey on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in the EU.