New Cornell Law School course teaches how to fight antisemitism in the courts

Read the full story by Gabby Deutch for Jewish Insider.

Professor Menachem Rosensaft, General Counsel Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and legal expert on genocide, will begin teaching a new course, "Antisemitism in the Courts and in Jurisprudence," in January at Cornell Law School. Rosensaft’s course will be a survey of the different ways antisemitism has manifested in modern history, and how it’s been handled in the courts.

“My hope is that this course will be a prototype that other institutions can use, and hopefully have the fight against antisemitism, and countering antisemitism, become a serious academic intellectual exercise,” Rosensaft said.

Rosensaft’s course will require students to read a mix of history papers, legal casebooks and news articles. He hopes that the course, a serious legal study of the issue, will “provide a safe space for students to get beyond the sound bites and get beyond the slogan.”

Jens David Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell Law School, echoed Rosensaft in a statement to JI.

“In light of recent events across the world and across the country, including a disturbing wave of antisemitism, I thought that a course dealing with antisemitism and the law would make an important contribution to our curriculum,” Ohlin said. “From my perspective, it is essential to study and respond to the challenge of antisemitism with our greatest intellectual resources.”