PRA Presents

The final episode of Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism explores how to understand and fight antisemitism as progressives—and as part of a wider struggle for justice. Centrist and right-wing political forces frequently frame antisemitism as integral to social justice movements, suggesting both that there is no place for Jews on the Left, and also that other communities’ liberation struggles pose an active threat to Jewish communities around the world.

Tackling these false framings heads-on, author and activist Shanice McBean and journalist Rachel Shabi, both offering perspectives from the U.K., explain how charges of antisemitism are so frequently used to undermine progressive movements while examining how the Right staked its claim to be the only genuine defender of Jewish communities. They unpack how the fight against antisemitism became divorced from other liberation struggles and subsequently how confronting it has become such a fraught issue. Finally, Rachel and Shanice emphasize the importance of reintegrating the issue into wider Left politics, setting out how to truly fight antisemitism as progressives. 

Shanice Octavia McBean is a co-author of Abolition Revolution, Pluto Press’s award-winning (won the 2024 Bread and Roses Award and was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize in 2023) intervention on race, class and policing in the U.K. She is a Black feminist activist raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, and is an organizer with Black-Jewish Alliance.

Rachel Shabi is an award-winning journalist who has reported extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now based in the U.K., she covers current affairs, with her work appearing across international publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, the London Times, The Nation and the New York Review of Books. A regular broadcast commentator, Rachel’s first book, Not the Enemy - Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands received the Us National Jewish Book award. Her latest book is Off White: The Truth About Antisemitism.

Resources

• Shanice McBean, ‘The Despised Blood of the Negro Flows Freely in the Veins of Jews,” On Revolution, March 23, 2025. 
• Shabi, Rachel. Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism. London: Oneworld Publications, 2024.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership.

The penultimate episode of Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism looks at the interwoven, and often tangled, relationship between fighting antisemitism and fighting racism. Antisemitism and anti-Blackness are deeply connected forms of oppression that often work together to reinforce structural inequities under racial capitalism. And yet, the Right has often played these forms of oppression off one another as a means of stymying burgeoning anti-racist alliances, dividing Black and Jewish communities in order to uphold White supremacy. 

Our two guests on this episode, organizer and writer Leo Ferguson and researcher Steven Gardiner, are deeply versed in efforts to connect the fights against antisemitism and racism, while resisting attempts to derail social justice movements. From tensions in civil rights-era New York, to Black Lives Matter, to ongoing attempts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the U.S., Leo and Steven walk us through the intertwined history of struggles against racism and antisemitism, while exploring how politics surrounding Israel-Palestine have variously shaped and challenged these movements.

Leo Ferguson is a lifelong New Yorker with a deep commitment to social justice, and a background in non-profit communications. He has developed anti-oppression trainings for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and has led affinity groups and caucuses exploring internalized anti-Jewish oppression, race and racism, patriarchy and heteronormativity. He is the founder of JFREJ's Jews of Color caucus and a lead author of JFREJ’s influential resource, Understanding Antisemitism. He is a graduate of the Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship, Bend The Arc’s Selah Leadership Program, JOIN for Justice’s “Don’t Kvetch, Organize!” course, and Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity. Leo is a proud Jew of Color and a musician.

Steven Gardiner is Principal Research Advisor for Political Research Associates. He started researching and writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism in the early 1990s. Working for the Portland, Oregon-based Coalition for Human Dignity (CHD), he did some of the first analyses of the Religious Right in the Northwest and his work supported the years-long fight against anti-LGBTQ ballot measures by the Oregon Citizens Alliance. As editor of CHD’s newsletter, “The Dignity Report,” and principal writer and analyst on a series of articles and reports he helped to shape understanding and arm the resistance to antisemitism, Holocaust denial, the Patriot and militia movements, anti-immigrant xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ politics. In 2004 he received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Cornell University for his work on military masculinity and conscientious objection in the German military. Since then he has continued to write and has taught at several universities.

Resources

• JFREJ. 2017. “Understanding Antisemitism: An Offering to Our Movement.” 
• Ward, Eric. 2017. “Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism.” The Public Eye Summer 2017. 

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership. 

This episode takes a deep dive into the role of antisemitism in the far-right ecosystem, focusing in particular on the United States and Germany. Whether it’s Elon Musk performing a straight-armed salute during Trump’s inauguration celebrations before going on to champion Germany’s far-right AfD party, or the widespread “great replacement” conspiracy theory that claims Jews are leading an effort to inundate majority-White Christian societies in the West with migrants, antisemitism is frequently at the heart of global far-right movements that are increasingly interconnected.

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, a professor of German-Jewish history and antisemitism, and Elad Nehorai, a writer and activist, share their learnings about how antisemitism operates on the Far Right, where it interacts with other forms of far-right bigotry, and how some of these ideas are going mainstream.

Elad Nehorai is a progressive thinker, writer, and activist. Learning from his time in the Hasidic community and studying extremism, he has become an outspoken pro-democracy voice. Since October 7, he has drawn on his Israeli background to inform his work building coalitions among those who share a vision of solidarity for the future. Elad's writing focuses on extremism, antisemitism, marketing, and how the three intersect. You can find Elad’s writing on MSNBC.com, the Daily Beast, Huffpost, the Forward, Haaretz, and beyond.

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Professor for German-Jewish History and Antisemitism, Director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin; 2001-2011 Director of the Institute for German-Jewish history in Hamburg; since 2011 Director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism, since 2012 Co- Director of the Selma-Stern-Center for Jewish Studies, both in in Berlin, and since 2020 Director of the Berlin branch of the Center for Research on Social Cohesion. Fields of research: Jewish, German and Spanish History, Gender History. Recent publications: Unerwünscht. Die westdeutsche Demokratie und die NS-Verfolgten, Frankfurt a.M. 2025; Gender History of German Jews, New York 2024; Four Years After: Antisemitism and Racism in Trump’s America (ed. with N. and M. Zadoff, H. Paul), Munich 2020; Gender and the Politics of Anti-Semitism, in: American Historical Review 123 (2018), pp. 1210–1222.

Resources

• Diaspora Alliance. “The Global Far Right and Israel.” 2023.
• Lorber, Ben. 2023. “Conspiracy at the Core: Five Years After Tree of Life, Antisemitism Continues to Animate the MAGA Movement” Political Research Associates.
• Nehorai, Elad. “Fascists Are Using Antisemitic Tropes to Target Other Groups.” 2025.
• Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie. “The Dark Side of Modernity? Rethinking Antisemitism and Sexuality.” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 73 (Spring 2024): 99–122.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership.

Political commentators and rights advocates Lara Friedman and Yousef Munayyer discuss ongoing efforts to suppress criticism of the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinians under the guise of fighting antisemitism—efforts which are fueling authoritarianism and pushing shared safety further from grasp.

Lara and Yousef lay out how the Israeli government and its supporters have championed a contentious definition of antisemitism in order to dismiss criticism of Israel and conflate said criticism with prejudice against Jews. They also explain how the increasingly fraught conversation about antisemitism is doing little to actually make Jews safer—and is being exploited to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, annexation of the West Bank, and expansionist war across the region.

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). She is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and a preeminent subject-matter expert with respect to anti-Palestinian legislation (state and federal) and “lawfare,” including as these connect to the weaponization and instrumentalization of the definition of, and concerns about, antisemitism. Lara’s research on lawfare and antisemitism-related political initiatives—all of which she makes available to the public—is widely cited and widely recognized as the authoritative data in the field. Previously Lara served as a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, with diplomatic postings in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. She also served previously as the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now. Lara holds a B.A. from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.

Yousef Munayyer is Head of Palestine/Israel Program and Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC. He also serves as a member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Palestine Studies and was previously Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Some of his published articles can be found in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Boston Globe, Foreign Policy, Journal of Palestine Studies, Middle East Policy, and others. Dr. Munayyer holds a PhD in International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of Maryland.

Resources

• Diaspora Alliance. “Arguments Against the IHRA Definition.” Diaspora Alliance. 2023. 
• Lorber, Ben. 2024. “The New Antisemitism and Neo-McCarthyism” Political Research Associates. 
• The Foundation for Middle East Peace. “Tracking Lawfare.”
• Munayyer, Yousef. “Finally, the Dam Shoring Up Support for Israel Seems to Be Breaking.” The New Republic, July 31, 2025. 
• Munayyer, Yousef. “Spaces Beyond Borders: Israel’s Transnational Repression Network.” In Suppressing Dissent: Shrinking Civic Space, Transnational Repression and Palestine–Israel, edited by Zaha Hassan and H. A. Hellyer. 2024.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership. 

Guest host Natasha Roth-Rowland talks to scholars Valentina Pisanty and Jelena Subotić about the anatomy and function of conspiracy theories and the role of antisemitism within them. How do conspiracy theories come about? Why do they so often revolve around false narratives regarding Jewish people, power, and control? How are they used to discredit movements for justice? And what role do the politics of Holocaust memory play? By taking a look at the history of antisemitic conspiracy theories and examining their role in our contemporary politics, Jelena and Valentina teach us to recognize them, how to understand them, and how we might challenge them.

Natasha Roth-Rowland is director of research and analysis at Diaspora Alliance. She has a PhD in History from the University of Virginia, where she wrote her dissertation on the Israeli- and American-Jewish far right, and is a former editor at +972 Magazine. She lives in New York with her wife and daughter.

Valentina Pisanty teaches Semiotics at the University of Bergamo. She has published articles and essays on Holocaust denial, Fascist racism, political discourse analysis, narratology, humour, interpretive semiotics, the rhetoric of memory-making and the semiotics of testimony. Her books include: Antisemita, una parola in ostaggio (Bompiani, 2025), The Guardians of Memory and the Return of the Xenophobic Right, Primo Levi Editions, 2021); Abusi di memoria: negare, banalizzare, sacralizzare la Shoah (Bruno Mondadori, 2012); La Difesa della Razza: antologia 1938-1942 (Bompiani, 2006); Semiotica e interpretazione (with Roberto Pellerey, Bompiani, 2004); L'irritante questione delle camere a gas: logica del negazionismo (Bompiani 1998, new edition 2014).

Jelena Subotić is Distinguished University Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She is the award-winning author of three books: Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism (2019), Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans (2009) and The Art of Status: Looted Treasures and the Global Politics of Restitution (2025), as well as a co-editor of Politics, Violence Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (2023).

Resources

• Eco, Umberto. The Prague Cemetery. Translated by Richard Dixon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.
• Pisanty, Valentina. The Guardians of Memory and the Return of the Xenophobic Right. Translated by Alastair McEwen. New York: Centro Primo Levi New York, 2020.
• Subotić, Jelena. Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance After Communism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. This episode was guest hosted by Natasha Roth-Rowland. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership.

In this first episode of Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism, co-hosts Shoshana Brown and Ben Lorber share how they came to be working on the issues of antisemitism and its weaponization. They dive into discussing antisemitism itself—its history, how it looks today, how to understand it, and why the fight over defining it has become a primary means of targeting Palestinians and their allies while driving authoritarian policies and culture wars.

Kohenet Shoshana A Brown, LMSW (they/she) is a healer, educator, and organizer. They are the Director of Pedagogy and Training for Diaspora Alliance. As an abolition organizer they are a cofounder of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective and a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice where they host Beyond The Pale, a radio show on WBAI 99.5FM. Shoshana has expertise in education, somatic healing, union organizing, and Restorative Justice Practices. They are a Black-mixed race Jewish femme who generates liberation and full selfhood in the essence of love. 

Ben Lorber works as a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates, focusing on White Christian nationalism, antisemitism and Christian Zionism. Lorber has worked as a journalist, organizer and movement-builder for over a decade. He has published on right-wing social movements, Israel/Palestine, Jewish culture and other topics at a variety of outlets, and is the co-author of the book Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

Resources

• Diaspora Alliance. 2024. “Antisemitism Explained.”
• Diaspora Alliance. 2023. “The Global Far Right and Israel.”
• Lorber, Ben. 2024. “The New Antisemitism and Neo-McCarthyism” Political Research Associates. 
• Lorber, Ben. 2023. “Conspiracy at the Core: Five Years After Tree of Life, Antisemitism Continues to Animate the MAGA Movement” Political Research Associates.
• Burley, Shane and Ben Lorber. 2024. Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism. Melville House.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership.  

Listeners of The Insurgence: Sheriffs, we're thrilled to announce an exciting change to this feed. We’re renaming it “PRA Presents” and it will be a home for all of PRA’s future miniseries. 

Each miniseries is created with a close research or production partner, and together we dive deep into the nuances of right-wing strategies and rising authoritarianism— and explore strategies for resistance.

Our brand new six-part miniseries, Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism, in partnership with Diaspora Alliance, is about to drop. The series explores how to understand antisemitism and its weaponization in order to fight for collective liberation. Amidst rising authoritarianism and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, this series offers a rigorous analysis of how authoritarians uses antisemitism and its weaponization as a tool to repress progressive movements and to dismantle democracy itself.

Subscribe now to catch all six episodes when they drop. Thanks for listening!

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism, a new podcast miniseries brought to you by Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance, explores how to understand antisemitism and its weaponization and to fight for collective liberation. Amidst rising authoritarianism and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the stakes are higher than ever.

Launching September 3, wherever you get your podcasts.

How are sheriffs undermining elections? Since 2022, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) has teamed up with True the Vote, a multi million-dollar “Stop the Steal” group, to position sheriffs as key players in election denial. This episode explores how these sheriffs’ actions have escalated voter intimidation and suppression, with plans to deputize armed citizens and form “posses” to disrupt election processes and intimidate officials. We reveal how this movement both upholds systemic White supremacy and pushes for a new vision—one that some describe as a modern confederacy. As these alliances converge heading into 2024, what does it mean for the future of democracy?

Featured in this episode:

• Jessica Pishko, independent journalist, lawyer, and author of The Highest Law in The Land: How The Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy
• Mary McCord, Executive Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP)
• Devin Burghardt, President and Executive Director of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR)

Further Reading:

• CSPOA is preparing to disrupt elections in the lead up to 2024.
• Plans to target election officials in Florida have surfaced in particular.
• The Claremont Institute’s Sheriff Fellowship discloses the MAGA think tank’s strategy.
• Read The Highest Law in The Land: How The Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.

The Insurgence: Sheriffs is created and hosted by Cloee Cooper. This episode was co-written by Cooper and Camilo Garzón. Field recording, research, and investigative reporting for this series by Cloee Cooper. Audio production and audio editing for this series by Laura Ubaté and Camilo Garzón. Sound design, engineering, and mix for this series by Daniel Murcia and Juan David Sarmiento. Story editing, story development, and consulting production by Cuentero Productions. All under their client-facing trademark, Cuentero Transeúnte Productions. Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann was our production assistant and creative consultant, and provided fact-checking for the series. Additional production assistance by Rene Martin. Original score is by Aakash Desai. The Insurgence: Sheriffs is executive produced by Cloee Cooper for Political Research Associates and by Camilo Garzón for Cuentero Productions.

Thanks to Tony Philips, Jackson Allers, Yahyah Johnson, Ariel Cooper, and Preeti Shekar for their production consultation and for believing in this series. Thanks to Koki Mendis, Becca, and Jasper Bernes for helping me see it through. Thanks to Gabriel Joffe for their creative and design input over so many years. And to Christina Voight and the Soros Justice Fellowship for giving me the time and support to make it happen. And a very special thanks to Javier Briones for always bringing people, stories, and projects like this all together.

Sheriffs wield immense power over U.S. county jails, controlling the lives of a third of the nation's incarcerated population in addition to acting as enforcers of immigration law. But what happens when that power goes unchecked? When sheriffs ignore a pandemic’s threat, mismanage facilities, or oversee jails where dozens die from medical neglect?

In this episode, investigative journalists Cloee Cooper and Raina Lipsitz dive into the chilling story of upstate New York’s Constitutional Sheriff Tim Howard. They reveal how Howard—a sheriff with ties to far-right groups like the CSPOA and Oath Keepers—escaped accountability for 17 years. Despite investigations into inhumane conditions, medical neglect, and allegations of sexual misconduct by deputies, Howard used his so-called “constitutional” authority to sidestep responsibility. With few structural accountability measures beyond local elections, sheriffs operate with limited oversight—leading to unchecked power and ongoing neglect and violence in America’s jails.

Featured in this episode:

• Raina Lipsitz, journalist and author of The Rise of the New Left
• Monica Lynch, veteran and activist based in Buffalo, NY
• Nan Haynes, Professor Emerita at the University at Buffalo School of Law and former environmental, occupational, and civil rights lawyer.
• April Baskin, Chairwoman of the Erie County Legislature/Representative County District 2
• Geoff Kelly, author at The Investigative Post
• Tim Howard, former Erie County Sheriff and Town Supervisor of Wales, NY

Further Reading:

• Check out an in-depth look into why people keep dying in the Erie County jail by Raina Lipsitz, based on a joint investigation with Cloee Cooper.
• Explore why the former Erie County Sheriff thinks he’s above the law in the context of the rise of the far-right in upstate New York.
• Read about the surprising powers of sheriff departments in this New York Times opinion piece by Maurice Chammah.
• Learn about the dire consequences of the trend of sheriffs refusing to enforce COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown mandates at the county level.

The Insurgence: Sheriffs is created and hosted by PRA research director, Cloee Cooper. This episode was co-written by Cloee Cooper and Camilo Garzón. Audio production, audio editing, sound design, sound engineering, sound mix, story editing, story development, and consulting production by Cuentero Productions. All under their client-facing trademark, Cuentero Transeúnte Productions™. Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann provided production assistance and creative consulting. Additional production assistance was performed by René Martin. Raina Lipsitz contributed reporting. Interviews conducted for this episode by Cooper and Lipsitz were also featured in an investigation published by the New Republic in March, 2023. Original score is by Aakash Desai. The Insurgence: Sheriffs is executive produced by Political Research Associates (PRA) and Cuentero Productions.