Scholars and authors in multiple sessions at the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature joint conferences, held in Boston November 22–25, focused on a modern scourge with ancient roots—antisemitism—and the role of the academics in addressing it.
Antisemitic voices are “no longer on the fringes” of American culture that students are exposed to, said panelist Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski at a session discussing a new book, Judeophobia and the New Testament: Texts and Contexts (Eerdmans, out now), in which 35 authors devote chapters to each of the 27 books of the New Testament plus four extra-canonical texts.
“It’s designed for teaching, to unpack some of the assumptions about antisemitism and the locations of students in these issues,” says Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. His own book, Resisting Anti-Judaism: Practices of Christian Solidarity will be released by Fortress in October 2026.
“These issues are not hypothetical, says Eric Vanden Eykel, associate professor of religion at Ferrum College and one of three editors of Judeophobia and the New Testament. “It’s not enough to train students to recognize toxic ideas and patterns—we need to give them real tools.”
In spring 2027, Eerdmans will publish a second volume, Avoiding Antisemitism: A Guide for Christians, a “guide for clergy about how not to traffic in antisemitism in teaching and preaching at their local church,” says Eerdmans executive editor Trevor Thompson.
It takes “care, thought, and conversation” to produce meaningful books on antisemitism at a time when debates about geopolitics in the Middle East are roiling academic and religious discourse, says Thompson.
“How do you engage foreign policy of the United States and a foreign nation that is tied to an ethnic group, critically or in praise—and if critically, without appearing to be, in this case, antisemitic? We want to facilitate that with voices we trust, voices we think others should trust,” he says.
Rachel Slutsky, assistant professor of Jewish studies and Jewish-Christian relations in Antiquity at Seton Hall University, appreciated the variety of panels, saying the Judeophobia panel was “a great opportunity to show that you can have focused conversation about antisemitism without needing to constantly add an addendum like, ‘there are also political complications in the Middle East.’ ”
Geopolitics meets religion
Still, Middle East geopolitics, religion, and history were touched on at the conference. Around 100 people packed the room for a panel, “Oct. 7 and the Question of Genocide in Gaza,” to discuss the work of the Jewish Israeli genocide scholar Omer Bartov of Brown University. Bartov, who argued in July 2025 in the New York Times that the Israeli Defense Forces were committing genocide in Gaza, did not attend the conference. Benjamin Sax, author of the forthcoming Is Dialogue Possible? The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Question of Antisemitism (Bloomsbury, 2026), presided over the session.
Sax, the Jewish scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, said “participants maintained a good decorum and had some healthy disagreement” about the intersection of antisemitism and opposition to Israel’s policies. “Of course [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] is a political conflict and it has a political history,” said Sax. “But how religion informs that is equally important, and understanding how religion operates can lend itself to better questions and answers.”
At a session looking at the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the groundbreaking Vatican II declaration on the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions, panelist Peter Thuesen, professor of religious studies at Indiana University Indianapolis, pointed to an example of Catholic reckoning with antisemitism.
Thuesen presented a paper drawing from a book he is working on about the time when Boston’s Richard Cardinal Cushing famously spoke out against Father Leonard Feeney, who preached antisemitic messages like his desire to rid the city of “Jew-dogs,” among others, on Boston Common in the 1940s. “Cushing’s experience in that controversy was one of the reasons he was so concerned about the Church’s attitude toward the Jewish people,” Thuesen said, noting that decades later, Cushing helped develop Nostra Aetate.
Kenneth Hanson, in an SBL session discussing a book he coauthored, Jewish Studies and the Gospel of John (Cambridge Scholars, out now), called for both Jewish and Christian scholars to read critically when they study the Gospel of John, where some people see roots of Christian antisemitism in the Gospel book's portrayal of "the Jews."
“If we could understand the Jewishness of Jesus without the antisemitism, we would go a long way toward building interreligious understanding,” said Hanson. "But we have to be willing to understand how rhetoric can have consequences in flesh and blood. In so doing, we participate in the moral labor of memory and perhaps open the door to a more responsible future.”
