Weaponizing Anti-Semitism in U.S. Universities and Society

Monday March 25, 7-8pm

We’re living in a McCarthyite era where people who criticize or question the government of Israel or its assault on Gaza are being accused of anti-semitism, and some have even been fired. In October, world-renowned Professor Marshall Ganz, Instructor of Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, learned that he was being investigated on charges of anti-semitism based on a complaint from some of his Israeli students who defined their project as wanting to organize Israelis “building on a shared ethos of Israel as a liberal-Jewish democracy.” Prof. Ganz will talk about his experience and how anti-semitism is being weaponized across universities and U.S. society.

masspeace.us/marshall-ganz-lecture

BIO

Professor Marshall Ganz is the Rita Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at the Kennedy School of Government. He grew up in Bakersfield, California where his father was a Rabbi and his mother, a teacher. After starting his studies at Harvard in 1960, Mr. Ganz left a year before graduating to volunteer with the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project. He became an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and in the fall of 1965 joined Cesar Chavez in his effort to unionize California farm workers, which he did for 16 years, during which time he became the Director of Organizing. In 1991, Prof. Ganz returned to Harvard College after a 28-year “leave of absence” and completed his BA in history and government. He received an MPA by the Kennedy School in 1993 and completed his PhD in sociology in 2000.  In 2007-8, Ganz was instrumental in the design of the grassroots organization for the 2008 “Obama for President” campaign. Prof. Ganz coaches, trains, and advises social, civic, educational, health care, and political groups on organizing, training, and leadership development around the world.

masspeace.us/marshall-ganz-lecture