Presented By Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman
Antisemitism is a core facet of the historical and present functions, language, and ideologies of White Supremacy in North America and Europe, and yet, it remains a deeply confusing and too-often manipulated or glossed-over ideological force. Growing movements of young Jews, especially historically marginalized Jews, such as Jews of color, trans, and queer Jews, who must live with the daily realities of living an intersectional life, are rising up, publishing articles, leading workshops, and making noise about how antisemitism needs to be confronted and understood in the feminist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist moment. This workshop will give a personal, historical, and contemporary introduction to antisemitism, the intergenerational experiences of Jewish people within oppressive systems (as victims as well as participating perpetrators). The workshop will most importantly help its participants to get involved with or at least become aware of new, interventionist movements of Jews working for racial, economic, and decolonial justice in the United States, Europe, and Israel/Palestine.
The work of defining and understanding and working from antisemitism from the position of a broader coalition of peoples in solidarity is essential to the current moment, and it excites me and invite others into the knowledge and work I am actively accumulating in daily life. I imagine this workshop will inspire and empower its participants because the world around them, in a very local yet also necessarily global sense, will open up and request their participation and attention, which from my perspective, is always a fulfilling and generous experience, however daunting and grim.
About the Presenter:
Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman is a poet, curator, and visual and performance artist. Now living in the stolen lands of the Nooksack and Lummi people, he is working on a performance for film with Polish artist, Joanna Rajkowska, and serves as a curator and editor at Bruna Press + Archive. In 2019, he will enter doctoral studies at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.
Primary Audience: adults – general, educators, human rights or social justice professionals; youth – ages 13+