Monday, January 26, 2026 | 6:30 p.m.
Fritz Thyssen Stiftung | Apostelnkloster 13-15 | 50672 Cologne

In his talk, Professor Derek Penslar shows that diaspora Jews are feeling more vulnerable than at any time since the Second World War. They were traumatized by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, indifference or hostility following the attack, and a worldwide spike in antisemitism in response to Israel’s ensuing assault on Gaza. Universities have been of particular concern to Jewish students, parents, and alumni, accusing pro-Palestinian students and faculty of shutting down other points of view, disrupting campus life, and shaming or shunning Jewish students who refuse to disavow Israel.

Since the 1970s, governments throughout the Western world have made concerted efforts to combat antisemitism, but today they often appear unwilling or unable to protect their Jewish citizens. Institutions such as universities and the mass media have often been negligent or ineffective in responding to Israel-related hostility to diaspora Jews. The result is a fraying of the alliance between Jews, the state, and civil society (the so-called “vertical” and “horizontal” alliances) that provided Jews security in the post-1945 Western world. Derek Penslar will assess the process by which these alliances have crumbled and, by focusing on recent developments at Harvard and other leading American universities, propose how these alliances can be restored.

Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He holds a BA in History from Stanford University as well as an MA and a PhD in Modern European History from the University of California, Berkeley. In his research and teaching, Penslar takes a comparative and transnational approach to modern Jewish history and the history of Zionism. He is the author of Zionism and Technocracy: The Engineering of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1870-1918, Shylock’s Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe, Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective, Jews and the Military: A History, Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader, and Zionism: An Emotional State. Penslar has taught at Indiana University Bloomington, University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford, and has held visiting professorships at Columbia University, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). Penslar is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Academy for Jewish Research and an honorary fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford.

Dan Diner is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former Director of the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow, as well as Professor Emeritus of Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University. He has published numerous works on European, Middle Eastern, and Jewish history in the twentieth century and is the editor of the seven-volume Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture. Among his most important books are Das Jahrhundert verstehen. Eine universalhistorische Deutung (Understanding the Century: A Universal Historical Interpretation) and Ein anderer Krieg. Das jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg 1935–1942 (Another War: Jewish Palestine and the Second World War, 1935–1942)

REGISTER HERE!

Seats are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. We kindly ask you to only reserve the number of seats that you will definitely use. 

This event will be held in English and will be simultaneously translated to German.

This is the final edition of the Joint Visiting Speaker Series of the American Academy in Berlin, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and the AmerikaHaus NRW.

We kindly thank our partners for their cooperation: The American Academy in Berlin and The Fritz Thyssen Foundation.