Shows
Don't Know Much About with Naya LekhtCold War Ghosts: The American Afterlife of Soviet Antizionism with Shaul KelnerAntizionism has been described as a hate movement, as a form of anti-Jewish bigotry, and, as I argue, the third era of Jew-hatred. But it can also be understood as one of the most powerful social movements of our time. Powerful not only in its reach, but in its ability to unify—cutting across political parties, generations, and national borders.So who better to explore antizionism as a social movement than my guest today, Professor Shaul Kelner of Vanderbilt University, a scholar of Jewish Studies and Sociology who specializes in contemporary Jewish life. His latest book, A Co...
2026-02-2446 min
The World in Front of MeThe Soviet UnionIn 1981, Bill Aron went to the Soviet Union to photograph Jewish people living behind the Iron Curtain. Many of these Jews were refuseniks who had applied to leave the USSR but were denied, and as a consequence were subject to harassment, lost their jobs, and in some cases, were even imprisoned. Bill traveled to Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Minsk and photographed the Jewish life that was persisting despite hostility from the government. In this episode, Ruth Andrew Ellenson interviews Bill about his experience with surveillance, bluffing his way through a meeting at Belarus Film Institute, and photographing...
2026-02-1022 min
The WreckageThe World in Front of Me: The Soviet UnionFrom the American Jewish Historical Society comes a new series, The World in Front of Me, hosted by Ruth Andrew Ellenson in conversation with her lifelong friend, renowned photographer of Jewish life, Bill Aron. In this incredible episode, Bill travels to the USSR to document the lives of Refuseniks -- and encounters some KGB opposition along the way. Featuring expert commentary from The Wreckage: Open Up the Gates co-writer Shaul Kelner. Please enjoy this very special episode, and head over to The World in Front of Me, now available on all podcast platforms, to hear more incredible s...
2026-02-1022 min
Call Me Back - with Dan SenorThe Story of American Antizionism - with Shaul KelnerIs Antizionism a Soviet invention for persecuting Jews?Dan is joined by Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Vanderbilt University, to examine the rarely-told history of Antizionism. Kelner explains how a framework designed to deny Jewish life under Soviet rule has resurfaced in the West long before October 7 and why many American Jews were unprepared for its scale and intensity.In this episode...08:00: The Soviet roots of Antizionism15:00: How Antizionism entered the West21:00 Marxism and ideological monoculture in American universities28:00 Why American Jews are...
2026-01-2940 min
Identity/CrisisAntizionism and the American Left’s Jewish Problem — with Shaul KelnerAntizionism has become a badge of belonging—and a tool of exclusion. On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer speaks with Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, about how anti-Zionism operates not only as an argument but as a movement culture—shaping who belongs on the American left and what counts as “moral.” Together, they explore what it would mean to respond with clarity without collapsing every critique of Israel into the same category.
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2026-01-2749 min
Boundless Insights - with Aviva KlompasAmerican Antizionism - with Shaul KelnerSociologist and Jewish studies scholar Dr. Shaul Kelner joins Dr. Rachel Fish to examine the rise of antizionism as a distinctly American political and social movement. Kelner argues that contemporary antizionism is less an intellectual critique of Zionism than a political mass movement defined by praxis: the othering and exclusion of Jews through social and institutional action. Their conversation explores why debates over whether antizionism equals antisemitism often obscure more than they clarify, the distinction between 'anti-Zionism' and 'antizionism', how ambiguity about end goals of the pro-Palestine movement enables broad coalition-building, why higher education became especially fertile g...
2025-12-2940 min
The WreckageThe Dissolution: Bonus EpisodeTaped live in front of a limited studio audience at Sound Lounge in NYC, our series finale welcomes back author and critic Julie Salamon to host special guests Gal Beckerman, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of "When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry," Shaul Kelner, professor of of Jewish Studies and sociology at Vanderbilt University and author of "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews," and Gemma R. Birnbaum, executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society and creator/producer of The Wreckage.
2025-12-1652 min
The WreckageThe TravelersIn addition to advocacy at home, including through efforts like the twinning program, a number of activists working on behalf of Soviet Jewry traveled to the USSR, arranging meetings with Jews living behind the Iron Curtain in an effort to provide support and gain access to information to bring back to the United States. The journey was dangerous, and entailed a great deal of risk as the KGB enacted tighter and tighter restrictions on foreign visitors, and looked at each traveler with intense suspicion. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Dr. Shaul Kelner, author of A Cold War...
2025-11-1124 min
New Books in Eastern European StudiesShaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush yearsWhat do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.The plight of Jews i...
2025-11-0236 min
New Books in Jewish StudiesShaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush yearsWhat do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.The plight of Jews i...
2025-11-0236 min
New Books in American StudiesShaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush yearsWhat do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.The plight of Jews i...
2025-11-0236 min
Van Leer Institute Series on IdeasShaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush yearsWhat do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.The plight of Jews i...
2025-11-0236 min
From the Square: An NYU Press PodcastShaul Kelner, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized To Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2025)Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush yearsWhat do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.The plight of Jews i...
2025-11-0236 min
The WreckageThe CoalitionsThe American movement for Soviet Jewry was composed of a number of organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and ranging from grassroots organizations to larger, internationally established nonprofits. Established Jewish organizations dedicated significant staff time and effort to the cause, and worked to coordinate with both regional and national grassroots organizations that quickly became instrumental in the fight for freedom. While tensions over methods and priorities would arise, coalition-building between the various organizations was critical to saving hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jewish lives. Narrated by Rebecca Naomi Jones and featuring Dr. Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish Studies and sociology...
2025-10-2825 min
Call Me Back - with Dan SenorThe Paradox of Passover 2025 - with Rachel Goldberg PolinWatch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcastTo contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenorDan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenorArk Media on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkmediaorgUpcoming Event Notice: Dan Senor will be delivering this year’s State of World Jewry Address at the 92nd Street Y (92NY) on Tuesday May 13 at 7:30 pm: https://www.92ny.org/event/the-state-of-world-jewry-addressToday’s episode: Jews...
2025-04-071h 04
SAPIR ConversationsS15E3: “Academia’s Palestine Exception” with Shaul Kelner
Critical theory – the study of the ways “oppression gets produced and reproduced within and across societies” – is the dominant method of inquiry in many areas of higher education, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Yet many scholars resist applying it honestly to the study of the Jewish people and Zionism. Were they to do so, argues Vanderbilt professor Shaul Kelner, they might find they had entirely misunderstood these categories and the place of Jews in the oppressor/oppressed dynamic.
On Tuesday, January 7, Professor Kelner joined SAPIR Associate Editor Felicia Herman to unpack his essay, “Turning Cr...
2025-01-0858 min
Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 28: How American Activists Helped Free Soviet Jews | Professor Shaul KelnerIn his recent book, Shaul Kelner recounts the compelling stories of heroism that helped to free Soviet Jews. In this session, he discusses how this activism reached Jewish educational spaces — through bar and bat mitzvah twinning, school field trips to rallies, summer camp programming, and much more — and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan-Bush years.Originally recorded: 9/26/24At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the live...
2024-11-1128 min
Deep Dish ConversationsDr. Shaul Kelner, "Whiteness Is Not an Identity That I Embrace"Dr. Shaul Kelner unpacks his own whiteness as a Jew and what that means in the U.S. | Deep Dish Convos Donate and Support Community Power Building Content: https://dishdishconvos.captivate.fm/supportWatch Full Video Interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JeromeMooreCommunityChangersWebsite: https://www.deepdishconversations.com/Follow On:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deepdishconvoshttps://www.instagram.com/deepdishconvos/https://twitter.com/Deepdishconvos
2023-10-1701 minDeep Dish ConversationsDr. Shaul Kelner, "Whiteness Is Not an Identity That I Embrace"Dr. Shaul Kelner unpacks his own whiteness as a Jew and what that means in the U.S. | Deep Dish Convos Donate and Support Community Power Building Content: https://dishdishconvos.captivate.fm/supportWatch Full Video Interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JeromeMooreCommunityChangersWebsite: https://www.deepdishconversations.com/Follow On:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deepdishconvoshttps://www.instagram.com/deepdishconvos/https://twitter.com/Deepdishconvos
2023-10-1701 min
Deep Dish ConversationsBlack-Jewish Relations with Dr. Meyer & Dr. KelnerNPT producer & Host Jerome Moore talks with Dr. Shaul Kelner and Dr. Adam Meyer, professors of Jewish studies. This conversation unpacks how social, religious and economic structures have made it challenging for Blacks and Jews to connect in the wake of our country’s racial reckoning and rising anti-Semitism.Watch full interview on Youtube: https://youtu.be/IAKfZy5d8G0 A Slice of the Community Exclusively on Nashville Public Television.Donate and Support Community Power Building Content: https://dishdishconvos.captivate.fm/supportWatch Full Video Interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com...
2023-09-2738 minDeep Dish ConversationsBlack-Jewish Relations with Dr. Meyer & Dr. KelnerNPT producer & Host Jerome Moore talks with Dr. Shaul Kelner and Dr. Adam Meyer, professors of Jewish studies. This conversation unpacks how social, religious and economic structures have made it challenging for Blacks and Jews to connect in the wake of our country’s racial reckoning and rising anti-Semitism.Watch full interview on Youtube: https://youtu.be/IAKfZy5d8G0 A Slice of the Community Exclusively on Nashville Public Television.Donate and Support Community Power Building Content: https://dishdishconvos.captivate.fm/supportWatch Full Video Interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com...
2023-09-2738 min
Frankely Judaic: Explorations in Jewish StudiesShaul Kelner, "The Soviet Jewry Movement"2015-16 Frankel Institute Secularization/Sacralization
Fellow, Shaul Kelner
Project Title: Strategic Sacralization in American Jewish Politics: The Contradictions of Cultural Mobilization in the American Soviet Jewry Movement
2016-03-0713 min