Three interconnected dimensions remain essential to understanding the cultural and social repertoire of contemporary antisemitism. The first is the history of antisemitism as a central cultural and social current in modern Western history, including Denmark.

The second dimension relates to the civil sphere, referring to the coding of cultural and social insides and outsides, which is tied to perceptions of cultural power. Inevitably, in the civil sphere, lay theories of how things are connected play a role in the social fabric, but these can turn into conspiracy theories, particularly in situations of conflict.

The third dimension of antisemitism refers to the reality of Jewish experiences of precarity. In major cities, at universities, and in public debate, many Jews feel exposed, faced with aggressive demands to take a stand against Zionism or Israel. Taking Jewish experiences seriously must be a key demand for research on contemporary antisemitism, both specifically and theoretically.

The project comprises three interconnected work packages, each consisting of several subprojects.

Work package 1: Antisemitic Attitudes - Histories and Mechanisms

The work package brings together four complementary projects examining antisemitic attitudes from historical, sociological, political, and cultural perspectives.

• Subproject A: Surveying Antisemitic Attitudes in Denmark: A Comparative and In-Depth Study of Majority and Muslim-Minority Populations (PhD project, TORS-SAXO/UCPH)
• Subproject B: Antisemitic Visuals – Enduring Symbols from Punch to Instagram (PI, Associate Professor Sofie Lene Bak, SAXO/UCPH)
• Subproject C: The Antisemitic Legacy of the Radical Right (Associate Professor Claus Bundgård Christensen, IKH/RUC)
• Subproject D: Debating the Jews: A Political History of Jews in Denmark, 1849–2025 (Associate Professor Brian Arly Jacobsen, TORS/UCPH).

Work package 2: Antizionism and Antisemitism 

The work package comprises three projects examining the relationship between antizionism and antisemitism in discourse and in practice.

• Subproject E: Antizionism on the Radical Left (co-PI, Professor Jakob Egholm Feldt, IKH/RUC)
• Subproject F: From the River to the Sea: Palestine Activism post Oct. 7th (Sofie Lene Bak and Jakob Egholm Feldt)
• Subproject G: Antizionist Conspiracy Theories post Oct. 7 (Postdoc, IKH/RUC, open call).

Work package 3: Jewish experiences 

The work package includes two complementary subprojects examining contemporary experiences of antisemitism among Danish Jews.

• Subproject H: Antisemitism and “Appropriate” Jewishness in Everyday Life (Postdoc, SAXO/KU-IMT/RUC)
• Subproject I: Hostile city? Anti-Israel hostility and Jewish access to public space in Copenhagen (Associate Professor Tatiana Fogelman, IMT/RUC)

• Jeffrey C. Alexander, Professor of Cultural Sociology, Yale University
• Lars M. Andersson, Associate Professor, Uppsala Universitet 
• Thomas Brudholm, Associate Professor, Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
• Bryan Cheyette, Professor of English Literature, University of Reading
• Birgitte Schepelern Johansen, Associate Professor, Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
• Keith Kahn-Harris, Senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College and senior research fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, London
• Vibeke Moe, Senior researcher, HL-centeret
• Henrik Rosengren, Associate Professor, Director of NORAH (North European Center for Research on Antisemitism and the Holocaust), Lund university
• Elisabeth Becker Topkara, Freigeist Fellow, The Max Weber Institute for Sociology, Heidelberg University
• Claudia Welz, Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, Aarhus University
• Maja Gildin Zuckerman, Senior researcher, Copenhagen Business School