London University To Open Institute For Study Of Anti-Semitism

Birckbeck College has announced it will open Britain's first institute devoted to the study of anti-Semitism. The institute, which will be housed in the Wiener Library, is being funded by a grant from the Pears Foundation, and will offer courses in the subject at graduate and undergraduate level, as well as seminars and courses for teachers and public figures. At a time when London is seeing a rise in anti-semitism and other forms of hate crime, with a renewed political appeal for far-right groups and an intelligensia more concerned with concocting inane boycotts than actually addressing real-world issues, the institute is welcome news for anybody who believes that, as Trevor Pears puts it, anti-semitism is a "societal illness" that "signals something is wrong or worsening in society."