Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Introduction

Special Sessions at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association (ASA) are, by nature, noteworthy because they address sociological issues of importance to the discipline or beyond, focusing on new areas of sociological work and/or timely topics. Although the content of these sessions is not always publication worthy, publication may be warranted when the session breaks new ground and addresses sociological research relevant to urgent public concerns. The Special Session on “The Resurgence of Antisemitism in the 21st Century,” co-organized by Chad Alan Goldberg (University of Wisconsin–Madison/Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Arnold Dashefsky (University of Connecticut) and held at the 2025 ASA meeting in Chicago, meets these criteria. The session marks a watershed for the discipline: It is the first known ASA annual meeting session devoted entirely to antisemitism in the digital program record (2003 to present). Earlier ASA meetings featured isolated papers but not a session organized around antisemitism as a distinct sociological problem, which underscores the exceptional character and archival value of this event.

To be sure, antisemitism was not always a neglected topic in American sociology. In fact, pioneering works published in the twentieth century helped lay the foundation for addressing antisemitism in a critical, social-scientific manner (e.g., Adorno et al. 1950; Glock and Stark 1966; Parsons 1942; Selznick and Steinberg 1969; Wirth 1928). But as overt antisemitism became less respectable and waned in the two decades following the defeat of Nazi Germany (Dinnerstein 1994), and the postwar civil rights movement shifted the attention of the discipline to the oppression of African Americans, sociological interest in antisemitism diminished. By the end of the twentieth century, most American sociologists came to view antisemitism as a declining and residual prejudice that faded as Jews successfully assimilated, became White, experienced upward socioeconomic mobility, or benefited from the growing pluralism or multiculturalism of American society.