B’nai B’rith NZ is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting…
Topic: “The Rise – and Rise – of Antisemitism in Contemporary New Zealand” – Professor Paul Spoonley
Time: April 14, 2024 @ 07:00pm – Auckland, Wellington
Professor Paul Spoonley was a pro-Vice Chancellor at Massey University. He has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar in California.
In early June 2022, Paul, along with fellow sociologist Professor Jonna Kidman was appointed as a co-director of the newly established Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. The research centre was established in line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry report into the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. Its main purpose is to sponsor research and scholarships into countering terrorism and extremism.
There have been four surveys of the New Zealand Jewish community, the first in 1983, which have asked questions about the level of antisemitism. In the first three of those, members of the local Jewish community reported verbal or other forms of antisemitism, but at relatively low levels compared to other Jewish communities around the world.
But recent surveys have told a very different story and reported significantly increased levels. The conspiratorial and anti-authority politics that emerged during Covid combined with the polarisation associated with the conflict in Gaza/Israel have expanded the audience for antisemitic views within New Zealand. Have these events marked a new and more troubling stage in domestic antisemitism?
Paul’s specialist area is social change and demography and how this impacts policy decisions at the political level. His work on racism, immigration and ethnicity is widely discussed in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings (2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic. He is well known to B’nai B’rith.
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Join the Zoom meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84333315808?pwd=VmNwL2tlL0tOWmhQUDdtUDJHaGJpdz09
Meeting ID: 843 3331 5808
Passcode: 581731
