Our Mission
The Antisemitism Education Initiative helps universities reduce antisemitism by improving the capacity of campus stakeholders to recognize, contextualize, and challenge antisemitism in all its forms.
Our work is built around three key values:
PRIORITIZE EDUCATION
CENTER LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
FOSTER A SHARED LANGUAGE
AEI Staff
Dr. Gregg Drinkwater
Program Director for the UC Berkeley Antisemitism Education Initiative
Hired in January 2023, Dr. Gregg Drinkwater is the inaugural Program Director for the UC Berkeley Antisemitism Education Initiative (AEI), a project of the Center for Jewish Studies. An award-winning writer, educator, trainer, researcher, and organizational leader, Drinkwater’s work is rooted in fostering inclusive communities. He has been involved for decades with Jewish, LGBTQ, and social justice organizations throughout the United States and the world. He earned a PhD in U.S. History at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a specialization in Jewish history and LGBTQ history. As a visiting professor at Boulder and at Rutgers University, Drinkwater has taught courses on American Jewish history; genocide and the Holocaust; queer U.S. history; gender and sexuality in Judaism; and global Jewish history from the ancient world to the present. Starting in 2003, Drinkwater served as the founding executive director of Jewish Mosaic, a national Jewish LGBTQ organization, where he built and managed a team across multiple cities, designed and oversaw the creation of a library of Jewish community resources, and conducted research, trainings, and conferences on issues of inclusion. After Jewish Mosaic merged with Keshet in 2010, he continued his work championing diversity and inclusion before his shift to the University of Colorado in 2013. His research has appeared in the journals Jewish Social Studies and American Jewish History (which awarded him the Wasserman Prize for the best article in that journal for 2020), as well as the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. He is the co-editor of the book Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible (NYU Press, 2009).
Rabbi Rory Katz
Assistant Program Director of the Antisemitism Education Initiative
Rabbi Rory Katz is the Assistant Program Director of the Antisemitism Education Initiative. She is the grandchild of refugees from Nazi Germany and has been passionate about antisemitism education her entire life. Prior to joining the CJS, she served as the spiritual leader of Chevrei Tzedek Congregation, a Conservative Synagogue in Baltimore. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary where she also received a Certificate in Pastoral Care, and she also holds a BA in Philosophy from Vassar college. Outside of Cal, she also teaches introductory Judaism and Hebrew at Urban Adamah and Chochmat HaLev and she is currently a Pedagogies of T'fillah Research Fellow at the Institute for Experiential Jewish Education.
AEI Advisory Committee
Prof. Robert Braun Associate Professor, Sociology
Dr. Rena Dorph Director, Lawrence Hall of Science
Prof. Ron Hassner Chancellor's Professor of Political Science and a Faculty Director of the Helen Diller Institute on Jewish Law and Israel Studies
Prof. Carla Hesse Peder Sather Professor of History and former Executive Dean of the College of Letters & Science)
Prof. Ethan Katz Associate Professor, History, and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
Prof. Daniela Kaufer Associate Dean, Class of 1943 Memorial Chair, and Professor of Integrative Biology
Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman Executive Director of Berkeley Hillel