meet our founder
Adam Louis-Klein is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism, a writer, anthropologist, and philosopher whose life’s work bridges scholarship and moral conviction. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Yale University and is currently completing his PhD in Anthropology at McGill University. His research draws on both fieldwork and personal experience to explore Jewish peoplehood and the symbolic structures of anti-Jewish hate.
Adam’s path has been shaped by both rigorous academic inquiry and deeply personal experience. After years of fieldwork with the indigenous Desana people of the Amazon, he returned to a changing world in which Jewish identity and continuity were increasingly recast as threats. When expressing solidarity with Israelis led to ostracism from colleagues and friends, Adam refused to conform. Instead, he committed himself to articulating and defending the legitimacy of Jewish peoplehood in an age of rising hostility, where open calls for the erasure of Jews and Israel have returned with alarming force.
A regular contributor to The Times of Israel, Adam has also published in The Free Press and Tablet, where he writes with clarity and conviction about anti-Jewish libel, the antizionist hate movement, and the universal right of peoples to exist, endure, and speak in their own voice. He co-directs Oscillations: Non-Standard Experiments in Anthropology, the Social Sciences, and Cosmology, and is a Postgraduate Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
Through his scholarship and his story, Adam embodies what this movement stands for: courage in the face of exclusion, faith in the enduring value of Jewish existence, and the conviction that the idea of justice must never be co-opted to legitimize hate. His vision is both Jewish and universal: that every people deserves the dignity of belonging and the freedom to thrive.
partners
beit kaplan
Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood is an association of more than one hundred Reconstructionist rabbis and rabbinical students who came together upon recognizing that their values, including their support for the Jewish state of Israel, were no longer adequately represented by the denomination’s established institutions. While most members are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, all are guided by the thought, guidance, and practice of our ancestors, and the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, and other modern thinkers. Beit Kaplan serves as a forum for cultivating a vibrant and dynamic Jewish civilization rooted in Ahavat Yisrael, love for the diverse and creative Jewish people and for their ancestral homeland, and the centrality of Jewish peoplehood. The organization envisions expanding this mission through partnerships with lay leaders and congregations that share its understanding of Judaism as a living, ever-developing religious civilization.
samuel j. hyde
Samuel J. Hyde is currently a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post. After completing his studies in journalism, Hyde worked at the Cape Town Holocaust Center’s Department for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, where he examined totalitarianism, the aftereffects of Nazism, and the influence of Soviet propaganda on the Global South. Over the years, he has worked at several research institutes, including the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington-based think tank, as an Israel analyst. Hyde also edited Dr. Einat Wilf’s book We Should All Be Zionists and is currently writing his first book, which explores antizionism, the nature of mass movements and the ideological convergence between Islamist factions and the Western Left.
Rona Kaufman
Rona Kaufman is a law professor, scholar, and co-founder of the Center for Jewish Legal studies. Rona’s scholarship explores the intersection of law, civil rights, gender, motherhood, and Jewish identity. Rona teaches constitutional law, employment discrimination law, gender and the law, and family law. Rona develops educational programming on anti-Jewish hate, partnering with various organizations to promote justice and Jewish resilience.
Dr. Naya Lekht
Naya Lekht is a scholar specializing in the history of anti-Jewish movements and Soviet antizionism. Born in the former Soviet Union, she earned her PhD in Russian Literature from UCLA, where her research focused on Holocaust literature in Soviet culture. A former Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford through ISGAP, Naya connects historical repression to contemporary expressions of anti-Jewish hate. She develops educational curricula on antizionism, the Holocaust, and Jewish identity, partnering with Jewish schools and nonprofits. In 2024, the Jerusalem Post and JNF named her one of the “Top Ten Zionist Visionaries.” Naya teaches at both the collegiate and high school levels, serves as Education Editor at White Rose Magazine, and hosts Don’t Know Much About, a podcast linking Jewish history and current events.
andrew pessin
Andrew Pessin is a philosopher, educator, and author whose work exposes the intellectual and moral roots of antisemitism and antizionism. A Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College and former Campus Bureau Editor for The Algemeiner, he unites scholarly rigor with public advocacy to confront how hatred disguises itself as virtue. His books, including Refuting the Lies Told About Israel and Antizionism on Campus, trace the evolution of anti-Jewish ideas across academia and culture. His recent two-volume Israel Breathes, World Condemns chronicles the ideological shifts leading to the normalization of Jew-hatred after October 7, 2023. Andrew also writes novels exploring moral courage and campus culture, and his work continues to challenge intellectual complacency toward anti-Jewish hate in contemporary life.
rabbi Sam stern
Rabbi Sam Stern is the rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom (Topeka, KS) and an educator focused on countering antizionist campaigns in civic, campus, and faith settings. He advises institutions on policy and communications responses; develops adult-learning curricula—including “Zionism 101”—and trains clergy, educators, and boards to identify and push back on disinformation. Since October 7 he has returned to Israel three times to meet survivors and hostage families, integrating their testimony into American Jewish education and advocacy. He writes on antizionism and Jewish peoplehood for regional and national media and maintains an active presence on X, where his analysis reaches a broad audience. A member of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, he speaks on antisemitism, antizionism, and Jewish civic resilience.
Dr. Sheree Trotter
Sheree Trotter, Māori of the Te Arawa iwi, is a historian and advocate whose work explores Indigenous–Jewish connections and the global understanding of Zionism. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Auckland and authored Zionism at the Ends of the Earth: Humanitarianism and Identity. Sheree is founder and director of the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, where she convened its inaugural Academic Symposium in 2024. A Fellow of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, she also completed an ISGAP scholars-in-residence course at Oxford. Co-founder of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation, she has interviewed seventy Holocaust survivors. In recognition of her impact, The Algemeiner included her in its 2024 J100 list of “Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life.”