Selig Brodetsky Memorial Lecture 2026

For this year's Selig Brodetsky Memorial Lecture, we welcome Dr Ben Gidley who will ask the question 'Is antisemitism rising in the UK?'.

The period since October 2023 has seen increased public debate about antisemitism. There has been a rise in recorded incidents, including major terror attacks on Jews, and an increase in insecurity in many Jewish communities. But does this mean that antisemitism itself is rising?

In this lecture, Dr Ben Gidley will share some timely reflection on this, analysing how antisemitism is measured, how data are collected, and what that tells us about the diverse approaches to antisemitism. He will conclude drawing out the implications in the data for finding new, more effective and inclusive approaches to responding to it.

About the speaker

Dr Ben Gidley is a Reader in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, and an associate of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. He researches racism, antisemitism, diversity and urban politics in Europe.

He is the co-author of Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today (2010, with Keith Kahn-Harris) and co-editor of Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe: A Shared Story? (2017, with James Renton). He led the European funded project “Muslim-Jewish encounter, diversity and distance in urban Europe: Religion, culture and social model” (ENCOUNTERS) and is currently the president of the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies.

Book your place

This event is organised by the Selig Brodetsky Memorial Lecture Committee at the University of Leeds.

Please complete this registration form if you would like to attend.

About the Selig Brodetsky Memorial Lectures

This series of annual lectures was established in memory of Selig Brodetsky (1888-1954), who occupied the Chair of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leeds from 1924 to 1948. Following Brodetsky's death in 1954 a number of his friends and admirers founded the series of memorial lectures that bears his name. Each year a lecture is delivered that addresses some aspect of Jewish studies and/or science and mathematics.

The Brodetsky lectures are organized by the Centre for Jewish Studies, in collaboration with the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science (School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science) and the School of Mathematics.

Image

Courtesy of Dr Ben Gidley.