‘Antizionism and the Breakdown of Critical Reason’. With Adam Louis-Klein

This seminar explores the institutional consolidation of antizionism within the academy, arguing that universities have become the ideological basis from which antizionist discourse gains authority to radiate into journalism, digital cultures, and international organizations. Drawing on ethnographic observation, the talk analyzes how antizionism constructs a pseudo-consensus: a closed system of belief where repetition hardens rumor into truth, and dissent is preemptively coded as bad faith. Jewish objections are excluded not just from public legitimacy, but from the space of reason itself—dismissed through rhetorical devices like the Livingstone formulation, or through the construction of the “Zionist” as a categorically illegitimate actor: presumed right-wing, non-credible, and beyond the bounds of rational discourse. The talk calls for a figure-ground inversion—turning critical attention back onto antizionism itself, treating it not as a moral stance beyond question, but as a political ideology accountable to reasoned critique. In this sense, we situate antizionism, following David Seymour, as a holistic ideology—distinct from historical Jewish anti-Zionism—with institutional, human, and phenomenological effects. At bottom, antizionism is a form of totalitarian thought: a self-reinforcing system that relies on circular reasoning and unfalsifiability to propagate itself through mass power alone.

Adam Louis-Klein is an anthropologist and writer whose work bridges symbolic anthropology, Jewish thought, and political theory. He is completing a PhD at McGill University based on fieldwork with the Desana people of the Northwest Amazon, focusing on peoplehood, cosmology, and translation. Adam’s research offers a symbolic analysis of antizionism as a holistic ideology, and advocates for a renewed Jewish discourse grounded in intellectual rigor, moral clarity, and civilizational confidence.

www.adamlouisklein.com

David Hirsh is the CEO of LCSCA and a Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London. He has pioneered a sociological account of contemporary antizionism and its relationship to antisemitism. He has worked on crimes against humanity, totalitarianism, democracy and populism. He teaches core Sociology, Criminology, Crimes against Humanity and Human Rights courses at UG and MA level. His public writings—on antizionism, Jewish indigeneity, and civilizational continuity—have been widely circulated, including essays in The Times of Israel and collaborations with the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem.

https://londonantisemitism.com/team/david-hirsh-2/