New project to improve data and analysis led by Aryeh Tuchman, former director of ADL Center on Extremism
The Nexus Project, a Jewish watchdog organization working to combat antisemitism, uphold democracy and protect free speech, announced today the creation of a new Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research (NCAR), which will work to improve the quality of research, data and analysis available to advance the broader mission of confronting hate, promoting Jewish safety.
The work of the new center will be led by inaugural director Aryeh Tuchman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, who brings to the role two decades of experience as one of the top practitioners in the field, with expertise on antisemitic conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and varied forms of antisemitism and extremism across the ideological spectrum.
“The Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research will strengthen the accuracy and nuance of public and institutional conversations about antisemitism, and support efforts that both protect the Jewish community and uphold civil rights,” said Alan Solow, Chairman of the Nexus Project Board of Directors. “Through rigorous, nuanced research, its findings will help shape responsible public policy, campus practice, and communal strategy.”
As part of the broader mission of The Nexus Project, the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research will help recommend and design strategies, tactics and initiatives to respond to antisemitism. NCAR will also undertake scholarly research and analysis on antisemitism through a multidisciplinary team of experts in Jewish history and political science, led by its Director of Scholarship, historian and best-selling author Eric Alterman, CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College.
“At the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research, we will aim to raise the overall standard of research in this field by building on the strongest existing work and addressing critical gaps that limit the current conversation,” said the center’s new director Aryeh Tuchman. “We will strive to increase our communal ability to identify and confront antisemitism, and to avoid misrepresenting it or making claims unsupported by evidence. I’m thrilled to join the growing Nexus Project team, and excited to get to work equipping policymakers, communal leaders, scholars, media and the broader public to take steps to combat hate and ignorance while strengthening democracy.”
“For the Nexus Project, the new research center will be a critical part of our ongoing mission to serve as a watchdog by challenging antisemitism – and the weaponization of accusations of antisemitism to advance harmful agendas and undermine democracy – wherever we see it,” said Jonathan Jacoby, president of the Nexus Project. “To understand what antisemitism does and doesn’t look like, and how to fight it, our leaders need reliable and rigorous data and analysis that they can trust. That’s exactly what this initiative will focus on delivering.”