Community Conversations: Zionism, US Empire, and the Racial State

Scholar and activist Emmaia Gelman speaks in conversation with Conor Q. Foley on Zionism as a “movement from above”—an elite project of racial state-making aligned with US imperialism. Drawing on her extensive research into the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Gelman will examine how race, class, and state power operate through establishment institutions that co-opt and weaponize civil rights discourse. The discussion will focus on sharpening popular political analysis and grassroots organizing to resist elite capture and state violence.

Emmaia Gelman is the author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State and co-editor of The Anti-Defamation League: A Critical Reader. She serves as the founding director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, co-chair of the American Studies Association Caucus on Academic and Community Activism, co-host of the podcast Unpacking Zionism, and a longtime organizer in New York City. Conor Q. Foley is the director of community engagement at The Community Church of New York and the author of The Bible and Police Violence in the United States.

The event is free and open to the public. Attendees must register in advance through ccny.org/conversations.

The event is organized by The Community Church of New York and hosted at The People’s Forum. More information is available on the People’s Forum event page.