Keith Kahn-Harris is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College, a fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy research, the editor of the Jewish Quarterly and the Jewish Journal of Sociology. His books include ’Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today’ (with Ben Gidley, Continuum 2010); ‘Judaism: All That Matters’ (Hodder Education 2012); ‘Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community’ (David Paul Books 2014). His most recent book is titled ‘Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity’ (2019).
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.