Who We Are
Rona Kaufman, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies, Associate Professor of Law, Kline School of Law, Duquesne University
Professor Kaufman is a leading academic voice on Israel and antisemitism who has emerged as a nationally recognized scholar and advocate since October 7, 2023. As a Zionist feminist scholar, she brings deep expertise in constitutional law, employment discrimination, family law, and gender law to her scholarship and teaching in Jewish Legal Studies.
Select Credentials and Achievements:
Member of Israeli President Isaac Herzog's Voice of the People global cohort (think tank addressing contemporary Jewish challenges)
Steering Committee Member and Conference Chair for Law and Antisemitism Conference
Advisory Board Member, Brandeis Center for Human Rights' Center for Legal Innovation
Member, Holocaust Claims Conference Faculty Working Group
2020 Graduate, Wexner Jewish Heritage Program (two-year Jewish leadership fellowship)
Fellow, Yad Vashem's Third Alan Cornell US Campus Faculty Seminar (2025)
Fellow, ISGAP’s Oxford Summer Institute for Curriculum Development in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies (2025)
Research Fellow, Center for Law and Antisemitism, Striks Law Faculty, College of Management Academic Studies (2025-2026)
Public Impact and Media Presence: Professor Kaufman's Israel and Antisemitism Explainer video series has generated over 2.5 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She has been featured in the New York Post, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Jerusalem Post, Hadassah Magazine, and appeared on Fox News, The Free Press, and NBC News. She blogs for the Times of Israel.
Scholarship and Presentations: Professor Kaufman’s recent publications and presentations include:
Never Again: Zionism and the Jewess, 19 FIU L. Rev. 737 (2025).
Chaos, Confusion, and Clarity: Navigating the Complicated and Fast-Changing Landscape Surrounding Israel and Recent Campus Developments, Hillel Jewish University Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 26, 2025.
Academic Engagement with Israel: From Boycott/BDS to Mission Trips, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California, March 24, 2025.
The First Annual Law Professor Mission Trip to Israel, UCLA School of Law, March 24, 2025.
Blood Libel: Deconstructing the Foundational Myths of Anti-Zionist Ideology, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California, March 24, 2025
Israel & Antisemitism: Understanding October 7th and the Hamas-Israel War from a Jewish Feminist Perspective, Florida International University School of Law, Miami, Florida, February 7, 2025.
Know Your Rights, Chabad on Campus, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 6, 2024.
Anti-Feminist Anti-Zionism, Florida International University, Miami FL, February 26, 2024.
How the Events of October 7 & the Israel-Gaza War are Affecting the U.S. Legal Academy, Florida International University, Miami, FL, February 25, 2024.
Understanding Zionism and Anti-Zionism, Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA January 24, 2024,
Exploring the Taboo: Anti-Zionist Blood Libels, American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. January 6, 2024.
Feminist Legal Theory and Stone’s Panes of the Glass Ceiling, 17 FIU L. Rev. 771 (2023).
Patriarchal Violence, 71 Buff. L. Rev. 509 (2023).
Privacy Pre- and Post-Dobbs, 61 Duq. L. Rev. 62 (2023).
A Century Since Suffrage: How Did We Get Here? Where Will We Go? How Will We Get There?, 59 Duq. L. Rev. 1 (2021).
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award Remarks, 21 Geo. J. of Gender & L. 541 (2020).
Constrained Choice: Mothers, the State, and Domestic Violence, 24 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 375 (2015).
Holistic Pregnancy: Rejecting the Theory of the Adversarial Mother, 26 Hastings Women’s L.J. 207 (2015).
Eradicating the Mothering Effect: Women as Workers and Mothers, Successfully and Simultaneously, 26 Wisc. J. of L. Gender & Society 167 (2011).
Personal Investment: As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and the daughter of Israelis, Professor Kaufman is personally invested in combating all forms of Jew hatred. She is deeply concerned about the dearth of legal scholarship conceptualizing legal issues surrounding antizionism and Jewish civil rights.
Andrea J. Martin, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law
Professor Martin is a leading scholar and advocate for combating antisemitism in higher education. She brings expertise in anti-discrimination law, constitutional law, and the study of historical and modern forms of antisemitism. She lectures widely at law schools on strategies for addressing contemporary antisemitism, the legal history of antisemitic and anti-Jewish laws, and balancing freedom of expression with equality in the face of rising antisemitism. Professor Martin also teaches Holocaust education, is certified in education and curriculum design, and a Holocaust educator through the Belfer National Conference for Holocaust Education.
Select Credentials and Achievements:
Pioneer in the emerging field of Jewish Law and Policy and a leading academic voice in developing legal frameworks to combat antizionism and protect Jewish civil rights
Former Special Assistant Attorney General, Rhode Island Department of Attorney General (Appellate Division)
Twelve years as strategic legal advisor in business and regulatory affairs
Steering Committee Member for the Law and Antisemitism Conference
Holocaust Educator, Belfer National Conference for Holocaust Education
Board Member, Penn State Hillel
Faculty Advisor, Jewish Law Student Association
Former member, Governor's Commission on Prejudice and Bias (helped draft state hate crime laws and train police forces on how to recognize hate crimes)
Member, Holocaust Claims Conference Faculty Working Group
Scholarship and Presentations: Professor Martin's scholarship has been published in the Yale Law & Policy Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Boston University Law Review Online, and Pepperdine Law Review. Recent publications and speaking engagements include:
From Ambiguity to Accountability: The Case for a Legal Definition of Antisemitism in Academia, 2025 Pepp. L. Rev. 19 (2025). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5580054
Balancing Freedom of Expression and Equality On College Campuses In the Wake of Intensified Antisemitism, 90 Brooklyn Law Review 67 (2024). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5021120
Constitutional Dimensions of Regulating Campus Speech, 4th Annual Law v. Antisemitism Conference, UCLA School of Law, March 25, 2025.
Marketplace of Ideas to Monopoly of Thought; BDS Activism of College Campuses, 4th Annual Law v. Antisemitism Conference, UCLA School of Law, March 26, 2025.
The Uses and Limits of Definitions of Antisemitism for Addressing Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism on Campus, Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, January 9, 2025.
Balancing Freedom of Expression and Equality On College Campuses In the Wake of Intensified Antisemitism, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, November 13, 2025.
The History of Antisemitic Laws and the Law of Genocide, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, March 27, 2024.
Laws Used to Enforce and Combat Antisemitism Throughout History, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, February 20, 2024.
Personal Investment: As a Jewish woman of color, Professor Martin is committed to educating others about Jewish identity and challenging narratives that mischaracterize Jews as white colonizers. Following October 7, 2023, with sons in college experiencing hostile antisemitic environments, she supported law firms engaged in legal actions against universities and published law review articles exposing campus antisemitism and inaction by university administrators, reflecting her dedication to confronting antizionism as contemporary Jew-hatred and equipping others to do the same.