The article examines the controversy surrounding state government authority over pilgrimage practices in Garhwal, a linguistic-cultural region in the Indian Himalayas.

In November 2021, the state government of Uttarakhand, India withdrew the C膩r Dh膩m Devasth膩nam Management Act, a law enacted only two years prior to establish state government authority over pilgrimage practice at fifty-three temples in Garhwal. Supporters of this bill had sought to ensure transparency in the management of these major pilgrimage temples. Hereditary ritual specialists at the temples and others vehemently contested the law鈥檚 efforts to regulate practice at the temples associated with the C膩r Dh膩m Y膩tr膩 pilgrimage, where ritual and administrative practice was long governed by diverse local traditions.

As Pennington argues, the debates over this law mirror closely the century-long struggle during British rule to protect pilgrims, maintain pilgrimage infrastructure and combat corruption while avoiding the entanglement in Hindu religious affairs that was prohibited by British law. Just as British officials were caught between the imperative to avoid involvement in the religious affairs of their Hindu subjects and the moral demands to protect pilgrims from exploitation, partisans in the 2019鈥�21 debate differed on whether to accede to the 鈥渢raditional鈥� ritual rights of those attached to the temples or to reform temple practice according to modern organizational principles. The article argues that the debates over the 2021 C膩r Dh膩m Devasth膩nam Management Act rehearse the tortured history of Indian secularism and reveal again its intractable contradictions.

In the article, Monteith argues that the Heritage Foundation鈥檚 Christian nationalism has driven federal intrusions into higher education. The organization is most famous for Project 2025, but Monteith argues we must look beyond this to see what they actually want. Monteith shows how President Donald Trump鈥檚 education reforms mirror the strategies Heritage has long advocated.

According to Monteith, the Heritage Foundation suggests that federal and state governments ought to target weak points in universities鈥� financial systems, using this as leverage to compel orthodoxy, end DEI, reduce admission rates for international students and increase American birthrates.

The article appears in聽“,” an online magazine published by The Center for Religion and Media at New York University.

Building on Huber鈥檚 sabbatical project, the lecture introduced a part of her current book project, which explores how color imagery in the Book of Revelation is interpreted in ways that valorize Whiteness. Specifically, Huber discussed how representations of Revelation鈥檚 throne room in illustrated English-language Bibles and scholarly commentary function as 鈥渨hite mythic space,鈥� which is “a racially homogenous space in which non-white elements have been erased or minimized” (Stefan Aguirre Quiroga).

While at UCSB, Huber also met with a graduate seminar in religious studies to discuss color theory.

Amy Allocco, professor of religious studies, presented a paper as part of a session titled 鈥淓mbodying聽the聽Sensuous: Sikh Poetry, Aesthetics, Ecology, and Feminisms.”聽Allocco was one of six presenters in this roundtable focusing on the work of Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (Colby College), a renowned scholar specializing in feminist approaches to the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of Sikh sacred art, poetry, philosophy and practice. Singh offered a response to the six papers in the session.

Lynn R. Huber, Maude Sharpe Powell professor of religious studies, presented on an invited panel exploring the future of gender studies in conjunction with scholarship on the Book of Revelation. She also participated in a new mentoring initiative for early career scholars who identify along the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Ariela Marcus-Sells, associate professor of religious studies, presented two papers, one titled 鈥淪cience, Sorcery, or Superstition: Debating Cosmology in the Sahara鈥� and one titled 鈥淭eaching 鈥楢 New Vision鈥� for Islamic Studies.鈥�

Rebecca Todd Peters, professor of religious studies, presented on a panel responding to Jason Springs鈥� book “Restorative Justice and Lived Religion: Transforming Mass Incarceration in Chicago.”

Pamela D. Winfield, professor of religious studies (currently serving in a temporary appointment as the Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at McGill University) was elected to serve on the AAR鈥檚 Program Committee for a four-year term (2025-2029). This high-level committee oversees all aspects of the year-round planning process for the Annual Conference.

Antisemitism is widely understood as a form of racism, a product of sweeping negative generalizations about Jews.

The defines it as 鈥渄iscrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).鈥� That definition is recommended by hundreds of Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies and Middle East Studies professors throughout the world, including North Carolina scholars like me.

For fervent defenders of the State of Israel such a definition is not good enough. They鈥檝e found their preferred framework in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance鈥檚 , which encourages labeling strong critiques of Israel as antisemitic.

North Carolina鈥檚 SHALOM ACT 鈥� this week and sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature 鈥� adopts the IHRA framework. Cooper must veto this bill.

The enshrines a controversial definition of antisemitism into state law.

The IHRA framework is an effective tool for stifling criticism of Israel because its list of examples of antisemitism includes items such as 鈥渄enying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor鈥� and 鈥渄rawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.鈥� These examples are routinely used to label those who accuse Israel of apartheid or genocide as antisemitic 鈥� and silence them.

Those supporting this bill claim they are supporting Jews in North Carolina. But Jews in North Carolina, like Jews elsewhere in the country, are sharply divided over how to define antisemitism. While Israel-focused groups affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America have backed the SHALOM Act, more liberal Jewish organizations such as Carolina Jews for Justice have strongly opposed it.

The bill is grounded in a misguided generalization about Jews, assuming that support for Israel is inherent to being Jewish. But harsh criticism of Israel is widespread among Jews.

A found that a quarter of American Jews believe that 鈥淚srael is an apartheid state,鈥� while only 31% of Jews believe such a claim to be antisemitic. The SHALOM Act would have the perverse effect of encouraging state officials to label significant portions of our Jewish community as antisemitic, and such labeling will have limited support from our community.

The primary sponsor of the SHALOM Act, House Speaker Tim Moore, has claimed that he is seeking to protect Jewish college students. But as should be clear to anyone who has observed college campuses this year, many Jewish students are harsh critics of Israel. The 2021 survey found that 38% of Jews under 40 view Israel as an apartheid state, and such views appear even more common among today鈥檚 students.

Under Moore鈥檚 legislation, many of my Jewish students would readily be labeled antisemitic by the state of North Carolina. They typically see their critiques of Israel as expressions of their Jewish identities. It is unacceptable for the state of North Carolina to decide their expressions of Jewishness are out of bounds.

Strikingly, many advocates of the Shalom Act oppose applying these same sorts of standards to the protection of other ethnic groups. Many of them oppose Palestinian self-determination but do not believe that they are therefore guilty of anti-Palestinian racism, nor do they think it is a sign of bigotry to deny self-determination to thousands of other groups that do not have states of their own.

Why embrace a different standard when defining antisemitism? Better public policy would use the same sorts of standards to define racism and prejudice against Jews that are used to define racism and prejudice against other groups.

Those of us who teach about these issues on college campuses are dedicated to supporting all students, including our Jewish, Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian students, by confronting those who show racism and prejudice towards them. We鈥檙e also dedicated to defending them when they are accused of antisemitism merely because of their political views.

If Cooper wishes to support our diverse students, and the diversity of Jews in North Carolina, he must veto this bill.

—

Views expressed in this column are the author鈥檚 own and not necessarily those of 黑料不打烊.

Claussen edited the volume with Alan Mittleman, Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Alexander Green, Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish Thought at the University at Buffalo.

Beginning with the Bible and culminating with twenty-first-century feminism and environmentalism, Jewish Virtue Ethics explores thirty-five influential Jewish approaches to character and virtue.

Further information about the volume may be found at .

This article draws on Aaron Gross鈥檚 book “The Question of the Animal and Religion”聽in analyzing two rabbinic stories regarding compassion for animals:

Liora Wittle 鈥�22 has published 鈥溾�� in the Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research.

Wittle鈥檚 article examines a group of LGBTQ Jewish women linked by their experiences with one Jewish summer camping network, Camp Ramah, focusing on how they experienced inclusion or exclusion and empowerment or disempowerment. Her research points to changes within the camping network and shows how LGBTQ women are seeking to create more welcoming and diverse communities.

鈥淚 hope that people who read my article realize that community can take many forms and has many dimensions, and that progress is being made towards creating accepting, inclusive communities in both secular and religious spaces,鈥� Wittle said.

Wittle is graduating this week with a bachelor’s in Biochemistry and minors in Jewish Studies and Women鈥檚, Gender and Sexualities Studies. She will begin the doctoral program in Chemistry at the University of Virginia this coming fall.

Wittle鈥檚 research was mentored by Geoffrey Claussen, the chair of the Department of Religious Studies and associate professor of Religious Studies and Lori and Eric Sklut Scholar in Jewish Studies.

Her research was supported by a Scholar Development Grant from the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society.

The Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research is a refereed, national journal dedicated to the publication of outstanding undergraduate scholarship across the humanities, social and natural sciences. Additional information about the journal may be found at .

The conference is hosted by Florida State University and the meetings were held virtually from Friday, March 11 to Sunday, March 13.

Hallie Milstein ’22, whose research mentor is Associate Professor of Religious Studies Geoffrey Claussen, presented a paper titled, 鈥淛ewish Identity and Wall Street: Challenging and Legitimizing Capitalist Systems.” Milstein presented research based on interviews with Jewish people engaged with the New York financial industry, whether as insiders or as critics. She explored how they saw their聽Jewish identities and values as shaping their diverse understanding of the industry.

Emily Wilbourne ’22 presented research conducted under the mentorship of Pamela Winfield, professor of religious studies, and Casey Avaunt, assistant professor of dance, titled 鈥淣egotiating Religion, Tradition, and Modernity in Post-19th Century Korean Seungmu Dance,鈥� tracing the historical interplay of traditional religion and evolving culture in a particular Asian art form.

Nicholas Hom ’22, mentored by Associate Professor of Religious Studies Amy Allocco, shared research his research, 鈥淕ods, Gurus, and Ghouls: Jain and Hindu Bhakti in Medieval Tamil Literature,鈥� which compares expressions of religious devotion in Medieval Jain and Hindu literature from South India and highlights the role of women and goddesses in Tamil intellectual and religious life. His paper was voted runner-up for the annual Albert聽Clark聽Award for best student essays in religion or theology at the undergraduate level and will be published in the Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa. Hom is also the recipient of the 2022 Theta Alpha Kappa Religious Studies Honor Society鈥檚 Student Achievement Award for academic excellence.

Katherine Grant ’22, whose research mentor is Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire, presented 鈥淪ocial Network Analysis of Christian Identity Hate Groups,鈥� in which she visually mapped historical and contemporary connections within the Christian Identity movement.

JoyceLyn Bentley 聽’22 shared research mentored by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Ariela Marcus-Sells, titled “Mythmaking and the NOI: Writing Their Own Story,鈥� exploring the uses of myth for community authorization and empowerment among elders of the Ar-Razzaq mosque in Durham, North Carolina.

Associate Professor Amy L. Allocco delivered a paper in response to the New Directions in South Asian Religions panel, sponsored by the Religion in South Asia Unit. Allocco also presented in a session titled 鈥淚nternational Collaboration in the Time of COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic Future鈥� sponsored by the International Connections Committee.

She discussed the outcomes of her ongoing research collaboration with Xenia Zeiler from the University of Helsinki, which received support from an AAR research grant in 2019 to examine the currents of 鈥渟weetening鈥� and 鈥渋ntensification鈥� associated with Hindu deities and ritual practices in contemporary South Asia.

Associate Professor Geoffrey Claussen served as the respondent in a session sponsored by the Study of Judaism Unit on the theme of 鈥淔eminist Virtue Ethics and Jewish Thought: Possibilities and Challenges.鈥�

Adjunct Assistant Professor Christopher Howell presented in a session sponsored by the Science, Technology and Religion Unit. His paper was titled 鈥溾�楨veryone is After Them鈥�: Intelligent Design, Expertise, and Mainstream Science Skepticism.鈥�

Lynn R. Huber, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies, presented as part of an invited roundtable on the forthcoming revision to the New Revised Version of the Bible. The roundtable discussed the ways this new translation might engage specific interpretive publics, including Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities.

Professor Brian Pennington serves on the Board of Directors for the AAR as its Regions Director, helping to guide and oversee the work of the AAR鈥檚 10 regional organizations across the US and Canada. At the annual meeting, he participated in the board鈥檚 historic decision to shift 40% of the AAR鈥檚 investments to Black-owned management firms, making the AAR the first member organization of the American Council of Learned Societies to undertake such a move. Pennington also presided at sessions related to the widespread use of contingent faculty labor at U.S. institutions and matters pertaining to the AAR regions.

Senior Lecturer LD Russell participated in the annual meeting of the Theta Alpha Kappa Religious Studies Honor Society. During the meeting, he was elected to serve a three-year term on the TAK Board of Directors.

Professor Pamela Winfield continued her service on the Steering Committee of the Japanese Religions Unit (JRU). She participated in the annual Business Meeting of the JRU, and she helped to assess the impact of this year鈥檚 JRU panels and to craft the Call For Papers for next year鈥檚 sessions.